Concert review: Between the Buried and Me w/ Imperial Triumphant | 05.28.26, The Pageant (with photo gallery)

Photo of Paul Waggoner of Between the Buried and Me by Laura Jerele

There are shows, and then there are SHOWS. Between the Buried and Me was absolutely the latter, and if you weren’t there, that one’s going to sting for a while. Before I even get into the music, let me tell you about the fans, because they were half the story. I met some amazing people! I chatted with people who drove hundreds of miles just to be in that room. Three fans—Chad, Donovan and Sander—rolled in from Lake of the Ozarks for the show, which, mad respect as it was the first for one and the ninth show for another. And then there was Chuck. Chuck is an absolute Imperial Triumphant superfan who knows their entire catalog, every song, every record, every deep cut, and last night was his very first time ever seeing them live. His energy right there set the tone for the whole night. This is what music is all about.

Imperial Triumphant opened, and honestly, how do you describe what they do? Here’s my best shot: It was like New York exploded in an apocalyptic heavy metal jazz fusion battle for the ages and somehow everyone in the room survived it. Full costumes, masks, dark lights, robotic voices, lasers, the whole theatrical thing, and they delivered something that was as experimental as it was experiential. Jazzy interludes into crushing arpeggios into the heaviest metal thing I’ve heard in a long time, and somehow it all worked together perfectly. After shooting the first couple songs, I was standing there going, “what IS this,” and also, “I need more of it immediately.” Chuck got his moment and it clearly did not disappoint. And as any good metal should, their merch table was stacked with seriously killer stuff.

Between the Buried and Me are just as progressive, just as heavy, but in a different way. Their visuals included massive lights, dense, dense fog everywhere, risers, and, just like Imperial Triumphant, they were loud as hell! Everything about it felt larger than life, because it genuinely was. Their music is a total collision course that is tight and perfectly timed. Tommy Rogers, Paul Waggoner, Dan Briggs, and Blake Richardson are four people doing something that really shouldn’t be possible, and they made it look completely effortless. Jazz fusion having a head-on collision with the heaviest metal imaginable, and nobody walks away from that wreck the same. The crowd wasn’t exactly a crowd surfing situation, but the head banging was relentless and the circle pits were real, several of them, and every single one felt completely earned and not obligatory. Their merch game was just as on point as Imperial Triumphant’s, and the line proved it.

Looking around the Pageant was its own experience of people watching. A sea of BTBAM concert tees spanning years of tours, which is always a sign you’re in the right place with the right people. But the coolest shirt in the room by a mile? An Anacrusis tee. Because without that legendary band (and Saint Louis metal royalty), a whole lot of the progressive thrashing metal we love today simply would not exist, and it’s always good to see someone in the room who knows that. 

The Blue Nowhere, their latest record, is what this tour is built around, and live it hits like a completely different animal. A whole conceptual world that unfolds in real time, and on stage it pulls you in even deeper. I thought it was heavy, wild, genuinely unclassifiable, and absolutely entertaining. We need bands and shows like this. Full stop. | Laura Jerele

Here’s the setlist:
Mirador Uncoil
Psychomanteum
Fossil Genera 
Condemned to the Gallows
God Terror
Absent Thereafter
Selkies
The Future Is Behind Us
Silent Flight
Parliament
Goodbye to Everything