Nonpoint + Upon A Burning Body
Vanguard
August 26, 2025
A few years back, Nu Metal one-hit-wonders-turned-MAGA-trolls Trapt went moderately viral for their terribly attended Tulsa show at the Shrine. The picture is hilarious, showing only two spectators sitting down and not exactly taking the music on headstrong.
This wasn’t the case for fellow Nu Metal single-hitters Nonpoint at The Vanguard last Tuesday, here on tour with Texas deathcore group Upon A Burning Body. Nonpoint jerseys and shirts littered the smokehole out in front of Vanguard, along with Carnifex, Korn, and Suicide Silence merch. The place was nearly full when UABB took the stage beneath two massive steer skull effigies.
Being mostly allergic to anything “core,” I had speed-briefed myself on UABB's catalogue right before the show, and the opening track caught me off guard. Expecting deathcore’s blast-beats and beatdowns, I was instead greeted with mid tempos and harmonized clean singing over an un-riffed and heavily chorded chorus. Think Nickleback with pig squeals.
The next song had them eschew the post-grunge “Butt-Core” sonics and make good on the breakdown assault their singer promised. I was curious whether modern-day Nu Metal fans would even know how to behave during hardcore breakdowns (the half-time chuggy riffs that turn people stupid and make them punch and kick), and the fans push-moshing around the one guy doing karate in the pit confirmed my suspicions. I know I sound less than enthusiastic, but it’s only because this music simply isn’t for me. The crowd, however, loved it, and the diversity in age and ethnicities in the room felt like a salve in our currently burning zeitgeist.
All manner of pigmentation was present in and around the pit, too. The ages ranged from “old dude who probably runs the Gravitron at the Fair,” all the way down to a girl no older than seven, kicking her Chuck Taylors together on her father’s shoulders.
Though they’re not my style of metal, UABB brought the house down, and got a few more hardcore dancers in their dojo before the set's end.
Nonpoint, on the other hand, I knew.
As noted in my recent piece about ‘90s country, I was basically AJ Soprano in 2000, and my JNCO-wearing ass observed every star in the Nu-niverse. I won Nonpoint’s debut album, Statement, at the Coweta Fall Festival that year, and saw them live at the 2000 Edge Birthday Bash.
So I was ready when they took the Vanguard stage and ripped into “Mindtrip,” a track that serves up the best of what the genre once had to offer: drop-tuned grooves, dissonant leads, and tongue-twisting raps worth a Three Dollar Bill. The crowd went full cro-magnon, with a massive man in a Nonpoint jersey (obviously the most popular item at the evening’s merch table) joyously screaming every lyric behind me. After electrifying the crowd with their hit “What A Day,” the drummer came up front to give the previously mentioned little girl a seat right on the stage by the monitor in a gesture that generated a vibe that’s rare in the genre: it was touching.
The entire evening was touching. I fully expected a plugged ear dude to swing on the wrong push-mosher and get clocked, but everyone was respectful, rowdy, and rapturous. That inclusivity I saw in the evening’s crowd is an often overlooked feature of Nu Metal’s early allure. Before Aaron Lewis* took the genre into white boy butt rock, fulfilling a prophecy inked on his bald head by Fredward Durst, Nu Metal was multicultural. Wu-Tang members rapped on tracks with Limp Bizkit, Sepultura brought traditional Brazilian drumming to the States, Queen of the Damned’s soundtrack and Aaliyah’s starring role unveiled the massive subculture of black-skinned gothic folks.
Much like ‘90s country, Nu Metal nostalgia is in full swing right now, with JNCOs netting thousands of dollars online, bands like Chat Pile racking up critical acclaim from the intelligentsia, and Deftones becoming more popular than they were in the genre’s heyday. Vanguard felt every bit of 1999 last Tuesday, proving that sometimes all you have to do to pack a house is bring good vibes and don’t be the dude from Trapt.
*Also a MAGA troglodyte. Incidentally, his band, Staind, is playing Osage Casino in September and Trapt is returning to the Shrine for more embarrassment the following week.
