Devour The Day, Arisen From Nothing, The Broken Thumbs, 7 Cycles

To Broke To Rock #33 went down at The Knitting Factory Spokane, Friday night May 20, 2016. Another great rock concert for the history books. Spokane rockers happen to be some of the luckiest in the nation with these awesome free shows put on by our local rock radio station, Rock 94.5. There are so many great shows scheduled to come through our area this summer it is hard to afford them all? You can rest assure you can at least see 1 rocking concert this summer with the 2B2R shows, the next one is August 19th with "One Less Reason". The featured artists for 2B2R #33 consisted of headliners, "Devour The Day", co-headliners, "Arisen From Nothing", & locals, "The Broken Thumbs", and "Seven Cycles".

Devour the Day is an American hard rock band based out of Memphis, TN. Founded by former, "Egypt Central" members Joey "Chicago" Walser and Blake Allison in 2012. Members: Blake Allison/Vocals, Joey Chicago/Bass, Ronnie Farris/Drums, David Hoffman/Lead Guitar. They opened the set with “Respect”, from their debut album Time & Pressure. The fans were enthusiastic and engaged and the band put on a solid, heavy and passionate show. Allison proved his mettle as a front man, and it was nice to see him in front of the drum kit, rather than behind it. Their set included the songs; “Blackout”, “Get Out of My Way”, “You and Not Me”, “Check Your Head” and their hit “Good Man”, which closed the show. They also performed new songs from their new album, S.O.A.R released on April 1, 2016 which included, Lightning In The Sky, & Step Aside.

Co headlining the show was an upcoming band out of the Seattle area, "Arisen From Nothing". This band offers a powerful, lethal combination of hard rock and metal that is appealing to both rock and metal fans alike. This was the first time I had ever heard them perform. At first glance at their exclusive stage set up I had thought for a moment that they were the band touring with, "Devour The Day" but it turned out these guys are another great Pacific Northwest up and coming band. Members include: T.J. Hill, Vocals, Troy Elmore, Guitar, Eric Hanson, Bass, Peter Breene, Drums.

After the show I had a chance to interview one of the members Troy Elmore, lead guitarist of AFN, although I am not quite sure he knew it was an interview? He told me they all liked to play in Spokane and said, "how lucky we all were to have such a great venue in Spokane to hold these awesome concerts". We were all hanging out at The District Bar, next to the Knitting Factory just shooting the breeze and I found out some very interesting information about the members of the band. It turns out these guys are all regular guys with regular jobs that also like to play music in their spare time. My interviewee, Troy Elmore is a Fire Chief, and the bass player Eric Hanson, is a junior high school teacher in a school where all the students either play a musical instrument or have some type of musical talent, a modern day School Of Rock! I also found out that one of Eric's former students just happened to be former lead singer of, "Queensryche", Geoff Tate's daughter, how about that for cool? There had also been an incident at the Canadian border at one time with one of the band members that I found amusing but I did not get the full details to elaborate further.

Second up was Pacific Northwest locals, "The Broken Thumbs" with their Electronic/Rock style. Members: Ryan Stocks, Kelton Allen, David Arnold. The first time I saw, "The Broken Thumbs" was a couple years back when they were an electronic, 2 piece band until Ryan Stocks formerly from, "The Lions Oh My" joined the band and added the vocals to the now 3 piece trio.

Spokane locals, "Seven Cycles" opened the show, with their Hard Rock/Metal sound. The guys had been out on tour and had not performed a live local show in over six months, it was great to have them back even if it is for a short time. They are currently in the studio writing and recording their new EP. Members: Ryan Kirkingburg - vocals Jeremy Berg - guitar/backing vocals Josh Oliver - bass Ozz Oswalt - drums.

With 4 heavy hitting rock bands and a very enthusiastic crowd this show aimed to please. The bands brought their A game to the stage and did not disappoint. See you all at the next killer rock show but until then, keep it real people, and most importantly Rock N Roll. **Peace** js