Live-Metal.Net - Concert Reports - Five Finger Death Punch/Shadows Fall - Bourbon Street Ballroom

Friday Night Smackdown! with Five Finger Death Punch

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH (live pix)
SHADOWS FALL
OTEP
2CENTS

October 9, 2009
Bourbon Street Ballroom
Baltimore, Maryland

By JEFF MAKI

With album No. 2, War Is the Answer, Five Finger Death Punch is bigger than ever, landing on the Billboard Top 200 at No. 7 and receiving support on their headlining tour from Shadows Fall, a band that itself was headlining not long ago. Despite Live-Metal.net's virtually nonstop Death Punch coverage, this was my first time seeing them live; until this point my brother Greg has handled all 5FDP coverage.

This was also my first trip to the Bourbon Street Ballroom, a narrow brick building in the heart of downtown Baltimore that slightly resembles the Boiler Room club from Hellraiser III (that club where Pinhead massacres everyone using CDs and other unique items as murder weapons).

In many ways Five Finger Death Punch belongs in the WWE. Vocalist Ivan Moody bears a strong resemblance to WWE superstar John Cena, and the rowdy crowd easily could have been one attending a Friday Night Smackdown! event—muscle-bound brutes with sleeveless shirts, mohawks and tattoo sleeves to go with a mix of older fans resembling bikers and young kids that looked like they were at one of their first rock shows. All that was missing were the homemade signs displayed throughout the crowd. Even the tour's name—"Shock and Raw"—is appropriate.

Many of Five Finger Death Punch's lyrics play out like a WWE superstar promo, such as “Smash it, burn it, break it, kill it/Fuck 'em all!” from “White Knuckles” or “You won't break me/No matter how hard you try/You can't shake me down/I'm fucking bulletproof” from “Bulletproof.” There's nothing complicated here. One might even say that it's pompous,and childish , but music doesn't always have to be complicated—sometimes it's for the better if it's not. That's mostly the case here—songs you can pump your fist to, shout out with and break bodies in the mosh pit.

The band opened with “Burn It Down,” one of the more focused and angrier tracks from War Is the Answer, immediately sending the crowd into chaos. I haven't been to a show in a long while with a crowd this insane. Crowd participation reached its highest point on “The Way of the Fist.” When the “Step to me/step to me motherfucker” part made its rounds, I almost feared for the lives of the people in the heart of the pit—especially the females. And that's another thing—you know you're getting to be a popular metal band when you're drawing a large amount of young, mostly attractive females to your shows, which was the case here. Earlier in the evening, Shadows Fall frontman Brian Fair said this was the most ladies he had seen on the tour.

Moody was decked out in a bulletproof vest, while machine gun turrets, AK-47s and camo decorated the stage. Moody all but gave us his best Phil Anselmo impression with his onstage banter (back in the day, Phil had some of the most badass speeches on self-pride, being yourself, the state of music, etc.) and said he'd been receiving death threats over the Internet as a result of the new album title. He also told the story of the band's rise to fame, even comparing it to Pantera. You guys are pretty good, but let's not get carried away, Ivan.

Other new songs played were “Dying Breed,” “Bulletproof,” the first single “Hard to See” and their cover of Bad Company's “Bad Company,” a song they played live prior to War Is the Answer. It was the material from The Way of the Fist that caused the most damage and bodily harm—the title track, “Salvation,” “White Knuckles” and the encore of “The Bleeding,” among others. Chants of "Five Finger! Death Punch!" went on throughout the set.

Five Finger Death Punch set list: Burn It Down, Salvation, The Way of the Fist, Hard to See, The Devil’s Own, Bulletproof, Bad Company, White Knuckles, Dying Breed, Never Enough, Meet the Monster, (encore) The Bleeding

Prior to Five Finger Death Punch, Shadows Fall played to a crowd that might as well have been its own. Although the response for 5FDP was noticeably greater, Shadows Fall easily could have been the headliner. Supporting their new album, Retribution, vocalist Brian Fair (and his six-foot-long dreads) led the band in what could only be described as an onslaught of Shadows Falls' heaviest, most aggressive material. It was song after song of people getting pummeled and crushed in the mosh pit as the crowd pushed forward and backward through the whole set. I could see the band feeding off the crowd's massive energy, as Fair was fired up and in rare form.

Highlights were “My Demise” and the middle-finger-raising, crowd sing-along, “Fuck It All” from Retribution, “Thoughts Without Words” and “Destroyer of Senses” from The Art of Balance and “What Drives the Weak” from The War Within. Forty-five minutes didn't seem like enough time—probably explaining the lack of material from The War Within—but I'm not sure the exhausted crowd had much left in them by the end of the set. Standing up toward the front of the stage (basically in the pit), this was like an old hardcore show with people slam-dancing, crowd-surfing and just going ape. I've seen the band a few times before, and this show reminded me of just how great Shadows Fall is.

Shadows Fall set list: My Demise, Thoughts Without Words, Still I Rise, What Drives the Weak, King of Nothing,
Destroyer of Senses, Fuck It All, Eternity Is Within, The Light That Blinds

The opening bands, Otep and 2Cents, were admirable at best. Otep seems to talk a lot of shit and whether it's through label promotion or through the media, she and her band get a lot of unexplained hype. They were decent though a little odd, opening their set wearing V for Vendetta masks. The theme continued as frontwoman Otep Shamaya had some sort of mask or prop on her head for nearly every song. They were a lot better than when I saw them at Ozzfest way back in 2004, and their music is far more diverse than it was back then. Highlights were “Confrontation,” “Smash the Control Machine” and “Tortured/Blood Pigs.”

Otep set list: Confrontation, Crooked Spoons, Smash the Control Machine, Tortured/Blood Pigs, My Confession,
Breed (Nirvana cover)

2Cents was like a really good bar band—something you probably wouldn't pay to see on its own, but a respectable opening act. Frontman vocalist Adam O'Rourke is also the drummer, his kit stationed perpendicular to the front of the stage and his head turned to the left to face the crowd while singing—that looked hard. 2Cents did its job, successfully revving up an enthusiastic crowd for the big boys with a blend of hard rock and metal, highlighted by their closing cover of Pantera's “Strength Beyond Strength.”

This was a good show and not what I expected from any of the bands. Five Finger Death Punch is going to be around for a while if they keep releasing pissed off albums and attracting this type of crowd. I felt as if I was soaking up all the anger, hostility and testosterone just being around these people. "Live fast, fight hard, no regrets!" That's what John Cena says. Five Finger Death Punch—and their growing legion of fans—seem to have made that motto their own.