The Bad Company cover was interesting, coming from a mainstream modern metal band. Musically, the band seemed to do well for their fans who were equivocal in their support, screaming 'Five Finger.
The house of blues security personnel certainly had a busy time of it tonight. People inside the pit started losing control as well and fights started to break out. At least that's how it was around where I was standing, at the bar near stage left. Most of the 'first 100' women present for the show were drunk and wild during the whole of this show, more so during Five Finger Death Punch. I would say he succeeded to a large extent as almost everyone was jumping up and down whenever he told them to do so. Vocalist Ivan Moody was running all around the stage, throwing out open water bottles into the crowd and trying everything to get them pumped up. The set list had songs perfectly distributed between their first album and the second one, having six songs from each. They opened with 'Burn It Down' from the latest album. It was definitely one of the coolest I have ever seen and it would give Korn's Jonathan Davis's mic stand a run for its money. The microphone stand for the centre vocals was epic in itself. They had machine gun cannons as stage props and the drums were outlined with bullet belts. The headliners Five Finger Death Punch had a pretty awesome stage I have to say. He is a nice guy and a good vocalist, but what's up with that hairstyle? One thing I couldn't help but wonder was about Brian Fair. The band members did well on stage, specially Jason Bittner on drums. So I personally couldn't really appreciate their performance much even though the crowd seemingly enjoyed themselves a lot. In complete contrast to this cover, Brian started shouting the words 'Shadows fuckin god damn fall' and urged the crowd to accompany him in this rap-style chant, which wasn't my thing at all. My only problem with the cover was the vocals. It wasn't the best cover I have ever seen nor was the crowd response justified for a song like 'Bark At The Moon', but at least it was a chance for people like me to get an 80s throwback in an otherwise 'metalcore' laden night. They did have something for the old school fans as well, an Ozzy cover. Vocalist Brian Fair got the crowd to shout 'Fuck It All' before and during 'A Public Execution'. The crowd were starting to really get into this show and there were mosh pits, head bangers and crowd surfers in plenty. They also included a few songs from two of their highest charting albums War Within and Art Of Balance. Three more songs from the same album were played during the course of their show, 'Still I Rise' which was my favorite song of the set, 'King Nothing' and 'A Public Execution'. Shadows Fall started their set at 9.15 with the opening track of their latest album, the song 'My Demise'. They played two new songs, three from the Constitution of Treason album and 'Force-Fed' from Gone Forever. He and his band mates did justice to the short allotted time they had. I was eager to see how he performs as part of an opening band again, specially after the Metallica incident last year, something which I think should not have happened to him at all. It was also nice to see guitarist Doc Coyle lay down some tight riffs. Byron Davis proved to be a very good frontman and brought the best out of the fans. They kept up to my expectations this time round as well. I was impressed with their latest album 'Earthsblood' which released early last year, and liked their effort opening for Lamb Of God back in April at the Palladium. The next band to hit the stage was God Forbid. From what I gathered talking to fellow photographers, I did not miss much. I got there at around 8 and found out that the show started earlier than scheduled and the first band 2 Cents had already finished their set. The main reason I thought was that the first 100 girls were let in for free, in this show that is part of a tour called 'Money For Nothing/Chicks For Free'! Now that's an interesting strategy and I can safely say that it was very successful. The place was packed despite it being a cold and rainy day in Los Angeles. January 21st 2010, House Of Blues, Anaheim CA:
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