Wage War at the Rust Belt -- May 4
Saturday, May 4, 6:30 p.m.
The Rust Belt, 533 12th Avenue, East Moline IL
Two acclaimed hard-rock and metal bands touring in conjunction with their 2024 album releases will team up for a co-headlining concert at The Rust Belt on May 4, with the East Moline venue hosting the Billboard sensations of Wage War, whose Stigma is set for release mid-June, and the chart-topping Nothing More, whose Carnal will debut later that month.
Through an unwavering dedication to progression, Wage War sharpen their patented hybrid of heavy pit-starting technicality and hummable hypnotic melodies with each subsequent evolution. Look no further than the aptly titled third full-length from the Florida quintet, Pressure. The band – Briton Bond (lead vocals), Cody Quistad (rhythm guitar, clean vocals), Seth Blake (lead guitar), Chris Gaylord (bass), and Stephen Kluesener (drums) – drove themselves to fully realize their ambition by pushing harder. A whirlwind four years set the foundation for such a statement. The group’s 2015 debut Blueprints yielded multiple fan favorites with “Alive” cracking 12 million Spotify streams and “The River” exceeding 8 million to date.
2017’s Deadweight established the boys as a rising force. Totaling nearly 50 million cumulative streams in two years, the single “Stitch” racked up 14 million streams on Spotify as Deadweight received widespread praise from MetalInjection, New Noise, Metal Hammer, and Rock Sound, the latter of which dubbed it, “a relentless, genre-evolving treat.” Meanwhile, they toured alongside everyone from I Prevail and Of Mice & Men to Parkway Drive and A Day To Remember, logging countless miles on the road. In order to approach their next evolution from a different angle, Wage War enlisted the talents of producer Drew Fulk (Motionless in White, Lil Peep, IDKHOW) and recorded in Los Angeles for the first time, delivering a bold body of work.
Passionate audiences count Nothing More among the most cherished acts, the kind of band who straddle the line between populism and intimacy with every performance. The San Antonio, Texas-born quartet composed of Jonny Hawkins (lead vocals and drums), Mark Vollelunga (guitar and backing vocals), Daniel Oliver (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Ben Anderson (drums and percussion) builds unapologetically massive anthems from catchy hooks. Crowd-pleasers clear a path for heady, confessional, thought-provoking emotionalism. Fresh rewards reveal themselves with repeat listens, welcoming like-minded seekers with rich melodicism, like Tool, Deftones, or Thrice.
Those who saw the band on tour with hard rock heavyweights such as Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch, Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach, and Disturbed will attest to what The Guardian observed: “There’s a sophistication to Nothing More's angst that raises them above the tumult-tossed pit.” Three-time Grammy nominees whose "This is the Time (Ballast)" hit number one on the Mediabase Active Rock chart, Nothing More appeals to fans of Linkin Park, Incubus, Rage Against The Machine, and any crucial act that wrings relatable passion with authenticity and integrity. Memorize the arena-ready hooks, get mesmerized by the intimate, communal live show, and dig deeper down the rabbit hole into the work of philosophers and artists such as Eckhart Tolle, Carl Jung, and Alan Watts, who inspire the band.
Wage War and Nothing More perform their East Moline engagement on May 4 with additional sets by Veil of Maya and Sleep Theory, admission to the 6:30 p.m. concert event is $45.75-58.82, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRustBeltQC.com.
