Five Finger Death Punch rolled into Pine Knob Music Theatre this past Wednesday, August 7 and brought a killer lineup of metal madness featuring Marilyn Manson, Slaughter to Prevail and The Funeral Portrait.
Atlanta pop/punk/emo rockers The Funeral Portrait started the fun with a five-song set of energetic numbers that got the early crowd bouncing and banging about in their seats. For their third song “Voodoo Doll”, Detroit’s own Eva Marie of Eva Under Fire came out and shared vocals with singer Lee Jennings.
Raising the temperature a few notches, Russian deathcore band Slaughter to Prevail took the stage next. Slaughter to Prevail singer Alex Terrible (Aleksandr Shikolai) growled his way through a much too short 5 song set that ignited the headbanging crowd and filled the amphitheater with stage fog and heavy driving rhythm.
Marilyn Manson returned to the live stage after a five-year hiatus. Between the pandemic and legal woes for Manson, it’s been a long break, and he seems fresher and happy to be in front of his fans again, even breaking a smile now and then. His touring lineup for this performance, which included Paul Wiley, Piggy D., and Reba Meyers, were on fire this night, delivering the goods and adding a real punch in the throat with their performance.
The 13-song set featured the mandatory songs like "The Dope Show", "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", and the final encore, "The Beautiful People". The rest of the set was an assortment from across his eleven studio albums as well as a new single, "As Sick as the Secrets Within". At one point Manson stepped down into the pit and stood on the railing with his microphone stretched out to people singing in the crowd and high fived several fans.
Three shows into this 26-show tour and they’re firing on all cylinders and Manson seems grateful to be back and he’s now sober. I hope he’s beat his demons and he’s a changed man because he puts on a great show and his fans deserve this better version.
They’re not just up there making a paycheck; they’re giving the audience their all and loving every minute of it!
The headliner of this tour is Five Finger Death Punch, and almost 20 years after their formation they are still one of the biggest metal acts out there. The show started with Charlie Engen doing a drum solo as each member walked out on stage and the biggest applause for singer Ivan Moody who then launched into "Welcome to the Circus". What a great song to start and get the crowd amped up!
The guys proceeded to tear through a 17-song set that featured all the songs people came to hear like "Wash It All Away", "Wrong Side of Heaven", and "Jekyll and Hyde". Most bands save the confetti canons for the end of the show but who says you have to follow everyone else? These guys do it during their sixth song, "Sham Pain". They also do another thing that’s pretty unique. They lead everyone in the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" towards the end of the main set.
There were quite a few young kids in attendance at the show on their dad’s shoulders, giving the devil’s horns and loving every minute of it. I’ve always seen kids at rock shows but never noticed it as much as I did at this show. FFDP have a great relationship with their fans and you can really see it. They’re not just up there making a paycheck; they’re giving the audience their all and loving every minute of it! There were so many picks flying from the stage during my time in the pit and I probably should have retrieved some, but hey, I was there to get some killer photos!
It was a great night of heavy metal music with four great bands. Pine Knob is still the number one venue for concerts in my opinion and on a nice summer night, nothing beats it.
Five Finger Death Punch
Marilyn Manson
Slaughter to Prevail
the Funeral Portrait
