– Sian Borrill contributed to this report.
American band, Hawthorne Heights played at The Duke of Wellington in Lincoln on Friday, October 26th. The Linc spoke to drummer, Eron Bucciarelli, before the band took the stage.
Speaking ahead of his band’s set, drummer, Eron Bucciarelli explained why the band chose to come to Lincoln for the first time, as part of their “Autumn of Hope” European tour: “We are trying to hit places that we haven’t been to before. We’ve toured England a lot, so it was a matter of really getting out there. I think the closest we have ever been [to Lincoln] before this was Nottingham.”
The small pub was full of people and most were already in the venue listening to the Ohio band’s support acts, which came from Burn The Fleet, Lower Lands and Kill The Ideal. Bucciarelli continued: “It looks like it’s a good turn out and, hopefully, the crowd will be in to it. Sometimes it makes more sense to play a smaller show instead of having the day off.”
However, there was a period of time when the band wasn’t able to tour overseas. He explained: “We were going through a lot of issues between our label and the death of our guitar player. We weren’t able to travel abroad because it was just financially impossible. But, starting in 2010, we have been back every year and we hope to continue that because we really like the UK. We really like Europe in general.”
Bucciarelli’s personal highlight of their European tour so far was going to Rome. He said: “We went there for the first time ever and just to see things like the Colosseum and all the ancient Roman ruins was amazing!”
After getting to tour most of the world, being in a band would seem to many as being the perfect lifestyle and career but, while the drummer admitted he was very fortunate, he also spoke of the downside: “I love music. I don’t love the music business. There’s two huge differences between those two. The music business is horrible, it’s just the worst, but playing music every night is great.”
When asked which of the band’s songs was his favourite to perform, Bucciarelli chose “Niki FM” off their first album, “This Is Who We Are” off their second album and “Oceans” from the band’s 2011 EP, “Hate.” All three of these songs were played as part of their setlist, which was a combination of ten of their older songs and five of their new songs.
This year, the band decided to have two different setlists and to rotate them each night. Bucciarelli explained why: “That way if someone comes to see us a couple of nights in a row, then they’ll get to see some different songs and, for our own sanity, it breaks things up so it doesn’t get mundane. We don’t want to be bored when we’re playing and trying to entertain people.”
The Lincoln crowd certainly weren’t bored and were full of energy throughout the whole of the Hawthorne Heights’ set, which included performances of their classics “Saying Sorry,” “Pens and Needles” and “Silver Bullet.” There were several crowd surfers, which only seemed to spur the band on even more.
As they played their last and most well-known song, “Ohio is for Lovers,” as part of their two song encore, the audience went crazy and one boy even climbed onto the speakers for a massive jump into the crowd.
After their set had come to an end, a loud chant of “one more song” erupted through the pub and Hawthorne Heights decided they just couldn’t say no. Lead singer, JT Woodruff told the crowd: “We don’t usually do this but you have been so great Lincoln.” They then proceeded to play two more of their songs, much to the audience’s delight.
Woodruff concluded the set by saying that he would “definitely return to Lincoln” as Hawthorne Heights put on a great intimate gig.