The crowd screams as lights dim.

The kick drum sends vibrations from your toes through your teeth.

The lights burst bright as the guitarist lays on the whammy bar.

Fans push closer to the stage as a singer grips his microphone.

“You ready to rock, tonight?” is screamed to the mass of bodies as the music begins.

On Jan. 25, Revolution Live in Ft. Lauderdale housed the Bury The Hatchet tour with Falling in Reverse, Escape the Fate, Chelsea Grin and Survive This!. As 6 p.m. approached, fans for all of the bands stretched around the venue in anticipation of seeing this once-in-a-lifetime concert. Falling in Reverse and Escape the Fate were touring together. This was previously covered in Issue 4 of The Muse.

Survive This! opened the show with their most popular song, “Lessons in Deception.” The band is from Las Vegas, Nevada, and they were the least known group on this tour. Even though they had a smaller fanbase in the crowd, they still owned the stage. They had the pit—the area designated for moshing, or where people run around in controlled chaos—going wild. After five songs, Survive This! said goodnight and welcomed the next band on stage.

Chelsea Grin was next in line. With sinister red lighting pouring over Alex Koehler, the lead singer, a guitar solo began and the crowd started thrashing around to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”  They played six of their most popular songs, including “Lilith” and “Sonnet of the Wretched.” Chelsea Grin is a hardcore metal band, which left fans wondering why they were on tour with alternative pop-punk band Falling in Reverse. Aside from the genre clash, their set got the pit pumped up and they did not disappoint.

As Escape the Fate’s opening instrumentals from “Choose Your Fate” rang through the room, anticipation flooded it. Fans chanted “Escape the Fate” as the lights flashed on. As each band member walked across the stage the screams grew into a cacophony of adoration. Mr. Mabbitt owned the stage and began with the title song from their new album, “Ungrateful.” The pit went wild. Every lyric was sung with the band at full volume. Guitarist T.J Bell interacted with the crowd by throwing picks into the first row and gesturing for them to get louder. The set list consisted of songs from their past three albums, This War Is Ours, Escape The Fate and Ungrateful. Dedicating their song “Gorgeous Nightmare” to the ladies in the house, Mr. Mabbitt jumped into the pit and was crowd surfed back to the stage. Escape The Fate put on a mesmerizing show with lights and smoke machines. They closed out their set with a tribute song to members of the armed forces, “This War Is Ours.”

Last to perform was the band everyone was waiting for: Falling in Reverse. The stage was set up for a fantastic show. Three large signs that made up “Falling In Reverse” spanned the stage. A jumbrotron-like screen sat in the center, ready to display images for each song. A projector screen hung from the rafters. As the lights went down and fans began screaming a video was projected onto the screen. The theme song for “Full House”  played while Falling In Reverse did a spinoff on the concept of the opening scene. The video set up the history and new attitude of the band to get the crowd even more excited. The band took the stage—wearing awesome fake mustaches— and opened with “Champion,” a song representing Mr. Radke’s struggles to overcome his past.

Several songs in, his personal headset and microphone malfunctioned. Unable to succeed in hiding his anger, Mr. Radke started cursing and yelling at the technicians to fix it.  He went into the next two songs, continuing to yell at technicians between lyrics. After 10 more minutes, the problem was solved and he calmed down.

Falling In Reverse played a total of 17 songs, which were a compilation from both the old and new albums. During each song, the screen in the middle featured either the name of the song, or an image to represent it. When key lyrics were sung, smoke and confetti cannons erupted on stage. The band was playful with each other and went up to one another to play back-to-back guitar riffs or to mess around. Mr. Radke jokingly teased guitarist, Jacky Vincent, during his solo in “I’m Not a Vampire” and several other songs.

After closing with their number one song, “Alone,” the band exited the stage. The lights were still off while fans chanted “One more song!” in hopes of an encore. After two minutes of agonizing anticipation Mr. Radke took the stage along with Mr. Mabbitt and his band, Escape The Fate. They began playing “Not Good Enough for the Truth in Cliché,” a popular song from a Radke-era Escape The Fate album. Long term fans went insane and began screeching louder than imaginable while jumping for joy at the intro guitar riff. Mr. Mabbitt and Mr. Radke sang together and acted like best friends during the performance. After it ended, they segued into the song requested by popular demand, “Situations.” Dedicated to promiscuous women, this song sparked a moment of total insanity as almost every scantily clad girl in the crowd tried to crowd surf up to the stage. Mr. Mabbitt picked up the microphone stand and held it over the pit to have them sing along. As the band hit the closing chord, Mr. Mabbitt and Mr. Radke hugged it out on stage. This was the defining moment of the tour and gave fans what they were hoping for all throughout the feud: reconciliation.