Welcome to North Coast Music Beat!
You'll find enticing reviews, unique interviews, amazing photos and an eye on new artists!

November 29, 2019

​

People keep saying that rock is dead.

​

Don't tell that to the close to 7,000 fans who sold-out The Covelli Centre on Thanksgiving Eve to see Five Finger Death Punch and three other hard rock/heavy metal bands.

​

The Las Vegas based outfit served up an old-school '80s era rock show full of pyro, lasers and confetti.  The production was tastefully executed and really enhanced the show however,  the musicianship and vocals were always front and center.

​

Kicking off the show with "Lift Me Up," the band was up and running.

​

After plowing through a number of tunes like "Wash It All Away," "Jekyll and Hyde" and "Sham Pain" vocalist Ivan Moody addressed the crowd by saying that there wasn't any red fans or blue fans (referencing the political climate) but we we all Bad Company before launching into that song.

​

The band was firing on all cylinders but then things came to a screeching halt when Moody decided to hand out candy to the kids in the audience.  It really didn't make any sense.  He was talking about how there was too much pyro on stage for kids to be safe.  I thought he was going to ask them to move back, but he never did.  Instead, he started handing out Skittles and Air Heads to the kids in the front.   It really stopped the flow of the show.

​

Things picked back up again after the band played "Got Your Six."

​

Guitarist Jason Hook and Moody were the only ones on stage for a 2 song acoustic set that featured "Wrong Side Of Heaven and "Battle Born."

​

They then went into a great cover of Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue On Black" and were joined by the rest of the band on the second half of the song.

​

The metal fest continued until the band came back to encore with "Under and Over It" and "The Bleeding" leaving the sold-out crowd waling away with sweaty smiles on their faces.

​

3 Days Grace was the third band on the bill and they rocked out during their ten song set.  The Canadian quartet are very animated and full of energy. 

​

There were more guitar pics thrown into the audience during their set than the last Cheap Trick concert I attended.

​

If you know anything about Cheap Trick, you know that Rick Neilson throws out hundreds of picks.

​

The band played most of their #1 singles including the show opener "The Mountain," "Painkiller" and "I Hate Everything About You."

​

The second band on the bill was up and comers, Bad Wolves.  This band has some real potential with songs like "Killing Me Slowly" and "Remember When."

​

However, lead singer Tommy Vext has got to learn not to yell at the crowd.  You can ask the audience to stand up, but don't berate them for not doing it. 

 

You have to earn that respect and you have to make them want to stand up and jump.

 

Their seven song set closed with "Zombie" the only rock song to go platinum in 2019

 

This hard rock fest started with Fire From The Gods.  The Austin, Texas based band was a little too scream-o for my taste but the metalcore fans in the audience seemed to enjoy it.

​

​

Review and photos by Greg Drugan

​

​