I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2019] Ice Nine Kills

I was unfamiliar with Ice Nine Kills until my son started talking about them.  Then his friend invited him to see a show at the Starland Ballroom on May 3 (Ice Nine Kills was not headlining–the lineup was Falling In Reverse, Ice Nine Kills, From Ashes to New and New Years Day).  So I was a little bummed that he didn’t go to his first club show with me, but it’s much cooler that he went with his friend.  He loved the show.

So when they announced that they were playing at TLA and headlining the Octane Accelerator Tour (a Sirius XM thing), I made sure we got tickets (even though it was a Monday night).

The show was (I’m exhausted just thinking about it) FIVE bands and started at 6PM (!).

The lineup was Ice Nine Kills, Fit For A King, Light The Torch, Make Them Suffer, & Awake At Last.

Since it was a Monday night, I knew it would be really hard to get there for the first band, so we decided we would assume we’d miss Awake at Last.  Then on November 5th, Make Them Suffer (who are Australian) announced:

Unfortunately we have had some serious setbacks with immigration, and were unable to secure the visas we needed in time for these shows.

TLA said the show would go on at the same time which was great for us since it meant we would get home about 30 minutes earlier.  I also figured I’d take my son for some good ol’ Philly cheese steaks before the show since Jim’s is just a few doors down.

We enjoyed out cheese steaks quite a lot and as we walked past the theater I asked the guy at the door which band was on.  He said the second band was on and since we had plenty of time, we decided to go to Atomic City Comics (which is a wonderful store).

We headed back to TLA figuring we’d be in the middle of Fit for a King.  But as we walked in, they were between bands.  The woman at the merch table said that ice Nine Kills was up in ten minutes!  We’d missed all of the opening bands!

In some ways that was fine, but our super late arrival meant that we were in a terrible location (the show was Sold Out).  We considered going upstairs where a woman tried to sell me VIP seats (I didn’t realize this happened there and didn’t know if she was an employee or just a fan). My son was very mature about not spending more money on the show, but we really should have done it since our final location was so lousy.

We wound up behind poles and had an obstructed view for the whole show.  Which totally sucked, especially since INK are such a visual band.  The songs on their newest album are all based on horror movies and the band has a stage show that goes along with most of those songs.

But our bad view did nothing to damper the fantastic show that INK put on.

In fact it was kind of fun watching the show from in the back (if there were no poles) because you could see all of the crowd surfing (including the woman in the light up sneakers).

Right from the start singer Spencer Charnas was a bundle of energy.  And when I realized he was singing the first song “Thank God It’s Friday” in a Jason mask (the song is about Friday the 13th), I knew this was going to be an awesome spectacle.  And it was.

They also sounded a lot better than on the record.  Justin DeBlieck’s (who I think I saw twice the whole night) unclean vocals weren’t as overwhelming as they tend to be on the record and, I thought the sound mix was excellent.

Spencer had a lot of props as well. The machete for “Friday” a chainsaw for “Savages” (based on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and a Santa Hat and axe for “Merry Axe-Mas” based on Silent Night, Deadly Night.

There was also great use of lights, like in this thumping middle section of “The Nature of the Beast.”  This song was based on the book Animal Farm. I love that their previous album was songs written about novels.  In fact, their name comes from a Kurt Vonegut novel!

In theory, “Communion of the Cursed” is based on the William Peter Blatty book and not the movie (since it came out on the “book” record).  This song was especially fun because at the end of the song, there a recited section and Spencer climbed up into the crowd and sang the end standing on…someone?  something?  He seemed to be held up by the fans until he jumped down and crowd surfed back.  [He climbed up right about where I wanted us to be standing…if on;y we’d gotten there an hour earlier].

I was able to get a few videos of Ricky Aemelino, who stood out in that yellow windbreaker (which you, too, can buy).

I couldn’t always get clear pictures of the whole band.  So I pretty much never saw drummer Patrick Galante.  Occasionally guitarist Dan Sugarman would come to the front of the stage, but mostly he was totally hidden from us.  And I never saw bassist Joe Occhiuti at all.  Turns out he played keyboards during the ballad “Tess-timony”.  I had no idea who was playing them.

During a number of the songs a woman came out to be a character from the movies.  It was really cool and added a whole new level of theatrics.  Turns out this woman is Shevy Marie who is also the band’s (and others) make up artist.  I suspect she “died” about nine times.  Like in this clip from “Your Number’s Up” (based on Scream), and yes he wore the scream mask, too).  She was also Carrie, and you can see her briefly in this clip for “Love Bites” (as Nurse Alex from An American Werewolf in London).  Although she told me on Instagram that she was NOT the shark for “Rocking the Boat” (Jaws).

The shark was hilariously cartoony–I loved it.

One of the biggest surprises was when they played “Thriller.”  I didn’t know that they did a cover of this song (it’s on the deluxe version of The Silver Scream).  Obviously it fits in with the rest of the album, too.

Spencer was a fantastic front man.  He engaged the crowd and the crowd responded.  During “Tess-timony” (based on Tess of the d’Urbervilles) [!!] he encouraged all the women to sit on the shoulders of the guy they were with.  And then later in the show, he crowd surfed while singing “Me, Myself & Hyde.”

After a pause, Spencer came out dressed like Freddie Krueger for “The American Nightmare.”  You can even see that he has the Freddy glove (which is a great way to get the crowd to wave along).

They left the stage for a pretty long time, but the crowd knew what was coming next.  They started a chant and soon enough the band came back out.

My son rightly pointed out that if you have a song called “IT is not the end” (based on the Stephen King book) you pretty much have to do it as your encore.  Especially if there’s a costume change involved and Spencer is going to come out dressed like Pennywise.

It was a great ending.

The whole show was fantastic and I would absolutely see them again.

In fact they are coming back around in May of 2020 as part of another large bill:  Five Finger Death Punch, Papa Roach, I Prevail, Ice Nine Kills.  My son and his friend already have tickets.  I offered to be the chaperone, but I gather I won’t be (and I doubt the person going actually wants to go).  However, they are the first band, which means their set will be short and likely nowhere near as theatrical.

I need them to come back around as a headliner again!

SETLIST

1. Thank God It’s Friday $ [Friday the 13th]
2. The Jig Is Up $ [Saw]
3. SAVAGES $ [The Texas Chain Saw Massacre]
4. The Nature of the Beast ß [Animal Farm]
5. The World In My Hands $ [Edward Scissorhands]
6. Communion of the Cursed ß [The Exorcist]
7. A Grave Mistake $ [The Crow]
8. Your Number’s Up $ [Scream]
9. Rocking the Boat $ [Jaws ]
10. Merry Axe-Mas $ [Silent Night, Deadly Night]
11. Thriller (Michael Jackson cover)
12. Hell in the Hallways ß [Carrie]
13. Stabbing in the Dark $ [Halloween]
14. The Fastest Way to a Girl’s Heart Is Through Her Ribcage ⊗
15. Love Bites $ [An American Werewolf in London]
16. Tess‐timony ß [Tess of the d’Urbervilles]
17. Me, Myself & Hyde ß [The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]
18. The American Nightmare $ [A Nightmare on Elm Street]
    encore
19. IT is the End $ [It]

$ The Silver Scream (2018)
ß Every Trick in the Book (2015)
⊗ The Predator Becomes the Prey (2014)