Photo of Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills by Jen Ruff
As I alluded to in my preview of this show, I was very interested in the one act on this bill I hadn’t seen. TX2 has had a lot of hate generated their way since the announcement of their joining this tour. I tend to love what people “hate” because it means their art is doing something that makes people feel enough to react and, unless it’s legally criminal, I want in. I sat wanting to see shock and/or anger or just something to justify the abhorrence but I didn’t. I was as entertained as I am at a Yungblud show. The energy was high and super positive. They were unapologetically against mistreatment of any kind of box you could toss people in. Pro-queer, pro-religious freedoms, pro-just being, and I enjoyed their set greatly. They started with “Vampire by Rumor” and the show progressively picked up the vibes fit to really start this night. With songs like “Vendetta,” “TRUST NO ONE,” “Swing at Me,” and the closer “Mad,” it is fairly obvious that this artist uses music as the outlet for healing themselves and it appeared more than a few were as on board as I was. I’m glad to have witnessed their set and would see them again, but this night was about to go WAY up.
Avatar is a metal five-piece from various cities in Sweden and for a few years now they’ve grown very fond of performing here in our city, and the love is always reciprocated. Prior to the evening’s start, they attended their VIP session in nothing but bathrobes, slides, and makeup, but stepping onstage they ended the funny and brought the metal. Starting with “Dance Devil Dance,” there wasn’t a still body in the place. Polled later, about half of the crowd were first timers to the family but you’d never guess that – at all. “The Eagle Has Landed” kept the pace as did “Valley of Disease.” “Bloody Angel” begins with a beautiful and soft duo guitar solo into absolute chaos. Very Avatar, VERY metal. “For the Swarm” and “The Dirt I’m Buried In” added in both heavy headbanging and crowd roughness but the night’s dual closers brought the house down. Vocalist Johannes Eckerstrom always starts “Smells Like a Freakshow” with a tongue in cheek play on words to get the crowd both laughing and allowing space before what he knows will be a riotous ending to a set. But the insanity of the power of that song will reel in anyone just casually attending and the majority are absolutely hooked if they weren’t already. Drummer John Alfredsson, bassist Henrik Sandelin, and dual guitar gods Tim Ohrstrom and Jonas “The King” Jarlsby haven’t been lowly backing musicians. Seeing them in true pagan metal fashion with their long hair almost in a constant circling of headbanging, they really carry the spirit of the show. “Hail the Apocalypse” is always the closer—likely because it’s been the most commercially successful—but there isn’t a song that embodies the essence of this band more in their catalog. Every single time I see them, I swear I can’t love them more, but they faithfully grow to be a band that is so incredibly dear to my heart. A go to for me in any mood to catapult me into a better one. The most metal breath of fresh air I believe I’ve ever felt.
As the curtain went up so you couldn’t see the stage set up, I sat in complete pride of the energy buzzing through the building. The banner said “IX Psychos Only,” the IX for Ice Nine and psychos is what they’ve lovingly dubbed their fans and the energy matched. To anyone not in the know: Ice Nine Kills first wrote songs retelling novels like Animal Farm (“The Nature of the Beast”) and the live performance of those songs would include visuals, props, and stage actors to give a short synopsis of the book in a very theatrical way. But they changed along the way to start to do this within the horror film genre and that is where their popularity found its Psychos (pun for sure intended). Weaving in and out across the world with Metallica of late has been a much-deserved reward of new fans to the family. This evening’s show began with “Rainy Day,” which is the visual representation of Resident Evil and the theatrics as the lyrics are sang feel like you’re watching the film or playing the games with a menace attacking stage actors and band members alike. “Meat & Greet” is a yet unreleased track that does Silence of the Lambs well, including a human strapped to a dolly that by the end of the song wriggles lose and goes full Hannibal Lecter on everyone despite a mask and a straitjacket. Similar theatrics carried on to marry this metal/horror combo including: “Ex-Mortis” for Evil Dead, “Thank God It’s Friday” (duh – Friday the 13th), “Walking on Sunshine”… okay wait. This doesn’t fit at all, but the cover of Katrina and the Waves worked because vocalist Spencer Charnas works a lot with Reel Big Fish on several released tracks and with two members there (Matt Appelton and John Christanson) – why not mix in some fun and a big giant human sunshine?! Only psychos would love a break like that.
“Wurst Vacation” is one of my personal favorites as it visual recreates one of my favorite horror movies – Hostel. We then journeyed through “Funeral Derangements” – Pet Sematary; “IT is the End” – IT; “Hip to be Scared” – American Psycho; “The American Nightmare” – Nightmare on Elm Street; and “The Shower Scene” – Psycho. They ended their night with a song that speaks as a sort of Easter egg to psychos. “Welcome to Horrorwood” is kind of their bio to fans. As their popularity increased, Ice Nine Kills’ videos took us on a journey of its own script, a fictional story where real life frontman Spencer Charnas kills his girlfriend in every video. The story is egged on by a detective played by Bill “Choptop” Mosley from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series and of several Rob Zombie slashers like his trilogy House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, and 3 From Hell, and also Scout Taylor-Compton, who was Laurie Strode from Zombie’s Halloween recreations among a handful of other horror actors. So what you get from Ice Nine is always a KILLER set.
The night could have ended there, but thankfully it didn’t and a white widow spider backdrop fell to the floor as the stage was set for co-headliners In This Moment. The band doesn’t get much mention ever, but this assembly of monsters is essential to their continued success. I feel the band’s strongest artist is Travis Johnson, who plays bass and is so animated in his movements, always with an incredible mask shielding the bulk of his face. Supporting on guitars is Chris Howorth and Randy Weitzel, who are as amazing a guitarist duo as they come, and rounding out on drums is Kent Dimmel. They go hard in the recordings and live, but it’s impossible to overshadow her: Maria Brink, the elite lead vocalist of this heavy metal band. I first saw them as a depressed and weary adult just existing in life, but this is one of those artists that lifted me up to something more where I demand to live life to the very fullest. I met her on this night as a 50th birthday present to myself. She was warm and kind and the experience will replay in my mind forever. She’s an inspiration for storytelling about not feeling quite good enough to be worthy and then flipping that forever on its head.
The set is short. Only nine songs were played, but a lot of theater and storytelling woven in to feel very full. “The Purge” is the strongest release from the recent GODMODE and as such it gets to open the night’s show. Then onward with “The In-Between,” “Blood,” “Sacrifice,” GODMODE’s “SANCTIFY ME,” a solo cover of Nine Inch Nails’ classic ballad “Something I Can Never Have,” then bringing it home with “Big Bad Wolf,” “Adrenalize.” And then, that ending song, the empowerment going as hard as it ever will, the ode to those of us who feel not enough, useless, disposable – the incomparable “Wh0re”. Maria recalls the story nightly of being told she’d amount to nothing more than that title. But every show, in every city, across this country and the world, she brings the houses to the floor. She honors our service men and women, she thanks her band, the other touring bands, all of the crew, the venue, and, most importantly, the fans who continue to grow in numbers. So much for a useless wh0re. | Diane Ruff
