On June 29th, the last East Coast Warped Tour date would hit Atlantic City, NJ and celebrating 25 years as a moving festival. Before that date, some bands would come together to play shows before the big festival date. Valencia and Hidden In Plain View would join together to play in Philadelphia at the TLA the Friday before their Warped Tour date. Even though the Warped Tour date would be to a bigger crowd, the intimacy of the Philly show proved to be a great warm up show for both bands.

Hidden In Plain View doesn’t play as many shows as they used to, maybe three a year, but when they do, you can count on them giving a great performance and they are usually better than the last. Since they opened the show they had a shorter time slot, but as always the biggest chunk of their set was from Life In Dreaming. Resolution and a few from the various e.p.’s were played, but the energy from the band and the crowd when a song like “Ashes, Ashes”, “Bleed For You”, or “Twenty Below” is played is something to see and feel. Even though Hidden In Plain View don’t play the deep cuts as much, hearing songs from Life In Dreaming never gets old. The big news from the show though was that they recorded enough songs for an e.p. but they currently don’t have any idea when or how it will be released. The last album, Animal, was released in 2015 and knowing more music is on the way is great news, but not having a timeframe is the worst part. Regardless, it will be worth the wait.

https://www.facebook.com/HIPVnj

Like Hidden In Plain View, Valencia plays maybe three times a year now and like Hidden In Plain View when they perform it is all or nothing. For Valencia this was a hometown show and crowd gave them hometown love. Valencia ripped through a 16 song setlist that expanded across their whole career including a two acoustic renditions of “3,000 Miles” and “Tenth Street”. Towards the end of their set though was a surprise cover of NoFX’s “Linoleum” which was a very well done cover and wouldn’t have thought Valencia would play. When Valencia came back out for their encore they played “Where Did You Go?” and of course “The Space Between”. This hometown show was a great send off for both bands for the next day they would play Atlantic City Warped Tour and even though the crowds would be much bigger both bands know how to make fans feel like they are only playing to them.

https://www.facebook.com/valencia