Gigs

Gig Review: Disturbed + Shinedown

[Venue: Brixton Academy, London]
[Date: 4 October 2008]

As Shinedown (3/6) took to the stage, Brixton Academy was filling up nicely. One thing to say about this band is that they’re good fun to watch. In this age of cordless instruments, bands finally seem to be realising that we are there for the music, but we’re also after a visual feast, and if you dart about and jump around enough we can’t help but feel strangely excited. Still, even immobile drummer Barry Kerch was a joy to watch—a rare thing for me to admit about a percussionist. If only every drummer could make those kind of faces whilst pulling off drumstick-twirling moves that a majorette would be proud of.

Sadly, as much as the band tried their utmost, the acoustics for Shinedown could have been much better—Brent Smith has a good voice, bump up the volume a bit and let us hear it! And if I was being brutally honest I’d say they could have also picked some better tracks to play. The band aren’t as well-known here as they are in their homeland (Florida, USA) and I think some of their earlier tracks would have helped establish them a little more in front of potential fans, although the final song ‘Fly from the Inside’–their first single–was a definite highlight.

After an impressively short change-over period, it was time for Disturbed (4/6). As the lights turned a deep blood red, front man David Draiman was wheeled onto the stage in full-on Hannibal Lecter fashion—fully clad in straightjacket and mask, strapped to a handcart. Again, the child in me found this far too exciting. I’m not usually one for getting duped into cheering like a maniac for these cheap gimmicks, but come on, it’s pretty fucking cool.

Back in their early years, it would have been easy to dismiss Disturbed as ‘just another nu-metal band’, which would evidently have been doing them a huge injustice. In fact, in terms of record sales they’re one of the biggest bands in the world at the moment—the band have had three consecutive number one albums in the USA, and it was clear looking around that they have quite a dedicated following here in the UK too.

The energy of Dan Donegan and John Moyer (guitar and bass respectively) was impressive, with Draiman providing a contrasting exception as he sauntered across the stage calmly. Still, the man can work the crowd with the greatest of ease: there were more clenched fists on display than in your average Guy Ritchie movie. Disappointingly though, a few times midway through the show, the singer’s voice let him down. It wasn’t just once or twice that a high note became an awkward squeak, it became an almost consistent problem and it’s really something he needs to work on for the future and the rest of this European tour.

On a couple of occasions Draiman-clearly inspired by his aforementioned Hannibal Lecter guise-turned psychiatrist. The front man claimed that we [the human race] could all use metal as a form of venting our anger, fear and frustration. He even dared to venture that although the fans in the pit may be battered and bruised, they would leave here feeling stronger, which I admit to finding so hilariously cliché that I burst out laughing. In hindsight, with the price of the ticket being far below that of a real therapy session, I guess some could have left quite appreciative.

Disturbed are a band very close to the enviable position of being able to fill an entire show with singles, and they certainly took advantage of that with ‘Voices’ and ‘Prayer’ providing fantastic standouts. The encore was superbly chosen too, comprising ‘Inside the Fire’, ‘Stricken’ and-following an awesome three minute drum solo intro–the finale ‘Down With The Sickness’.

I think the only way to summarise how Disturbed can manage to be simultaneously awesome and ludicrous is to tell you this: About three years ago, there was a Lynx deodorant advert on TV in which Ben Affleck would use a clicker to count the amount of girls that gave him the eye as he walked around on his daily business. Foolishly, I sent off for a replica clicker for the mere price of £3 under the illusion that it was the greatest invention since the wheel. Suffice to say, it wasn’t. I had been searching for an excuse to use it since. So the clicker came to Brixton with me to count any noise leaving David Draiman’s mouth that in any way resembled a monkey’s mating call. At the end of the gig the counter was at sixty-three.

Band Links:
Disturbed

Shinedown

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