Disturbed Brings Their Music As A Weapon To Izod Arena

 

“My brothers, my sisters… my blood!!” Disturbed frontman David Draiman was his usual overly dramatic, yet entertaining self at New Jersey’s Izod Arena on last night, as he and his band headlined the eight hour Music As A Weapon heavy metal festival. Despite foreboding weather and poor ticket sales, the metal masses packed the lower sections of the arena to capacity, and made up in enthusiasm for what may have lacked in numbers.

Wednesday’s event was the fourth incarnation of the Music As A Weapon tour, and featured 10 bands spread across two stages, as well as plenty of merchandise and sponsor booths, tattoo artists, and even a two-man motocross team. With the outdoors, second stage area opening at 2pm, six bands played short sets for the crowd in between band signing events and motocross jumps. As the worsening economy has made expensive concert tickets an expendable luxury, events such as Music As A Weapon and the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour have jumped on the added value bandwagon, using such extra attractions and all-day events to help justify the ticket price, and while it is hard to tell if it is actually boosting sales, the fans have certainly been appreciating the extra entertainment. 

 

At 6pm the doors to the arena opened, and the hundreds of black t-shirt clad metal fans slowly began filling the arena. Due to extremely poor ticket sales, the entire upper section of the area was covered with a gigantic black curtain, in an attempt to minimize the appearance of a half-sold show. 

 

Nu-metal band Chimaira was the opening act for the main stage, and despite the not-very-metal inclusion of a keyboard player, failed to play any songs that demonstrated any real musical innovation or melody. In contrast, Chimaira was followed by Italian group Lacuna Coil, whose use of both male and female vocalists make their sound one virtually defined by heavy, yet melodic passages. Both bands played fairly short sets, but by the time Lacuna Coil announced their final song, the floor and seats were noticeably filling up with more and more metalheads.

 

Killswitch Engage was the next band up, and the metal veterans delivered a heavy and satisfying setlist. Mosh pits swirled and frothed as the ultra-heavy songs blasted across the floor, and singer Howard Jones ordered everyone on the floor to split apart, and then rush together for an infamous Wall of Death. Killswitch ended with their fantastic cover of Dio’s Holy Diver, turning the heavy metal classic into a brutal thrashcore song complete with double bass drums and “cookie monster” vocals. 

 

Finally, at 9:30 pm to the second, the lights dimmed for the final time and Disturbed took to the stage to thunderous applause. Guitarist Dan Donegan, bassist John Moyer, and drummer Mike Wengren all jammed to a slow but foreboding tune, as a giant 10 foot prop of Disturbed’s logo swung out and lower over the stage, finally rotating to reveal frontman David Draiman strapped to the other side of it.

 

Once Draiman hit the floor, he wasted no time in ripping into Voices, the first single off of Disturbed’s first, and arguably best album, The Sickness. By now the entire floor of the arena was packed, and all but a handful of sections f the lower level were filled to capacity. The band quickly started a rotation of hit songs taken from all four of their studio albums, with brutal and catchy tracks such as Liberate, Don’t Stop, The Night, and their fantastic cover of Genesis’s Land of Confusion. Another favorite cover showed up in a 4 song medley, as they played a portion of Shout by Tears for Fears, mashed together along with Hell, Criminal, and Deify. 

 

Draiman has always been a very theatrical frontman, gesturing and orating to the crowd in an overly grandiose fashion. This show was no exception, as he welcomed the screaming crowd in between songs, and declared that fans of all colors, races, and creeds were there to be united together under the power of heavy metal. In an aside that was no doubt unique to the New York metropolitan area, he then referenced his own Jewish and Israeli heritage before calling out the group of Hasidic Jews packed into the very first row. “I’m not sure how I feel about this,” he said, to much laughter and applause. “If there is a hell, I’m sure I’m going to it now. But you know what? I bet that’s where all the cool motherf*ckers go anyway!”

 

As the night went on, the band played their most popular tracks, such as the viciously violent The Game, and Stupify, a song whose call and response lyrics make it a natural fit for crowd participation. In a clear attempt to escape the nu-metal label that has been the death of many of the group’s contemporaries, long and extravagant guitar solos made occasional appearances as well, demonstrating Donegan’s excellent musicianship that so often gets overlooked in the simple, riff-based songs that make up most of Disturbed’s catalog. They ended with 10,000 Fists, an anthemic classic which saw 20 or so fans pulled from the audience to stand atop a wall of amps, cheering and yelling for the duration of the song.

 

After a brief wait, the group encored with the title track of their newest album, 2008's Indestructible, before drummer Wengren laid down an impressive drum solo. With the crowd fully charged and raring for more, Wengren continued playing right into the menacing, drum-based opening of Down With The Sickness, Disturbed’s most popular song. The rest of the band came crashing in, and Draiman rose on a platform in the middle of the floor to howl the final song whose lyrics, especially a minute long scarily abusive rant about his mother, might make one wonder if Tipper Gore may have been right after all. Nonetheless, the crowd screamed along in delight, and the mosh pits surged to a blur of bodies and fists as fans went wild for a song that is a definitive classic of nu-metal. 

 

Despite the lower-than-expected attendance, the entire day was a well-produced, extremely entertaining event. Between a few big name acts, several lessen known groups, and other random entertainers, every concert-goer got their money’s worth, and fans of Disturbed got a dream setlist. Disturbed is one of the few remaining bands from the heyday of late 90’s nu-metal that can still attract significant crowds, and judging by last night’s performance, that trend will continue for a long time to come.