Keith Wallen at Turf Club, St Paul (August 14, 2025)

It was an evening of full metal at the Turf Club as Keith Wallen brought his sound to Saint Paul.

Getting things kicked off was Twin Cities band BlurCurve, a quartet with a mantra: “we like it loud and fast”. A mix of grunge and harder edged metal, the band’s most recent album is 2023’s Pluto & The Fool. All members appropriately dressed in black, the opening song Circular Reasoning was an epic, and allowed singer Alythia Scully the opportunity to demonstrate that the range of vocals, including growling and screaming, wasn’t just the domain of male singers. They leaned into all of the metal lyrical notes and owned it in a slightly different way. That backing band (guitar, bass, and drums) was super solid, and drummer Justin Szmanda was ripping it up from the go.

Scully used self-described “dad jokes” as banter early on and BlurCurve had those metal grunge guitars firing on all cylinders. Guitarist Kris Heuer got a chance on vocals on the third song, Initiation, and both his lead and backing vocals supported Scully well. Scully, who was constantly in motion, did a great job of bringing attention to their band mates as needed, while still being the center of gravity during the vocals. After pitching merch in the back (while we also had a guitar change), Scully stated “ironically, this next song is about overconsumption”, as the band launched into Vainwaste. A long guitar intro into the next number gave a great buildup to the vocals. Finishing on Holy Alms, BlurCurve nailed an excellent opening set of power grunge.

Up next was Levels, an Arkansas based band who self-describe as a “cyber/industrial metal boy band”. (Have I mentioned how much I love bands that self-describe their sound? It gives such insight.) With their 2023 EP PULSE, the quartet (vocals, guitar, bass, and drums) was straight in the metal genre, with singer Kolby Carigan swinging between a narrow-ranged singing and a very scream-intoned lead vocals. Another band clad in all black, we had a range of attire with lead singer in mock turtle neck and the bassist in trench coat and steampunk glasses. On Breed, we had the whole gamut of full singing to low intoned scream. Head banging was fully commenced on Siren Hymn, and the band showed their comfort with each other as they moved and nearly flailed across the stage without ever getting close to crossing paths.

The guitarist had backing vocals on Realign and Levels lead straight into their highest energy number, Strange Things, riling up the crowd (“Saint Paul, show us what you got!”) with the scream mode set to maximum level. A bit of appreciation for audience and headliner signaled the beginning of the end and the band went into a song just released last week, Covert One. I was impressed by Carigan’s ability to keep that volume and scream up throughout songs and between while working up the audience. An unreleased song, Fume, was about a toxic relationship and gave Corigan his most pure singing of the set. Heading out on Black Dove, (“Let’s f-ing have fun!”), Levels closed out as they had started, with an absolute top notch metal game.

Talking with Corigan after their set, he discussed how it was nearly the end (one more show at a festival in Wisconsin upcoming) and had been a full month of touring with 20 shows in 27 days. With his very strong vocal work, he talked about the importance of self-care when so much around you (crappy sleep, always on the road) is working against you. That he was still in full voice speaks to the thoughtfulness of his care routine, and frankly, is a through line of what I have heard from bands being successful on longer tours.

Keith Wallen is currently on tour in a solo capacity, but is also a guitarist and backing vocalist for the band Breaking Benjamin. He has three solo releases, most recently 2024’s Infinity Now. Keeping that high energy, low thrum guitar mold in place, Wallen and backing band (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass/backing vocals, and drums) came out also all in black, completing the trifecta of the night. Nemesis was loud and rhythmic, and let Wallen ride his vocals over that nearly drone sound. Wallen was an emphatic performer, with strong body movements on top of his singing and guitar work.

A bit of happy chatting with the crowd led into Us Against the World, with an excellent guitar lick riding underneath. Wallen’s presence was compelling, and his singing style was excellent, with his vocal opening up being more operatic than screamed. A change of guitars for the entire front line followed and Strings was perfectly guitar heavy, and Wallen’s vocals played right into it. Wallen headed back to an older song with Crows, and had him rocking guitar with the other two in a nice performative moment. Moving to a song off the new album, Wallen and company were weaving the full discography into the evening. In the latter half, there were several numbers that laid heavily into that rumbling guitar work, always steadied by Wallen’s singing. I’m With You (an Avril Lavigne cover) had a crowd with cameras out and singing along, and was a pretty touching moment between band and audience. (The couple next to me who had been very cute throughout the evening were an absolute delight to watch during that song,)

Infinity had the driving drums you would expect, and after that, a complete changeover of instruments had Wallen on reverb mic and acoustic sounding guitar for The Wolf. A late song, Dear Father, was dedicated to loss and to the late Ozzy Osbourne, with a front row lighter on for the entire first half of the song. Finishing on Headspace Holiday got a big cheer from the audience and was a solid sound to end on. Keith Wallen put an exclamation point on a metal evening and a near end to the tour.