Five Finger..............Death Punch!

It's been a little while since I've been to a concert, but last night was a show that I had been anxiously awaiting for a few months now - Five Finger Death Punch. When I purchased tickets months ago, the lineup was supposed to be FFDP, All That Remains, Hatebreed, and Rev Theory. Of the four bands, I was most excited about FFDP and Rev Theory, but Rev Theory pulled out after one of the band members had some kind of an accident. They were replaced by a band called Rains. Having never heard of them, I listened to their music and I liked them. I liked them so much I bought the album. Though I was curious as to how they fit in with the other three bands on this tour. Rains is a bit softer, more like Evans Blue. Good rock tunes, but certainly not tear-it-up, speedy metal.

Arrived at The Rave about 6pm and was herded into one of the smaller bars downstairs to wait before they allowed us to go upstairs to the ballroom. I hate it when they do this. At least they had bands there playing while we waited. The band playing when I got in there was on their last song. No idea who they were, but I didn't think they were that good anyways. Then I recognized the next band as they were setting up. Hard to forget the big black guitar player and the smoking hot lead singer from Losing Scarlet. Saw them back on April 8 when I went to see Egypt Central. After their first song, the gates opened and upstairs I went. The stage setup was interesting and because it was already after 6:30 I was wondering if all four bands would play. The stage was setup with Hatebreed's banner separating the stage leaving about 10-12 feet of stage in the front for the bands to play. Right around 7pm, Rains took the stage. They only played five songs. The crowd did warm up to them a bit, but seemed happier when they finished.  I enjoyed them and would definitely see them again.

Up next was Hatebreed. I'm not a huge fan of this band, but they did put on a really good stage show. They had a lot of energy and got the crowd involved a lot. I know I've mentioned in the past that working the crowd and stage presence is something that separates the good bands from the bad ones. Don't get me wrong though, good music is important too. After Hatebreed got the crowd whipped up into a frenzy, All That Remains was next. Whereas Hatebreed is more of a guttural growler band, All That Remains is more of the screamo type. They ripped through a good set mixing in old songs and some off their new album. I did notice a couple of interesting things about this band. First, the bass player is a woman...and she's a growler. When they got to the parts of their songs where there was growling, she did it. The other thing I noticed was the drummer. Again, I've mentioned in the past that I do pay attention to drummers as they can make or break a band. All the drummers were good on this night, but the drummer for All That Remains held his drum sticks in the old school traditional way (see picture below), which I don't remember ever seeing from a hard rock or metal band.

Not even sure what time it was, but some time after All That Remains, Five Finger Death Punch took the stage. I thought they kicked ass too! Stage was set up with a lot of towered lights and several large video screens up high. The drum set was on like an elevator structure, which raised the drumkit up high in the middle of their set. FFDP opened with Under and Over It, then right into Salvation. American Capitalist was the only other song they played from their new album of the same name. The rest of the setlist included: Hard to See, The Way of the Fist, No One Gets Left Behind, Bad Company (Bad Company cover), White Knuckles, Far From Home, Bulletproof, Never Enough, The Bleeding, and the encore Burn It Down. A great setlist!! Great performance!!  I did manage to take a few decent pictures. Check them out if you'd like.

As of right now, my next show is An Evening With Corey Taylor on November 23.   Rock On Everybody!!