NONPOINT Painful Statements Tour: An Interview And Review

A REVIEW BY: KAT GULLAGE
​​PHOTOS BY: HOLLY ROY PHOTOGRAPHY

NONPOINT brought their highly anticipated Painful Statements tour to The Webster in Hartford with Autumn Kings and Upon A Burning Body as support. The 1200 capacity theater was filled with Nonpoint fans ready to hear the deeper cuts off of “Statement” and “To The Pain”.


The first opener was Autumn Kings. Originally from Canada, they later relocated to nearby Detroit. The band is made up of Jake Diab on guitar and vocals, singer Joseph Coccimiglio, drummer Troy Dawdy and a bass player they don’t mention in any of their socials. They opened with their single “Sleep When I’m Dead”. I described their sound as a “heavier Hoobastank” but they refer to themselves as “Linkin Park & Fall Out Boy had a baby”. I’m always a fan of shared vocals, and Jake led the next song, “Terrified” from Book Of The Broken, while Joseph bopped around enthusiastically in the limited stage space. The singer addressed the crowd “Hands up! Hands up! We are Autumn Kings! How ya feelin? We’re here to have fun with you!” We got two more singles with “Power” and “Snake Charmer” which sounded like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones gone wild. There were some loyal AK fans in the pit that screamed for more. They did a cover of Linkin Park’s “Bleed It Out”, the guitars and the crowd singing along were the stand out. They wrapped with “Hellbound” and “Thank You! You guys have been amazing!” It was a fun show, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them.


Next up was the powerhouse metalcore band Upon A Burning Body, who proudly hail from San Antonio, Texas. Prior to their arrival, the pre-song that blasted through the house was Creed’s “One Last Breath” in its entirety. More than half the crowd sang along, word for word. They even cut the music at one point so all you heard was the fans. The foursome took their marks, singer Danny Leal, guitarist Ruben Alvarez, bassist Thomas Alvarez and drummer Tito Felix. Danny shouted “Hartford, what’s up?! Get your fists up in the fukin air!” He would continue to shout orders throughout the gig. They opened with “Daywalker” from the upcoming horror movie Detour. The guitarist sang a lot too. “Bang your head mother fuckers! Make some fucking noise! Open that mosh pit up!” And one does break out during the 2023 single “Killshot”. These guys were big loud y’all. “Lemme see those horns mother fuckers!” They all go up. “Open this mosh pit up! We’re Upon A Burning Body, we came all the way from Texas to be here with you tonight!” Two from Southern Hostility were up with “All Pride No Pain” and “King Of Diamonds”. “This is really fucking easy. You got one job, no matter where in the room you are, everybody fukin bounces. Don’t you fukin let us down!” Everyone in the pit obeyed during “Extermination” off of Built From War. Danny is a formidable presence, he gets the crowd to work it. There was a decent amount of UABB fans in attendance. Two singles followed with 2025’s “Drag Through Glass” and 2024’s “Another Ghost”. “Let’s see what that mosh pit can do! Lookin good tonight.” “Sin City” from Red. White. Green. was followed by Straight From The Barrio’s “B.M.F.” “This is where you circle pit!” The pit expanded on that cue, and the set wrapped with “Texas Blood Money” and Danny waving a huge Texas flag while he yelled “You know where we’re from?” Upon A Burning Body has six studio LPs and a shitload of singles. They flexed their metal muscle and delivered a fukin loud ass show that commanded your attention.


