Between the Buried and Me (Raleigh, NC), Imperial Triumpant (New York City, NY), Fallujah (San Francisco, CA)
May 30th, 2026
Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, MN
It’s so nice when a show lives up to the hype.
As soon as this current Between the Buried and Me tour got announced, I was super excited and thought it had potential to be one of my favorites. I don’t like that I did it because I try not to, but when I peeked at the setlist I blurted out “this could end up being my favorite setlist I’ve seen.”
Now, it’s not seeing The Great Misdirect played in full. Nothing is ever going to beat that. But again, I love it when a show lived up to built up hype, and this last time seeing Between the Buried and Me absolutely did.
I got to see the band play last October on their first tour in support of their newest album The Blue Nowhere. That was the first set I had seen that was just a more normal one (not an album playthrough) in a long time and I was excited for that. I figured when this second leg got announced that the band would play the songs that they didn’t play the first time. That came true and happened to have more of my favorite songs in the bundle. “Psychomanteum” was great to see for the first time, “Absent Thereafter” was good to see again if not even more fun than the first for how into it the crowd got (hoe down pit, anyone?). “God Terror” even hit harder this time.
The rest of the set list was filled with songs sprinkled through their massive catalog with transitions between each song done so well. Peak picks were made with “Fossil Genera” and “The Future Is Behind Us”. Being a part of the breakdown of the latter song is always one of my favorite live moments.
This marked my fourth time seeing Between the Buried and Me at this particular venue, Varsity Theater, and it ended up being my favorite. Aside from one particular spot, it was just a really well run, chill night. It didn’t feel over crowded, and the crowd was one of the best I had seen for BTBAM, both in participation and turnout.
A whole decade has passed since my first time seeing Between the Buried and Me and I couldn’t have gotten a better book end.
