Pop
Evil shocked me; genuinely. I wasn’t expecting
such a wonderful thing to come out of a band with
such a name. They oozed confidence, their bouncy
mixture of heavy and softer material to keep up
some variation throughout. It only being their
first ever UK tour you’d expect to see –
even if ever so slight – a nervous disposition
to be a part of the atmosphere but instead what
was up on that stage was a group of headstrong
confident guys taking charge of a room and absolutely
killing it. I mean sure they weren’t as
heavy as the other 2 billed acts but they slid
onto the bottom of this show pretty
well in my opinion, quality is quality regardless
of the following acts. Kudos lads, come back soon,
please.
Upon a Burning Body hit the stage like a freight
train, with an explosive crowd reaction to match
it. They just got up there, got the formalities
quickly out of the way before shifting the dynamic
into a more aggressive nature. These guys knew
what they wanted, when they wanted it and exactly
just how to get it. There was copious amounts
of singing, moshing (with a tremendous degree
of force involved), bouncing, clapping, the full
works. The song that really polished the set off
was “Texas Blood Money” as the sheer
volume people were screaming those lyrics
far surpassed the volume even the band could get
out of their equipment. First time I’ve
seen these guys, the suits they wore for me just
showed a real class, born showmen these guys.
Five Finger Death Punch absolutely blew the fucking
lid off the place, honestly it was a surreal atmosphere
as bodies, limbs and clothing items fly around
the room. These guys are definitely ones for theatrics,
especially vocalist Ivan Moody with his speech
before he went off “They have a strict curfew
here, they charge like a thousand dollars for
every minute over we are, so I’ve told our
manager to get the cheque book
out because I’m not getting off this fucking
stage yet” and now a) we don’t use
dollars in this country and b) it’s still
5 minutes to curfew at this point, but I absolutely
loved the passion in it and it shows how much
effort goes into giving people an experience worthy
of the ticket price. The setlist was varied considering
they now have 5 albums worth of material to select
from, must say was a little disappointed when
Rob Halford didn’t join them for “Lift
Me Up” this time but I suppose the guy does
have a life. Chucking in “Bad Company”,
“Mama Said Knock You Out” and a short
sing a long of “Champagne Supernova”
by Oasis was a very nice touch; “Battle
Born”, acoustic version of “Remember
Everything”, “Under and Over it”,
First verse of “Far From Home” finishing
off the night with “The Bleeding”
were also fantastic choices, a few songs missing
I would love to have seen but you can’t
have it all can you? On the whole a fantastic
show demonstrating why my love for this band will
never die.
Pop Evil 4/5
Upon a Burning Body 4.5/5
Five Finger Death Punch 4.5/5
Review By James Webb
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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