The openers did a good job priming us for Nonpoint. The venue was full and energy came off the pit in waves. The back screen lit up just the band name in huge red letters. The players began to take their spots, each one wearing a black Nonpoint baseball jersey with red details. A prerecorded Elias came through the speakers and told the story of the beginning of the band. He then emerged in black pants, shirt and tie and they ripped off their best opening song. The one they should open every show with. The first track off of Statement, “Mindtrip”. We all lost our fukin shit. The pit was large and raucous, I was up front on the periphery of it. It was the LP in its entirety, so you knew the setlist. There’s not a bad song on it so the fun kept rollin with “Victim”, “Endure” (love that song!) and “Back Up”. We got another prerecorded chapter of what I’ll call the story of Nonpoint. I wanted to hear it, want to hear it still. But we were too hyped to be quiet enough to listen. I only got bits and pieces of it. I hope they release it, or maybe do a book. I know a good writer! They blew the roof off the place with “What A Day” followed by “Misled”. Then it was time for my, and apparently the band’s favorite, “Double Stakked”. I really felt that groove and holy shit did Robb beat the hell outta the drums on that. “Orgullo”, sung in Spanish, was beautiful even though I have no idea what the translation was. Another great cut, “Years” was followed by “Hive”, “Levels” and the mash up that is “Tribute” where Rasheed helped out on vocals. I had taken a few slams during the set, but at the end the dumb guy next to me tried to take a video in the mosh pit and got pulverized and stepped on my ankle. Like hard. I was all good, but took the opportunity during the intermission to exit the pit and hang back for the next segment.


I knew ahead of time, and any fan that bothered to look knew that the band would be performing To The Pain in reverse order. Drummer Robb Rivera, bassist Adam Woloszyn, lead guitarist Jaysin Zeilstra, and rhythm guitarist Rasheed Thomas had changed to red Nonpoint baseball jerseys with black details and singer Elias Soriano added a white shirt and red tie to his black paints to replicate the cover of To The Pain. We nearly heard another chapter in the chronicle of the band. They ripped into “The Shortest Ending” and someone’s shoe flew off their foot and landed across the room. Next up was “Wrong Before”, “Code Red” and “Skin”. Elias proclaimed “What a crowd! This is why, for the second leg, we had to have Hartford!” Well deserved cuz the place was hoppin all night! “Explain Myself?”, the title track “To The Pain” and “Buscandome” were on deck. Nonpoint was fukin on point. They kept us wanting more. And more we got with “Explain Yourself”, fan favorite “Alive And Kicking”, “The Wreckoning” and “There’s Going To Be A War”. Eighty-three minutes plus the break flew by. The place went wild when the set ended with their biggest hit, “Bullet With A Name”. They graciously thanked us and took their signature selfie with the crowd. They sounded great, one of the best Nonpoint shows I’ve seen. It was only the second night though. I encourage you to revisit them, definitely catch a show and watch out for new music in 2026.

AUTUMN KINGS

UPON A BURNING BODY

NONPOINT

AN INTERVIEW BY: KAT GULLAGE
​PHOTOS BY: HOLLY ROY PHOTOGRAPHY

We sat down to chat with drummer Robb Rivera and ended up crashing the room where guitarist Rasheed Thomas was working on new beats.

I introduced myself before quickly entering full fangirl mode. I’ve been a fan since the beginning and estimated this would be my twenty-sixth Nonpoint gig. I’ve seen them at festivals, clubs, and the 250 capacity closet they played last time they stopped in Hartford. I’m in their “Remember Me” (A Frontlines Tribute) music video. They collected video clips from 233 essential workers and Nonpoint fans and pieced them together to form the lyrics and messages, during Covid. Then I took a breath and said, “So ya know, love me some fucking Nonpoint”.

ROBB: Is this being recorded?
KAT: No. I’m a writer. (Robb eyeballs my notebook and cheap ass pen)
KAT: (sings like “Double Stakked”) “This is how I burn….” Trust the process. (Both Rasheed & Robb smiled at that)

KAT: Why this tour and why these two LPs?
ROBB: Cuz it’s the anniversary. 25th for Statement and 20th for To The Pain. Seemed like the perfect time, we had nothin else goin on. Everybody got on board and we said Let’s Fuckin Go.

KAT: When can we expect new music?
ROBB: Probably next year. We’re writing on the road. (Rasheed was literally doing it at that moment.) We hope to be in the studio soon.

KAT: Do y’all live near each other to jam? Or zoom each other? What’s that process?
ROBB: Me and Adam and Rasheed live in the Chicago area. Adam lives in Indy but just over the border. Elias is still in Florida. We face time and we have a rehearsal area near us in Chicago.

