GIG REVIEW: Disturbed
- Posted on October 7, 2008 4:16 PM
- 0 comments
Disturbed w/ Shinedown
Brixton Academy, 4th October 2008
Review by Beca Laliberte
So to a cluster of howling, pierced and black-clad Disturbed diehards, Shinedown from Jacksonville, Florida, opened the show on Saturday night at Brixton Academy. Virtually unknown here in Europe, frontman Brent Smith expressed his undying appreciation for the fans who have made their first European tour possible. ‘We have waited seven long years’ he then explained heart-wrenchingly, ‘to play a venue of this caliber’. Hearing this, my friend Fran and I looked at each other teary eyed and quiver lipped and then growled at those who still thought it necessary to scream things like ‘Get off!’ and ‘We want Disturbed!’ like some ugly, irrational creature who is clearly undeserving of a life.
Opening with ‘Devour’ from their third album, ‘Sound of Madness’, the five piece band really gave it their all on stage. Brent’s powerful voice actually sounds even better live than in their studio recordings and soon the hard guitars and forceful drum beats sifted away (or at least muffled) most of the crowd’s original animosity. Heads bopped and bodies swayed as the dedicated Shinedown boys and girls splattered around the audience sang every word with their heads tilted to the sky and their fists up. ‘Save Me’ (minus the impressive high parts from the album version) and ‘Sound of Madness’ in particular, evoked some serious power-chanting-into-the-sky-action.
For the powerhouse ballad ‘Second Chance’, Brent urged us to use anything that would light up the venue and ‘make the stars jealous’ which worked pretty well until we almost burnt our fingers off with our lighters. Faultless performances of ‘Sin With A Grin’ and ‘Fly From the Inside’ ended the opening fivesome’s time to shine (down... haha) and the band left the audience energized, quivering with excitement and ready for Disturbed.
After an anxious half hour wait of getting splattered with beer from across the venue and of false alarms (where a couple dudes start yelling and everyone else copies thinking that its started, only to find a silent and empty stage) - The time had finally come.
In the sudden rush of the audience and the cut of the lights, David Draiman is wheeled on stage in a straight jacket and a Hannibal Lecter mask and people all around are screaming ‘FFF**K YEH!’ and ‘Like Hannibal Lecter!’ With ten thousand fists and devil horns in the air, the rest of the band joined Draiman onstage who stripped to a black jumpsuit with the word ‘Doc’ on the back and they started with ‘Perfect Insanity’ from their brand new album ‘Indestructible’. The pretty weak opening song was recovered by following it with the fierce ‘Liberate’ from their second album ‘Believe’, which tickled the desire of all the old school fans in the audience.
It was Draiman’s legendary ‘OW-AH-AH-AH-AH!’ at the start of the hit single ‘Down With The Sickness’ that launched Disturbed into the scene in 2000. Since then, the singer has invented so many variations of this signature howl that you can almost hear it in every song. Its morphed into ‘OwAH-AH! AH!’ in ‘Just Stop’ and ‘WAh! Wah!’ in ‘The Game’ and then there’s the evil laugh one in ‘Inside The Fire’ which amazingly, Draiman even did between songs. (We counted a whole six times!! Good stuff.)
Howling aside, the most memorable performances came with ‘Remember’, ‘Stupify’ and ‘The Game’. These were insanely welcome tracks too after the few new songs they played which frankly, aren’t that great. For ‘Stupify’ and ‘Diefy’ a sudden surge of energy went through the crowd and a few shirtless guys swooped in out of nowhere and joined the mosh pit in an uprush of adrenaline. A bald guy with a pierced and tattooed, body, face and head came rushing in between us to do the same and almost rammed into this poor little guy on crutches (who appeared to be inconveniently standing on the edge of the mosh pit...) Seeing this, the big tattoed man sincerely apologized and the two men exchanged courteous conversation in the midst of the crowd and heavy metal tunes. Yeh, Disturbed fans are alright.
After ‘Inside The Fire’ the band wished us a meager ‘Goodnight!’ and then walked off stage with their guitars and drum sticks and threatened to leave hundreds and hundreds disappointed. But they were only kidding.... Mike Wengren sat behind his elaborate drum set and played a four minute drum solo that had everyone awe-struck and bopping awkwardly to the changing fast beats that finally morphed into the opening beat of the largely anticipated hit, ‘Down With The Sickness’ and then everyone went crazy.
After the gig, crowds of sweaty and limping concert-goers wandered down Brixton Road and walked back to Stockwell station. In the excited chatter and the high levels of adrenaline on that 4th of October, we all boarded the most ‘metal’ tube in all of London. Regardless of the fact that skeptics will always refuse to put Disturbed into that genre.
Set Lists
Shinedown
Devour
Cry For Help
Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide
Second Chance
Save Me
Sound of Madness
Sin With A Grin
Fly From the Inside
Disturbed
Perfect Insanity
Liberate
Just Stop
Voices
Indestructible
Prayer
Land of Confusion
The Night
Remember
Diefy
Stupify
Haunted
The Game
Inside the Fire
Down With the Sickness
Related Links
Buy Disturbed tickets
Check out Shinedown's pre-tour video message.
Free Shinedown download.
CONFIRMED TO SUPPORT DISTURBED ON UK TOUR IN OCTOBER
www.shinedown.com | www.myspace.com/shinedown
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