Photos + Review: Between the Buried and Me @ Woolys (Des Moines, IA)

Between the Buried and Me (Raleigh, NC), Hail the Sun (Chico, CA), Delta Sleep (Brighton, UK)
October 26th, 2025
Wooly’s in Des Moines, IA

When it comes to traveling for shows, there’s a select few bands that would get me to go out of my way to go see. Granted, when the distance is only a four hour drive to Des Moines, that does tend to widen the group, but even so. When it comes to Between the Buried and Me, I’d happily travel way farther to see.

Between the Buried and Me are a band that I’ve been listening to and following extremely closely for almost two decades. Although I remember being pretty close to hating them upon first listen of their first album, but the band’s 2007 release of Colors proved to be a watershed moment for me. By all means, that’s the album I could point to if I wanted to lay blame on why I now love songs that are 15 minutes. Or longer. 

Eight years had passed since the last time I visited Des Moines, but I made the trek down south once more this past weekend. It was a bit of a celebratory trip, after getting married – my (now) wife and I jokingly calling it our mini-honeymoon. The weekend was filled with friends and fun. The night prior to the BTBAM show, we went out to Wooly’s Emo Nite, our first out of town one of those. It culminated in me getting to see BTBAM, my favorite band.

This current “The Blue Nowhere Tour” is in support of the new album the band released, of the same name, about a month prior. The album followed the usual

Of all the setlists I’ve seen over the last decade of shows I’ve been too, this one might have been the wildest. Good picks of songs from six of their records other than their newest, each songs I wouldn’t expect. Or in the case of “Informal Gluttony,” I was surprised by them closing the night with that song. I’ve gotten used to it being an opener, or an early song of the setlists. The band has been killing it lately with what they have been opening with; this time with “Disease, Injury, Madness” and the tour before (in 2022) it “Sun of Nothing.” There’s no ramp up with those songs, these right away hit you over the face with heaviness and a freneticness that was refreshing. For that 2022 show, that immediateness is one of the things I remember most, and it almost certainly will become true for last Sunday’s show. 

The highlight of this show was seeing all of the new songs played live. Despite a weird crowd in attendance that seemed to get into and mosh to parts that I wouldn’t expect, and not mosh to parts I did, like the breakdown in “God Terror,” each song was just so good sounding. It still blows my mind to this day how these guys are able to play such long and technical songs seemingly perfect. The title track of the new album has been the biggest grower for me since release. I did have a feeling that it’d hit hard in a live setting, and I was proven right. It was cool to see lead singer Tommy bring out a guitar to play, something I haven’t seen from him before. 

I loved seeing Spectacular Reflection, a song from their lone EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues. I’ve read about the bands more or less disinterest in that record, though I’ve always had a liking to it, so it was nice to see it given some love and attention. 

As much as I enjoyed this show, and I really really did, it still will only make it to top three, maybe top two, of my favorite times seeing Between the Buried and Me. I want to say through no fault of their own, but actually, it is entirely their fault. When you put together an Even Night Out type show and play the entirety of The Great Misdirect live – my favorite Between the Buried and Me record – it puts every other show as a disadvantage. But even with that, I will say that this was still a top show. Whether it’s the new songs or the circumstances surrounding them, I will be forever grateful for having experienced it. Two decades in? Long live Between the Bured and Me.