ABOVE and AT FRONT: New lead singer Beau Boken fits right in as the new front man of Blessthefall, who performed in Modesto on Tuesday, November 18. Photos by Anya Muradian, 209Vibe.

Tuesday night at the Modesto Virtual marked the second night of Blessthefall's first tour with its new singer. Anticipation filled the room as fans filed into the venue for what promised to be a sensational show.

Erendira was the first band of the night. One of the guitars must have been out of tune or something because every single song sounded a bit off. In addition to that, the performance just wasn't all that exciting.

The band members didn't really move around much, nor were they engaging the crowd at all for the most part. The band followed a pretty typical screamo formula: A little screaming followed by some singing, a breakdown with melodic guitars, melodic guitars in the verses, and the occasional attempt to have a heavy breakdown. Ultimately, they didn’t bring anything unique to the table.

Oh My! Explosive was the next band up and the name alone pretty much told me what to expect (read: screamo). The members all seemed to be pretty decent musicians, but the performance left something to be desired. The breakdowns were ok, with some run of the mill dissonance used to make them seem more hardcore.

On top of all of that, the band decided to bring in a girl to do some vocals on one song. She was clearly trying to exhibit vocal technique that she didn't have, and ended up sounding like a really bad American Idol audition.

So far this show was boring me to death, but with We're Not Friends Anymore up next, things began to look up in a big time way.

This band is very polished and extremely talented. They apparently just added a second vocalist to take over all of the screaming parts, and that was probably the best decision they could have made. He has amazing range, great stage presence and looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself.

All of the members of this band knew how to work the stage and get the audience excited. The performance was incredible, and the music definitely brings a few new elements to the table. I would definitely keep an eye out for this band in the future.

Confide was the fourth band to take the stage. I've seen this band play before, but I didn't remember it like this. I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open for the majority of this set.

I didn't remember Confide's music being that heavy, but I was pleasantly surprised. Everything about this band is awesome. The vocals have a ton of range, the mixture of melodic and heavy in the music is perfect, the live performance is amazing, and the breakdowns were flawless. There is so much build up in each song that once the resolution comes, you just want to go crazy.

The only disappointing aspect of this performance was that the crowd wasn’t into it at all. Most of the audience was just staring at Confide with blank expressions. They went crazy for everyone else, but when this really great band came on stage, they just stood there.

And people wonder why a lot of bands don't come through the 209.

Finally was the moment we'd all been waiting for: The second official show of Blessthefall with their new singer. Expectations were high, and one couldn't help but wonder how people were going to react to him.

Well, the second Blessthefall took the stage, the crowd went insane; you would never know that singer Beau Bokan was new to the band. The crowd treated him like he had been there from the start, and maybe even better than that. It was almost as if the crowd worshipped him and he was loving every second of it.

Beau has great vocal range and is a born front man. You could tell that all of the band members were thrilled to start playing shows again because there wasn't a single moment that they weren't smiling during the entire performance. This band has undeniable chemistry on stage that makes the performance one that you will not soon forget, and they know how to deliver.

I wasn't really a fan of Blessthefall before, but I definitely am now.

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