The night of February 16th at the Fillmore in San Francisco, CA was definitely one to remember. Theory of a Deadman played with Spirit Animal opening for the amazing Friday night in the bay. There were many ‘firsts’ that happened for the bands and myself alike as I had never shot at this venue.

Spirit Animal opened the night with a surprisingly funk/pop/alternative sound and it happened to be the first time they played the Fillmore. It wasn’t what I expected but it was something that I liked. I was only able to catch a few of the song titles but I did check out their Facebook and Youtube after the show to dig deeper into their music. Some of the songs that stood out to me were “Regular World”, “Painkiller”, and “Karma”. The songs are a balanced mix between spunky and catchy, and live on stage the band sounds very polished. They had such a great stage presence and had a good response from the crowd with their stage theatrics. I will say that the guitarist is very skilled and I was drawn to his fretwork.

As Theory of a Deadman came on stage it was no surprise that the crowd pushed closer to the barrier and they also admitted that they had never played the Fillmore either. They tended to fool the crowd with misleading guitar riffs before starting a song like they did when opening with “Lowlife”. They played songs off their new album ‘Wake Up Call’ but Tyler had said he isn’t a fan of having a band play a new album front to back with few of their other songs in between. Because of that we got to hear some of their best songs like “Santa Monica”, “Hurricane”, and “Not Meant to Be” with a drum solo right in the middle. Tyler was avid about taking phones and giving fans some quality video filmed from the stage as well as touching hands with everyone in the front row. It was a show that you could feel the rumble of fans jumping in unison through your feet while the bass rumbled in your chest. Before the finale of “Bad Girlfriend”, the crowd sang along to the first few lines of “Paradise City”. At the end of the night I was able to snag a drumstick to take home, and I even bought tickets to see them as a fan and not shooting for their Sacramento, CA date. Overall, a show that is definitely worth seeing.