I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 16, 2022] Ice Nine Kills

Ice Nine Kills put on a wonderfully theatrical show.  There’s costume changes, props and murder victims.  Their songs are often very catchy and they are frequently about horror movies (hence the murder victims).

After seeing them back in 2019, I knew I’d want to see them again.  I’ve tried to see them with my son a few times, but he winds up getting invited by a friend and they go together (last time they scored VIP which I don’t even bother trying to do).  So I was pretty excited to go to this show.

And I was consequently a little bummed that their set was only going to  be about 50 minutes. 

But this set proved to be very different from the previous show in another way too.  This set was almost entirely made up of songs from their newest album.  Normally, this is a groan, but these songs are great and the band has come up with new visuals and props for them, so it’s all new and exciting.

Each song also had a marquee opening shot that showed the name of the song like it was at a movie, which I thought was cool.

They started with, appropriately, “Welcome to Horrorwood” which sets the scene very nicely.  I was pretty psyched that they followed it up with “Wurst Vacation,” which is based on the German movie Hostel and starts hilariously with Ein Zwei Drei DIE.

Their big song for this album is “Hip to Be Scared” which is based on American Psycho.  In the book/movie, the psycho is really into Huey Lewis and the News, hence the title of this sing and the hilarious breakdown in the middle, where the band play the Huey Lewis riff.  This then suddenly jumps to someone screaming Hey Paul!  And then singer Spencer Charnas “chopping up” a body on the floor.

They went old school for “Stabbing in the Dark” from the first Silver Screen album.  Their make up person and victim Shevvy Marie gets her throat slashed at the end.

But she came back for “IT is the end” in which she plays the little boy with the red balloon.  This song is usually the encore (It is the end after all), and a bunch of people started to leave when they played this song, possibly thinking the set was over.

But it wasn’t.  They played the fantastic “Take Your Pick” from My Bloody Valentine.  I don’t know the movie, but I love the song.

Spencer then put on a chainsaw hand to play Ash in The Evil Dead (I feel like it’s more about Army of Darkness, but whatever).  And Shevvy came back out for “The Shower Scene”  With lots of clips from Psycho playing in the background, they brought out a cleverly lit shower curtain and Spencer did his best Anthony Perkins.

There were shovels a plenty for “Funeral Derangements” and then a huge sing along for the Nightmare on Elm Street sing along “American Nightmare.”

The band sounded great–I’m impressed with how tight they are, and the backing vocals never cease to impress (or sound crazy).

Even though this show was so much shorter, it was all new and exciting and that made the show feel like a full experience.  It was fantastic.  And yes I’ll definitely see them again–And maybe we’ll even get their early to get up close.

$$ The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood (2021)
$ The Silver Scream (2018)
ß Every Trick in the Book (2015)
⊗ The Predator Becomes the Prey (2014)