He Is Legend bring career-spanning show to Jewel
For more than two decades, He Is Legend has been one of active rock’s best-kept secrets. The Wilmington, N.C., band’s mix of metalcore crunch, Southern-rock swagger and psychedelic groove has earned it a devoted, almost cultish following.
On Thursday, Oct. 22, the band brings its Time Travel tour to Jewel Music Venue in Manchester.
Justin Marcotte is a veteran booker who began working with Jewel earlier this year. He has a good feeling about this show.
“I’ve probably booked about 500 national tour packages in my life,” he said in a recent Zoom interview. “So it’s not every time that I book a tour package that I know everything about them.”
He liked what he found in He Is Legend.
“This is more of a rock ’n’ roll show,” Marcotte said. “I do primarily book a lot of metal stuff, but I love rock ’n’ roll, and I wish there was more of it, honestly. So this is right up my alley.” The band has a broad appeal, he added. “They attract metalheads and they attract rockers. So they’re kind of great for everybody.”
Lead singer Schuylar Croom, guitarist Adam Tanbouz and bassist Matty Williams have played together since high school. Their 2004 debut, I Am Hollywood, was done in Westfield, Mass., and co-produced by Killswitch Engage’s Adam Dutkiewicz. Their 2006 follow-up, Suck Out the Poison, drew more from the Southern rock it grew up on.
After a five-year hiatus begun in 2009, the band returned with the fan-funded Heavy Fruit in 2014, which became their highest-charting album, followed by few in 2017, then 2019’s White Bat, hailed by critics as a career high. The band called their most recent LP, 2022’s Endless Hallway, its most aggressive yet.
In recent years, He Is Legend has been looking back.
The band toured for the 20th anniversary of I Am Hollywood and then for Suck Out the Poison, playing both albums front to back. This year, the latter record also came out on vinyl for the first time. The Time Travel tour widens the lens, with songs from every album and EP in the catalog.
The two-stage Jewel show is billed as a Halloween party, with costumes encouraged. Along with the headliners, the lineup includes In Angels and Excide, a pair of bands that are new to Marcotte’s ears. “I gotta be quite blunt, I don’t really know a lot about them,” he said. “But after checking them out, I was completely blown away.”
Marcotte had more to say about the regional bands rounding out the bill. On the second stage are Rear Percussion, Dead Fiction and Socially Problematic Children. Parts Per Million will kick things off on the main stage, and he called them “one of the greatest bands I’ve ever worked with, hands down, in 20 years.”
Beginning as a teenager, Marcotte has promoted New England shows, festivals and tattoo conventions for 24 years, spending nine years as entertainment manager and talent buyer at Fete Music Hall, a 1,000-seat club in Providence. He’s also booked The Vault in New Bedford, Mass. He continues to live in and commute from Rhode Island.
“It’s worth it,” he said of the long drive, adding, “live music is unlike anything else in the entire world.”
He brings a fan’s energy to booking shows, and works hard to weave in regional talent.
“It’s important to remember that every national act starts as a local band,” he said, adding praise for Jewel owner John Crosson, who opened the music-centric bar in 2014. “He genuinely cares about the place, and he puts a lot of work into it.”
He Is Legend
When: Thursday, Oct. 22, 6 p.m.
Where: Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St., Manchester
Tickets: $25, ticketleap.com, 18+
Also appearing: In Angels, Excide, Parts Per Million, Dead Fiction, Socially Problematic Children, Reapercussion
Featured Photo: He Is Legend. Courtesy photo.