We Came as Romans at Granada Theater, Lawrence KS (2025-08-17)

The walls shook in downtown Lawrence–

The rumble of four bands playing downtown at the Granada Theater likely made the entire block stop and wonder as We Came as Romans headlined this local date on their Bad Luck Tour, along with support from After the Burial, Currents, and Johnny Booth.

The tour was named after their April-released single, the first of three (along with “No Rest for the Dreamer” and “Culture Wound”) ahead of the brand-new album, All is Beautiful…Because We’re Doomed (due out Friday via SharpTone Records).

The new album is described as the exploration of existentialism, loss, and rebirth through a conceptual framework that represents a “sonic autobiography” of the band’s journey.

We were on-hand to bare witness and capture the striking visuals of the four-act evening. For the uninitiated, we’ve got the general details of each band below too, so you can be acclimated for the next time any of them returns to play the area.

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We Came as Romans formed their metalcore band back in 2005 through high school classmate friends in Troy, MI (same town as Kmart’s famous HQ), notably employing dual vocalists (clean and unclean) and also orchestral elements into their music to create their signature sound. The band experienced an immense loss when clean vocalist Kyle Pavone died in 2018, but decided to continue to create and perform, honoring his memory.

The band currently consists of Joshua Moore (lead guitar, backing vocals), Dave Stephens (lead vocals), Lou Cotton (rhythm guitar), Andy Glass (bass, backing vocals), and David Puckett (drums, percussion). Stephens has been recently ailing on tour but has seemed to have shaken the bug off.

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After the Burial is a progressive metal band formed back in 2004 in our familiar home base of Minneapolis/St. Paul MN, with debut album “Forging a Future Self,” released in 2007. Their technical and experimental sound blends elements of intricate progressive metal, death metal, and djent; and includes sole original member Trent Hafdahl, with bassist Adrian Oropeza, vocalist Anthony Notarmaso, and drummer Dan Carle.

Also familiar with loss, founding member and guitarist Justin Lowe passed away in 2015, but the band persevered to finish their in-progress album “Dig Deep,” in his memory and continued on. Newest single is last month’s “Hum from the Hollow”, which hints at a new album (via Sumerian Records) hopefully out soon.

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Currents is a Newtown CT progressive metalcore / djent band in their fourteenth year and also signed to SharpTone featuring singer Brian Wille, guitarists Ryan Castaldi and Chris Wiseman (also the founding guitarist of Shadow of Intent), bassist and backing vocalist Christian Pulgarin, and drummer Matt Young. Since 2018, no original members remain with the band.

Third album “The Death We Seek”, was released back in May 2023 but a new single, “It Only Gets Darker” was released last month, which hopefully precedes an upcoming new full-length.

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Johnny Booth is a five-piece hardcore/metalcore band from Long Island and Oneonta, NY and is composed of members Andrew Herman, Adam Halpern, Nick Martell, Ryan Strong, and Scott Owens (so like Pink Floyd, no ‘actual’ Johnny) and debuted with their first EP in the summer of 2008, entitled, “Sagua.“

In January of 2012, they released “Connections” on Hotfoot Records, which notably features guest vocalist Tommy Rogers of Between the Buried and Me on a track, and their 2022 EP, Storyteller preceded their most recent full-length, 2023’s Moments Elsewhere.

Their newest single, “Get Well Soon” debuted back in May on Sirius XM, so they may have potentially more new music in the near future coming as well.

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All in all, a full and heavy night of metalcore-associated mayhem, and for most bands, a musical preview of what’s yet to come from each – sounds like “good luck” if you can manage to catch any of the remaining dates on the We Came as Romans’ Bad Luck Tour.

ALL PHOTOS BY JASON DOMINGUES(click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)

WE CAME AS ROMANS at the Granada Theater, Lawrence KS (2025-08-17)

WE CAME AS ROMANS at the Granada Theater, Lawrence KS (2025-08-17)

AFTER THE BURIAL at the Granada Theater, Lawrence KS (2025-08-17)

CURRENTS at the Granada Theater, Lawrence KS (2025-08-17)

JOHNNY BOOTH at the Granada Theater, Lawrence KS (2025-08-17)