In This Case, Say Yes to A Weapon

In all of my mosh pits and all of my days, never have I been so abused, and never has it been so worth it. Beyond a concert, the Music as a Weapon 2 Tour was the experience of a lifetime. The dream-team lineup of Blind Hate Experiment, Unloco, TapRoot, Chevelle, and Disturbed ensured that the intensity of this show would be unparalleled; these are the bands that keep the heavy metal genre alive and strong.

Blind Hate Experiment, who won the opening slot through a competition run by Disturbed, came on at 7:00 playing to an already overflowing venue. While their set was limited to twenty minutes, the band definitely maximized their time in a flawless, energized, powerful performance. The band was very well received by the crowd and started the night off with a bang.

Unloco took the stage with an overwhelming amount of energy. Singer Joey Duenas sent techies scurrying about as he threw microphone stands across the stage and gave security a scare when he leaped the eight-foot gap from the stage to the crowd barrier. Balancing on the barrier while groped by surrounding fans, Duenas still managed to passionately deliver a rendition of the single "Bruises" before safely returning to the stage. While much of the set followed this pattern of craziness, before saying goodnight, the band had the room filled with swaying lighters during their melodic release "Failure."

A spotlight shaped like a fly in a circle was cast on a simple black and white backdrop with reggae playing in the background as TapRoot made their entrance. The reggae cut out as the band began their traditional opening song from the album Gift, "Mirror's Reflection." The room exploded as the band played one amazing, emotional, roaring song after another. People and articles of clothing were flying everywhere, and those of us in the front were under attack when everyone crash-landed at the barrier. While Stephen Richards did not follow his usual tradition of stage-diving and running around the venue, he did maintain his reputation for antagonizing the crowd. Making derogatory comments about the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils, he added, "That's what's nice about living here: you have three bad teams to pick from." The crowd booed as the band smiled with delight and resumed their seamless set. After performing the two singles off Gift, "I" and "Again and Again," Taproot played their new single "Mine" off their latest album Welcome and finished off with madness in the pit as they played their hit song "Poem."

After an in-between set break filled with women flashing the crowds from the balcony, the entire venue went black as the haunting intro to "Family System" played and Chevelle made their way to the stage. About twenty seconds into the song, the heavy chords began, the crowd rushed the stage, and there were no feet on the floor. Throughout the set the Loeffler brothers traveled the stage, interacting with the crowd. Even Sam stepped out from behind his drums during guitar solos in order to stir up the audience. Their melodic hard rock sound seemed to flow like pure ethanol as Chevelle went on to play immaculate renditions of fan favorite "Don't Fake This" and their two most recent singles "Comfortable Liar" and "Send the Pain Below." They closed the set with their extraordinarily successful single "The Red" as everyone sang along.

A new, far more elaborate set was then built on the stage with staircases on either side and two elevated platforms, with a massive version of the logo from the album Believe suspended above the highest platform. Disturbed opened with "Awaken" off Believe, and it was the beginning of a seventy-five minute, earth-moving, heart-stopping, mind-boggling, back-breaking event. "My brothers, my sisters, my blood," singer David Draiman repeated several times throughout the show in reference to the audience. While during songs the room erupted into unimaginable chaos, when Draiman spoke his words of wisdom between songs everyone stopped to listen. Making enlightening statements regarding the world, the war, and faith, Draiman blew the crowd away with his intelligence, articulation, and depth. He described the Believe symbol and how it represents all faiths and religions and unites them under one church; he knelt before the crowd, bowed his head, and declared, "in this church, you are the gods."

Musically, Disturbed's performance was stronger and more intense than ever before. Playing several songs off Believe, including "Mistress," "Devour," and "Rise," Disturbed also played their classic hits from The Sickness like "Down with the Sickness," "Voices," "Game," and "Fear." Pandemonium broke out as the band played "Dropping Plates," whose lyrics birthed the tour name "Music as a Weapon." The set was complete with two encores, the first included the latest single "Remember," while the final encore consisted of Disturbed's first hit single from The Sickness, "Stupify," and their first hit single from Believe, "Prayer." Every song was executed with absolute perfection at an inexplicable level of intensity. "We are here to give you something to believe in," David Draiman explained. The Music as a Weapon 2 Tour certainly made a believer out of me.