On December 10th and 11th Buffalo was host to TID The Season 2021, one of the craziest shows put on by the hometown band, Every Time I Die. This two day show took place this year at the Buffalo River Works, a venue with two stories, ice skating rinks, ferris wheel, and more. Previous years, this had been held at other venues, such as The Rec Room. This has been a popular event for many years in Buffalo, so much so that when the weekend passes went on sale, they would immediately sell out, so you would have to get your hands on them quickly.
Upon arriving Friday evening, the first thing you see is the long, long line of anxious show goers waiting to get it and with the show always being in December and in Buffalo, you just never know what to expect but thankfully the weather was decent. Since the show has a Christmas theme, many showed up in fashion, with their santa hats, matching Christmas PJs, or holiday themed suits. First nights line up was 68’, which if you’ve seen their performance, it’s a sight to see. Then Kublai Khan really got the show and got the crowd going with their hardcore sound.
A tradition of TID The Season is to mix up the sound and they did that with a band called Mariachi El Bronx, who brought some spicy tunes and the crowd was digging so much that a congo line was started! There was a slight band change as Poison The Well was listed to play but sadly had to drop out so another hometown favorite joined in on the bill, which was Buried Alive and they took things up quite a few notches. In between sets, there were other things to enjoy, food onsite, multiple bars, they even had an ice skating rink and curling available.
Also, if you looked around enough, you would catch a Christmas lighted Every Time I Die sign which many throughout the night took photos and selfies with, and even Santa would appear from time to time. Next to take the stage was Circa Survive, which toned things down a bit just before the main event and as Circa’s set ends, a curtain drops, which a yule log burning was projected. The anticipation builds as the band sets up and in all in one motion, the curtain drops and Every Time I Die kicks off and the crowd explodes.
Saturday started earlier in the day and with something unique to the show. One of the members Andy Williams, the guitarist, has been a long time wrestler and with every TID The Season show, the second day kicks off with a few matches and it’s truly a spectacle to witness, you may catch Santa flying around in the ring.
Once the wrestling was over, it was time to get to the music and kick things off was End and then followed by The Dirty NIL. If you ended up being bored in between sets or at the end of one, one of the other activities you could do was a bull riding machine, which was fun to see people doing their best to hold on but ultimately flown to the side.
Continuing the music is Spiritbox with their beautiful clean vocals and gut wrenching screams, and by now, countless crowd surfers have made their way to the front. Following Spiritbox is The Bronx, which the previous night, Mariachi El Bronx which consist of some of the same members but The Bronx has a totally different sound that got the crowd to really move, especially when the singer dived into the crowd and sang two songs as a circle pit formed around him.
Knocked Loose with the unique metalcore sound, got the circle pits really going. Now, after them, was another change up from the metal, hard rock with Ice T who is well known on the stage and tv but the energy and vibe was strong nonetheless. Finally, for the conclusion of this entire two day show, we have Every Time I Die closing out again, who this time while setting up, decided the night needed to feel more like Christmas, so let it snow! The night came to an end with Every Time I Die playing their heart out for the second night and fans singing along to every song. This show has been around for awhile and has created so many memories and so many look forward to it, it almost feels like a tradition and hopefully it will continue.
