Shadows Fall & Five Finger Death Punch Live at The Electric Ballroom

Last Friday I had the very large pleasure of attending the Five Finger Death Punch/Shadows Fall co-headlining tour at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town (London for any non UK readers), along with Steve, Rob and Matt. I'd had 2 interviews earlier in the day, so was looking forward to unwinding with some quality metal.

I'm afraid we didn't see or hear much of Magnacult, with their 15 minute short set being taken up by the time it took to stash my bag in the cloak room and getting a round of drinks in. We hit the main floor in time for Rise to Remain (who if anyone doesn't know are fronted by Bruce Dickinson's son Austin). I had previously seen them with Five Finger Death Punch back at the Bar Academy Islington in February and they seemed a different band to that show 10 months ago. All the songs seemed to have more bite, Austin's stage presence has greatly increased and they seemed like a band who had really tightened up through touring like madmen throughout 2009. Their (supposedly) 15 minute set (I'm sure it ran around 25) was very well received by the now nearly full Electric Ballroom and if they keep improving as they have during 2009 big things are probably in store for them.

Rise To Remain: Big Future Ahead?

After a short changover, was what I had waited more than five years for. Shadows Fall playing a proper slot on a (co)headlining tour. I had seen them do short sets at Download (2005 and 07) as well as a short set on the Black Crusade (which we missed half of due to them going on stage the second the doors opened at Brixton Academy) so this was something I had waited for a VERY long time. As the instrumental opener The Path To Imminent Ruin from new album Retribution kicked in a huge roar went up, quickly followed by a massive circle pit forming as the opening riff to the epic My Demise blasted out of the speakers. Matt had an enormous grin on his face as the brilliant solo halfway through My Demise was shredded by the awesome Jonathan Donais. Matt then disappeared into the large pit as they launched into Thoughts Without Words from The Art of Balance insighting an even crazier reaction from the masses. Singer Brian Fair was suitably impressed as he had a massive grin on his face, and then took a two-step run up and launched himself onto the crowd singing all the while (I'm sure some people must have gotten whiplash injuries from his enormous dreads).

Jonathan Donais: Solo machine

Returning to new album Retribution, they brought out the fantastic Still I Rise, before Brian announced to the crowd "This is an old one, this is The Power of I and I", and suddenly I was standing by myself, holding 2 pairs of glasses, all 3 of my friends having gone pitting. Didn't stop me from going crazy regardless though I managed to keep the glasses intact. The mix of the old and new was going down a storm as they launched into another new great song (which I think was War but I'm not 100% sure, anyone who was there feel free to correct me!!).

Still there was better to come as they launched into a one-two punch of What Drives The Weak (one of the best songs off 2004's The War Within) and Destroyer of Senses from The Art of Balance (and one of my favourite tracks of theirs) with Jason Bittner pedalling furiously on all songs, even throwing in extra kick drum fills from time to time. There was no let up in the moshpit action, Matt hadn't returned since the second song and the other 2 kept ducking in and out. The band seemed to be having a fantastic time up on stage as they seemed to appreciate there was a lot of us who had been looking forward to this for a very long time.

Shadows Fall: Destroyers of Senses

They then played A Public Execution, one of the standout tracks from Retribution (although its hard to choose from that album). By now even the most hardcore of 5FDP fans have long been won over and are thoroughly enjoying themselves as Shadows Fall tore through the 6 minute epic. Steve and Rob returned from the pits at some point during this song, so glasses holding duty was over. Brian Fair announced to the crowd that unfortunately the last song was coming up as the intro to The Light That Blinds kicked in I went flying into the pit, found Matt and preceeded to go nuts for the next 5 minutes (even catching Matt round the face with a stray watch arm - apologies mate if you are reading). It was a fantastic end to a thoroughly awesome set, and well worth 5 years wait to see. It just better not be another 5 years before it happens again.

Shadows Fall's Setlist was:

• The Path to Imminent Ruin
• My Demise
• Thoughts Without Words
• Still I Rise
• The Power of I and I
• War (may have been another new 1 but I think it was this 1)
• What Drives The Weak
• Destroyer of Senses
• The Public Execution
• The Light That Blinds

After all that, as much as I like Five Finger Death Punch, there was no way in hell they were going to be able to top Shadows Fall. However they seemed determined to give it a pretty good go. There was a lot of hardcore Death Punch fans in as they had been chanting for the band all night, even before Rise To Remain's set, so when Ivan, Zoltan and co appeared on stage the place went pretty damn crazy. As the opening strains of Burn It Down from new album War Is The Answer kicked in, there wasn't anywhere on the entire floor that was safe. The entire thing turned into 1 huge pit. And it pretty much stayed that way for the next hour. They then followed up immediately with Salvation from debut album The Way of The Fist (seeing Ivan Moody make monkey motions during this song always makes me laugh) before sending the entire electric ballroom bouncing with The Way of The Fist's title track. A particularly sweaty person kept passing back and forth in and out of the pit (literally 4 times during 1 song) which was slightly off-putting but apart from that we were all having an awesome time.

5FDP then returned to their new album and cranked out the upcoming single Hard To See, before breaking out their cover of Bad Company which went down an absolute storm. Full crowd participation was exacted on White Knuckles as Ivan and co wouldn't continue the song until the ceiling was literally shaking with cries of "I'm taking back control (with my knuckles!)" before another big sing along through Never Enough (I hope none of you were dumb enough like me to get the original version of The Way of The Fist which didn't have this track on, along with a number of others!).

5FDP: Seemingly Not Bad Company

At this point, we are informed by Ivan he has just been told that since there is a club night in the venue after the gig (The ever popular weekly rock night Sin City), they only have time for 1 more song. "Fuck em, we're gonna play 2, everyone try and get up here and shake my head" he says with a big smile on his face, and then they launch into Dying Breed (cue Steve flying into the pit). Down front there were numerous crowd surfers as as many people as possible attempted to get a high five or shake hands with Ivan as he was in full flow belting the lyrics out. They finished off the evening with The Bleeding, which prompted one final mass singalong. We were informed 2 things at the end: One, they'd be waiting to drink with everyone at the club night, and Two, they'd be seeing us all at Download next year!

Five Finger Death Punches' Setlist was:

• Burn It Down
• Salvation
• The Way of The Fist
• Hard to See
• Bad Company
• White Knuckles
• Never Enough
• Dying Breed
• The Bleeding

A fantastic evening, with Shadows Fall just shading it for me, although not by much. I cannot wait to see either band again.

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