Concert review: Set and Setting brings the loud and heavy back to Fubar in St. Petersburg

It's been a hot minute since the homies of Set and Setting rocked the hell out of the 'Burg. So when word hit the streets that the quintet was ready to show us a lil' somethin' somethin' after almost a year of playing gigs outside its hometown city, faithful fans were ready, filling the 600 Block and packing tight into Fubar. A dark, smoke-billowing room with all of the usual suspects set the stage for one of the heaviest and loudest shows downtown has seen in a while. As we pushed towards the bar through a sea of black tee-shirts and leather, and rustled for the ear plugs in our pockets, we knew we were in for a wild night.

The hours leading up to midnight were packed full of aggressive rocking rhythms that hit your ear drums like a sucker punch. PBR was in no short supply as everyone broke their necks thrashing to the talent on stage. Sentries out of Tampa touched downed first, and kicked the night off right with their high octane set setting the night up for success (see what we did there?). Then from the bowels of the underworld spewed forth Disevered. These dudes are death metal as fuck and put in some heavy work. Jamie Stewart's guttural growls barked like a three-headed hell hound, commanding attention and respect. DOPE.

Up next, Spar drop-kicked the microphone for a less vocal approach to tearing down the house. The Bay area four-piece made it look easy, and it was plain to see these musicians were masters of their craft. Their heavy instrumentation had a lot of music heads honed into playing that left the flashy antics at home. Instead, Spar relied on their finesse and grit to tear a portal through the sound system and into your ear with decibels cranked all the way up. Music master Jason Feder had the sounds mixed to perfection, just like the drinks from Todd and Tina. Shots were in order, with minutes till midnight as Set and Setting prepped for show time.

By now, the room was oozing sweat and anticipation, and the Set and Setting boys were locked, loaded and ready to premiere what they'd been cooking up in the lab. The next 40 minutes or so was a tribute to the amount of hard work, dedication, and passion the entire ensemble has been putting into songwriting since their last studio album. All but one of the tracks was a preview of things to come from their third untitled album, which is due to drop sometime later this year. In the meantime, everyone took the bait, sunk in teeth and held on for dear life.

Probably the coolest thing about the performance was the fact that almost no one in the room had a cell phone in hand. It was almost as if Set and Setting cast a spell on the crowd and entranced us with their sound. Either that or it was Mark Etherington's nude nipple winking at everyone from behind the drums — bom chicka wah wah! All jokes aside, it was great to see how in sync the musicians were with one another. Between Mark and Stephen beating the crap out of percussion, Nick keepin' it chill on bass, and Ryan and Shane working the magical guitar melodies, everything came together like peanut butter and jelly.

This was just the pretext for their summer tour kicking off in June with Hivelords. Big ups to the guys for putting on a show well worth experiencing, and getting us excited about their upcoming third album. Keep grinding and being genuine good people, and we'll see ya'll at the top. — Peace and Love, DEA & SAINT

This article appears in May 5-11, 2016.