KAT: I read that Jerry Cantrell just puts song ideas into his phone and has like a billion things on there. Do you guys do stuff like that?
ROBB: Oh yeah, all the time.
RASHEED: Definitely. I’ll play stuff for Adam like (he hums and groans and makes musical sounds) and then Adam will be like “Check this out!” and go “duh-duh-duh-doom-doom-ba doom”.
KAT: You play the instruments or you make those sounds?
RASHEED: No instruments, just those sounds.
KAT: I would literally kill to hear one of those conversations.
ROBB: I do that too! “Boom-ka-ts-ts-ka-thump-snap-thwack”

KAT: What is your favorite song to play off of Statement right now?
ROBB: “Double Stakked” and “Misled”. I like the songs we play in their entirety. We had to shorten some of them into a medley so we don’t play for four hours. The set is eighty-three minutes.
RASHEED: “Misled”.
KAT: Favorite song to play off To The Pain right now?
ROBB: “Explain Myself?” It's challenging for me to play. Especially because I wrote it in my twenties and now I’m playing it in my fifties. And I still love to play “Alive And Kicking”.
RASHEED: “Explain”.
KAT: Rasheed, you’re copying Robb’s answers. You’re out.
RASHEED: Also “The Wreckoning!”

KAT: Do you still get nervous pre-perfomance?
ROBB: Yep, still get butterflies before shows.

KAT: Who’s your favorite drummer?
ROBB: Neil Peart.
KAT: Who’s your favorite rhythm guitarist?
RASHEED: Probably Hetfield. He really inspired me.
ROBB: And Malcom Young from AC/DC.

KAT: What are you listening to right now?
ROBB: I’m a classic metal guy. Slayer, Pantera. And this band called Orbit Culture.
RASHEED: I’ve been listening to jazz and soul, Butcher Brown.

KAT: A while back I saw dUg Pinnick from Kings X post, and I’m exaggerating, that if their music got streamed a billion times they earned half a penny. What’s the best way for us, the fans, to support Nonpoint?
ROBB: Well thankfully we’re independent so we cut out the middle man. But yeah, ya know, buy our merch, come to shows and buy physical over digital when ya can.

KAT: As you mentioned earlier, we’re not in our twenties anymore, so how is that affecting your job, if at all?
ROBB: Well tonight is only the second night on this leg of the tour. My foot actually hurt after last night. But it’ll be fine. I had a scare at a show back in January. My heart rate got super high and couldn’t get back in sync. The paramedics wanted to do some crazy shit like stop my heart to fix it and I was like no way. The band talked me into going to the hospital and they found out it was a sudden ventricular event and corrected it. They ran all sorts of tests and I checked out fine. I didn’t miss a show. I’ve been OK, it was a one time thing.

Robb’s memory is insanely sharp. We talked about a show early in their career, they were opening a festival in Hartford. He remembered every detail, that the bus broke down in Jacksonville but, in a stroke of serendipity, right near a Prevost dealer. They were scheduled to go on at 2:30 and pulled up at 1:30. I remember seeing them fall out of the bus when they arrived. And I was right up front for their set. Robb said his favorite show, as a fan, was Pantera-Suicidal Tendencies-Exodus in Boston, UNTIL Metallica did a pop up show at a small club in the Chicago area. He got in line at 10:30AM, bought a $20 ticket and made it in. It was still during the covid scare, and they made him show his vaxx card. He got the setlist. That show has moved up to his number one. And he can recite every second of it.

KAT: I’m really excited to hear “Double Stakked”. I almost added it to my smash playlist, cuz that groove makes me want to fuck, but not sure about the beginning of it.
ROBB: The beginning part is sexy too!!! Add it!!! (I did)

Robb and Rasheed had to head off to attend to their VIPs, so we thanked them and left them treats from a local apple orchard to show our appreciation. It was time for all of us, fans, band and crew to prepare for the main event.