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Archive for the ‘In This Moment’ Category

Ice Nine Kills (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 22, 2023)

Posted in Avatar, Ice Nine Kills, In This Moment, New Years Day, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 22, 2023] Ice Nine Kills

This was my third time seeing Ice Nine Kills (and my son’s fifth time, I believe).  For this show, I specifically wanted to see them from above the crowd, rather than from the pit.  I assumed that the visuals would be even better if I could clearly see them.

This was true, except that the lighting was rather poor and I felt like things weren’t as clear as they could have been.

But that’s okay.  The band was still great and the performance was really enjoyable.

The last time we saw them, they were co-headlining with two other bands, so their set was only 50 minutes.  This show was longer, but not a lot longer (they played two more songs than last time).

The show was largely the same songs as the last time, but done in a different order and with a different stage setup.  There were two TV screens on either side of the stage and they showed commercials (real and fake) between songs as introductions to the movies the songs were about.

This time, they opened with “Hip to be Scared” and I enjoyed filming the scene where singer Spencer Charnas hacks up the hapless guy who wandered on stage.  (more…)

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In This Moment (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 22 2023) [ICE NINE KILLS]

Posted in Avatar, Ice Nine Kills, In This Moment, New Years Day, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 22, 2023] In This Moment

I had not heard of In This Moment before this show.  I looked them up and saw that they were very theatrical (which makes sense given this tour–Ice Nine Kills does horror movies on stage, Avatar is a circus).  But when I listened to them, I didn’t really love the music.  It was really simple and really angry.

But I was curious to see them, mostly for their stage show.

But the kids wanted to get some merch.  And we wound up on the merch line for a REALLY long time–we missed half of the In This Moment set.

I was able to see them as they opened to the strains of Don’t Stop Believin’ (!) and their stage set was revealed (glowing lights giant crosses).

I looked again during the second song and I really liked their stage setup.  It was very cool.

We missed some of the middle here and then walked in as they were playing Björk’s Army of Me.  I didn’t recognize it as we were heading to our seats but once I sat down, I realized what it was and wished I had heard more of it.

They followed it with a cover of her “favorite” song, Nine Inch Nails “Something I Can Never Have.”  It was quite pretty (especially compared to the loud noisy music of the other songs) but it went on for a pretty long time and I was a little bored by the end.

The show was quite the spectacle–Maria Brink is the ringleader of the bunch.  She was wearing diaphanous robes (I couldn’t see her all that well, so I don’t know what else was going on).   She also had a bunch of background dancers who did very nice choreographed routines, including one where they stood behind her and put their arms out like Vishnu.  Since we were straight on, we could really see the effect and it was great.

I did really like Big Bad Wolf with  the empowering, screamed vocals: “even in these chains you can’t stop me.”  In fact, Brink is a great feminist icon, telling women and girls not to be held back.  I really liked her voice, which sounded almost like  soul singer as she spoke–she sounded like someone, although I couldn’t place it.

It wasn’t until somewhere near the last song that I realize she had a band on stage with her.  The lighting was such that it was hard to see them.  Her guitarists Chris Howorth and Randy Weitzel were somewhere on the stage, kind of lost in the lighting that focused all attention in Brink.  In fact, I only ever saw two guys on stage, so maybe one of them was Travis Johnson on bass.  Her drummer Kent Diimmel was off to the side with a pretty large set-strange that I missed it earlier.

For the final song, the band left the stage and did a kind of encore (INK did NOT do an encore).  It may have just been more of an opportunity to set up the proper for the final song–a lifeguard’s chair (or something like it) with the word WHORE in big red letters on it.

She set the song up with some powerful words to all the young women out there and then sang

You probably thought I wouldn’t get this farYou thought I’d end up in the back of a carYou probably thought that I’d never escapeI’d be a rat in a cage, I’d be a slave to this placeYou don’t know how hard I fought to surviveWaking up alone when I was left to dieYou don’t know about this life I’ve livedAll these roads I’ve walkedAll these tears I’ve bled
So how can this be?You’re praying to meThere’s a look in your eyesI know just what that meansI can be, I can be your everything
I didn’t really love the tone of the music.  It was a little too….something.  Processed maybe?   I don’t know.  But I enjoyed the visuals and the power that Brink exuded.  They’d be very fun to see in a small club too.

SETLIST

Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey recording)
Salvation (recording)

    1. The Purge ≠
    2. The In-Between ω
    3. SANCTIFY ME ≠
    4. Blood ♥
    5. Sacrifice ≠
      The Infection [recording]
    6. Army of Me (Björk cover)
    7. Something I Can Never Have (Nine Inch Nails cover)
    8. Adrenalize ♥
    9. Big Bad Wolf ⊗
      encore
    10. Whore ♥

♥ Blood (2012)
⊗ Black Widow (2014)
ω Mother (2020)
≠ GODMODE (2023)

 

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