The line outside the Riverside Municipal Auditorium was unusually long on Saturday, April 25, and the weather made it feel even longer. Riverside does not get many rainy concert nights, so seeing fans waiting on wet sidewalks and in darker jackets gave the evening a different texture before anyone made it inside. Black Veil Brides were opening their North American tour, and the crowd had clearly been ready to be there for hours.
That anticipation mattered because this was opening night. Tour kickoffs carry a different kind of charge. Every band is working through the first real test of the run, and you can feel that mixture of nerves and release in the room. The sets had moments that felt carefully measured, then suddenly everything would jump forward and the crowd would answer like it had been waiting for permission. At some points, the artists asked for crowd participation. This gave the RMA an even more intimate feeling. Everyone had a part to play.
From Ashes to New, TX2, and As December Falls rounded out the lineup, making the night less like a single-headliner stop and more like a genre-blending package that moved from gothic-leaning rock and metal to nu-metal aggression and emo/pop-punk energy. This was not a contrast, this was the ingredient list in a recipe. Fans in line had clearly come for different parts of the bill, and once the music started it showed. Each opener brought their own following into the building, which helped the night avoid the slow-build feeling that can happen when a room is only waiting for the headliner. This crowd had already picked sides, favorite songs, favorite shirts, and favorite moments before Black Veil Brides ever walked out. TX2 even promised to greet fans at the merchandise counter upon leaving the stage. “Only during break, never during sets!” Both gracious, and generous with their time.
By the time Black Veil Brides took the stage, the Riverside Municipal Auditorium had shifted into constant motion. Crowd surfing began almost immediately and kept coming in waves. Security had work to do, but the energy never felt like it was slipping away from the band. The audience knew what it had come to do: move, sing, and lift each other up. Every surfer brought to the ground gently. No altercations. This was not security’s first rodeo.
My attention was usually through the camera, watching movement, light, faces, and the way a room reacts in real time. From that angle, the important part was not the setlist. It was that the music landed across the room, on songs old and new alike.
There was no single peak that swallowed the rest of the night. The show moved in cycles instead. Big lift, release, reset, another lift. Some songs pushed the floor into motion, others opened space for the band to talk directly to the crowd. Their between-song speeches were more touching than expected, gratitude, nerves, and determination from a band on the verge of a long tour.
I moved all over the venue during the show: left stage, back of house, and up into the balcony. That changed the concert more than once. From the floor, the crowd surfing and raised hands made the room feel packed and physical. From the back, the lighting design became clearer. From the balcony, you could see the whole machine working, the band, the crowd, security, photographers, and the room holding all of it.
The Riverside Municipal Auditorium looked better than I remembered for a rock show. The stage lighting was strong enough that it made me wonder whether the room has seen some lighting upgrades since the last time I shot there. Concert lighting is never easy light, especially with fast-moving artists and heavy contrast, but this setup gave the performers shape instead of just blasting them in color. For photography, that matters. For the room, it made the show feel larger than the size of the venue.
There were still traces of opening-night tension. A few transitions carried that first-night awareness, the sense that everyone on stage was listening hard and adjusting in real time. But that also gave the show some honesty. It did not feel over-rehearsed into sameness. It felt like the beginning of something, with all the sharp edges and quick surges that come with it.
Black Veil Brides are a band with enough history now that a show can operate on memory and newness at the same time. Songs like “Knives and Pens,” “Perfect Weapon,” “Fallen Angels,” “The Legacy,” and “In the End” carry their own audience response before the first chorus even arrives. New songs have to earn that kind of reaction in public. On this night, the room seemed willing to meet both versions of the band where they were.
That may be the best read on the Riverside kickoff. It was not only nostalgia, and it was not only a presentation of new material. It was a launch night with a crowd that came ready for the whole thing: the openers, the rain, the old songs, the live debuts, the speeches, the crowd surfers, and the feeling of a tour taking its first real breath.
For Riverside, it was a strong night at the RMA. The room handled the energy, the bill had real depth, and Black Veil Brides opened the run with a show that felt alive because it had not settled into routine yet. The tour rolls out across the country from here. If you came up on Wretched and Divine and you have been waiting for the band to feel sharp and present again, this is the lap to catch. Sometimes that is exactly what opening night is supposed to give you.
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