Underoath’s Grant Brandell describes the chaos of the band Luti-Kriss, which played the best show he ever saw

It’s hard to think of a band that’s played four consecutive sold-out shows at St. Petersburg’s Jannus Live. If there was ever an outfit to pull it off, however, it’s Underoath.

The Grammy-nominated hard-rock outfit is perhaps Tampa’s biggest rock export and has already run out of tickets for the first three gigs of a four-show run that kicks off on Friday.

Fresh off the release of a new single, “Generation No Surrender”—and the Band Together Relief effort to help local victims of back-to-back-hurricanes—Underoath bassist Grant Brandell is advancing the hometown gigs by sharing the best gig he ever saw.

“…there was a band (now called Norma Jean) back then called Luti-Kriss,” Brandell wrote to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, calling the group’s set in Atlanta, “A perfect blend of chaos, attitude, and humility all working together to create an atmosphere I had never experienced.”

Read Brandell’s full quote, and see the video for “Generation No Surrender,” below.

Tickets to select nights of Underoath’s residency at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg happening Friday-Monday, Dec. 13-16 are still available and start at $34.50.

My favorite show I’ve ever attended isn’t what I think most people would assume after touring for 22 years and seeing everyone from The Rolling Stones to Guns N’ Roses to Kendrick Lamar etc.

My favorite show happened back when I was still a teenager around 18-19 years old. I was just getting into heavier music and there was a band (now called Norma Jean) back then called Luti-Kriss. I had seen them live once before and they were like nothing I had ever witnessed. A perfect blend of chaos, attitude, and humility all working together to create an atmosphere I had never experienced.

I was fresh out of high school working a warehouse job when two of my friends told me they were having their CD release show for their new album Throwing Myself, up in their hometown of Atlanta on a Saturday that I was unfortunately working. When the day finally came the FOMO took over and in the last hour I did what an irresponsible teenager would and quit on the spot and walked out of my job just in time to catch a ride up to Atlanta from Tampa.

The drive took us about 8 hrs including a nice fender bender in my friend’s dad’s Mercedes he had borrowed but we arrived. The venue was a little church called the Green House that I think safely held about 200 and from what I can remember about 3-350 people crammed in there.

25 years later, I still remember the way that show made me feel and shaped what I love about performing live music. Contrary to a lot of my peers, my internal priorities on performing (although important) aren’t about sounding perfect, hitting every note, or having an on-paper perfect set. It’s about connecting with the audience, feeding off them as they feed off you to create a real, unique, and unified experience.
For me, I’d rather watch an artist or band risk the perfection of replicating their recorded music live to try and connect and create moments with the audience at the sacrifice of hitting a wrong note or not being perfectly in-tune every second, or a voice cracking.

That’s what I love about live music and that’s what that show engrained in me forever as a fan and artist. That show impacted me in a way I never knew or appreciated till years later and I am forever grateful I took the risk of losing a job I didn’t enjoy, and spending money I shouldn’t have spent to go see there.—Grant Brandell

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This article appears in Dec 5-11, 2024.