The Devil Wears Prada came to slay in St. Louis on September 3rd on the Zombie Tour. They performed their Zombie I and Zombie II EP’s in their entirety.
Dying Wish had a very rowdy opening set that started the night off with a bang. Frontwoman Emma Boster brought so much energy that there were already 2 circle pits by the second song. Their sound consisted of deep heavy chugs and high pitch screams, it reminded me a lot of metal from 2005. Despite their menacing sound, Emma Boster gave so much positive energy and had a smile on her face the entire time. There were back to back crowd surfers and circle pits, this opening set delivered.
Stray from the Path followed up with a much more mature metal sound. Stray from the path has been around for over 10 years bringing hardcore/punk heat with each album. Like a lot of hardcore punk bands, they are very socially-conscious about oppressive organizations that put down others. They took a moment to call out the tragic events that happened at Uvalde, TX before getting right down to businesses. The band was filming a new music video and challenge the crowd to do 25 crowd surfs. It turned into a literal tidal wave of back to back crowd surfers!
It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve last seen The Devil Wears Prada perform and I was eager to see how much they have changed. Typically, bands tend to slow down a bit with less energy as they get older. That is not the case with TDWP. Frontman Mike Hranica still had the same energy as he did the last time I saw them perform. He covered every square inch of that stage and did not stop moving for the duration of the set. They started their set with “Sacrifice” a one-off single and then followed by Danger: Wildman from With Roots Above and Branches Below. Once they got those out of they way, they dove straight into their Zombie bag with “Nightfall” from Zombie II. They sprinkled a few more of their hits before ending their night with Zombie I tracks. They were near the end of the tour when they came through St. Louis, but you would’ve thought it was night 1 with the amount of energy they gave. I was happy to see the band is still thriving from their 17 years of existence. There are still a handful of shows left and I highly recommend you attend one before it’s over. If you don’t, I’m sure they’ll be touring on their new upcoming album “Color Decay” that drops on September 16th 2022.
Ismael Valenzuela
St. Louis based photographer and writer.