Hawthorne Heights w/ Blackbox, Project Hero and The Break

Hawthorne Heights has far more reason to feel angst about their relationships than any of their emo brethren. The Dayton, Ohio-based quintet is at the center of a nasty, litigious split from the notorious label Victory Records that is still festering years later. In a story that brought the band considerable bad publicity, the label told street-team volunteers to sabotage a Ne-Yo album released the same day as Hawthorne Heights’ sophomore effort, allegedly authorizing the mayhem without the band’s consent. If 2006’s If Only You Were Lonely was marred by over-aggressive business tactics, its 2008 follow-up, Fragile Future, was more tragically cursed by the death of backup screamer Casey Calvert after he accidentally overdosed on prescription medications. Though they’re still obligated to give Victory two more albums, this summer Hawthorne Heights released their first album for Wind-Up Records, Skeletons, which returns the band to the harder sound of their early releases.