Orlando-born rock band Magnolia Park has the road for their summer 2025 tour: The Vamp Tour, named for their most recent studio album. Their stop in Atlanta landed them at Terminal West in the King Plow Arts Center. Voted “Best New Venue” in 2012, Terminal West has copious floor space as well as a second-story balcony.
With four bands playing that night – three openers and Magnolia Park themselves – only half of them are U.S.-based. The openers, South Arcade and Hot Milk, hail from England.
Though many concert-goers grow accustomed to the “doors” time on their tickets being about thirty minutes to an hour before the music starts, Terminal West works a bit differently. Rather than fans having to go from waiting outside to waiting some more inside, South Arcade, the first band of the night, began right at 6:30. In charge of the first round of hyping the crowd up, the four-piece pop-punk band started with immediate energy, which they carried through their seven-song set.
Following South Arcade was post-hardcore band, Savage Hands. The band, originally from Maryland, strikes a balance between an emotionally melodic and aggressively biting sound, through both their instrumentals and lyrics. Their live performance, which included an unreleased song, was just as charged, and they kept the still-growing crowd fired up.
Immediately preceding Magnolia Park was Manchester-based punk rock band Hot Milk. However, before the whole band took to the stage, bassist Tom Paton entered solo to notify the crowd that their lead singer, Han Mee, had come down with laryngitis and was still having trouble speaking even after getting a steroid shot to try to restore her voice. Rather than forgoing the night’s performance, Paton reassured everyone that they were still going to play and Mee would try her hardest, but the crowd would need to help them out by singing along. The statement was met with cheers, and he ran back off to walk on with the other band members.
Despite Mee’s lack of voice, Hot Milk’s performance was still a huge hit. Between songs, she bantered back and forth with co-singer and guitarist Jim Shaw, who was helping her sing her parts of the songs in addition to his own. At certain points during the show, he griped about her parts being higher than his normal range, much to the amusement of the crowd.
Partway through one of their songs, the band paused to surprise Paton with a cake and party hats, interrupting their own song to sing “Happy Birthday.” Even though her voice was practically gone, Mee still did her best to interact with the crowd, even jumping off the stage and into the mosh pit for one of the songs.
Magnolia Park’s stage setup included several vertical LED tube lights, synced to match the music, two empty coffins flanking each side of the stage, each one guarded by an angel statue similar to what someone might see in a cemetery and their backdrop, which read “Join the Vampires,” a reference to the fictional story the band created to accompany their newest album, “Vamp.”
Before the band’s appearance onstage, a grainy audio clip talking about the actions of the vampires played to the darkened room, adding a feeling of immersion from the show’s start.
Magnolia Park’s setlist featured songs mostly from “Vamp,” though there were a few from previous works. The newer songs have a noticeably heavier sound to them, leaning more toward a hard rock or even metalcore feel rather than the pop-punk style they started with. The shift is not for the worse, though, as lead singer Joshua Roberts has proven his ability to execute vocals with more texture than just clean singing, including full screaming parts.
It appears that the shift is favored by a significant number of their fans, considering that four out of their top five songs on Spotify are either from their most recent album or singles with similar styles.
Their two most popular songs on Spotify right now, “SHALLOW” and “WORSHIP,” were blended together as part of their set at the Atlanta show. Following one of their songs, “OMEN,” every member left the stage, except for Roberts, who launched into a solo, voice-only version of “WORSHIP.” Rather than singing the song the whole way through, Roberts held the note at the end of the song’s chorus, and the rest of the band members walked back on as the audio transitioned into the intro of “SHALLOW,” which they then played in full.
Regardless of what song was playing, Magnolia Park knows how to captivate a crowd; each member’s musical talents are only further bolstered by their presence onstage.
With all the excitement of the night, it seemed unlikely that the crowd could get any more energetic. However, that assertion was proved wrong when the band came out for an encore. Of the two songs they played during their encore, their first one managed to evoke even more spirit from the crowd.
Magnolia Park re-recorded “I2I,” originally written for the 1995 film “A Goofy Movie,” as a part of “A Whole New Sound,” a 2024 compilation album consisting of covers of Disney songs by alternative bands. The band’s skill, plus a healthy dose of nostalgia, made Magnolia Park’s performance of “I2I” one of the most energetic of the entire night.
Magnolia Park’s “Vamp” tour will continue its run until mid-May.