Saliva At The Maywood 12-6-2018

After just releasing their 10th album, 10 Lives in October, Saliva hit the road with a pre-Christmas tour in select cities, the 10 Lives of Christmas Tour. Starting this tour, Saliva stopped at The Maywood in Raleigh. At just the brink of freezing, this was the perfect night to kickoff a Christmas tour.

The tour name is a bit misleading. There wasn’t a single Christmas song, nor Santa hat. Instead, it almost felt like a Christmas party with great music. The night held 5 supporting bands. All were incredibly talented and added to the environment of spending time with friends in the pool hall, or dancing with friends near the stage, and even the occasional groping couple. All that was missing was a lampshade on a head! Each band had the attention of everyone in the venue, and the dance floor was full throughout the night, with drink breaks in between sets, and even had a great Pantera cover. Can more Christmas parties be like this please?

Saliva finally came on stage to the Beverly Hillbillies theme. Just as everyone was singing along, they broke out into their heavy playing. Unfortunately, the first song had sound problems, but this was overlooked as everyone in the venue sang to the whole song. I was a little disappointed that no songs from their new album were performed, but they sang all their classics, and seeing everyone in the room connect over those songs, sing along, and dance within inches of their favorite band made me quickly get over that tinge of disappointment.

One highlight of their set was a medley they sang with “Doperide.” They sang Phil Collin’s “In the Air” and Pink Floyd’s “Brick in the Wall.” These songs were the perfect accompaniment to their set and offered great crowd interaction that had the whole venue singing along to those classics. The seizure-inducing lights and intensity of everyone on stage gave the night a great energy and you could feel the euphoria from all the fans in the venue that night.