by Reggie Edwards
December 9, I found myself driving with a friend, two-and-a-half hours to Waterloo, Iowa. It was 15 degrees and the car we were in had absolutely no heat whatsoever. The reason we were doing this? I was covering the the Share The Welt Tour, featuring Rains, Sevendust, Hatebreed, All That Remains and Five Finger Death Punch.
After an amazing interview with Rains, an interview where they gave us some hot tea to warm up after our insane trip to get there, we were taken inside the venue to enjoy the rest of the show- a show which lived up to every possible expectation known to man.
Rains, though they have a very different musical style from the rest of the bands on the bill, were the perfect band to kick off the night. Though they aren’t soft by any stretch of the imagination, they are nowhere near as heavy as the rest of the bands but they got the crowd going, no question about it.
After Rains wrapped up a high-energy opening set, the legendary Hatebreed took the stage. That’s enough right there to show you how amazing this lineup was- Hatebreed was
second on the lineup.
Ending with “I Will Be Heard,” they had the crowd ready for the next band.
Next up, Sevendust, need I say more? Okay, first off, I didn’t even know they were going to be at the show, I am pretty sure they weren’t listed on the bill, so just imagine how happily surprised I was when I heard them come on.
They didn’t let me down, either. They took the stage, destroyed it, rebuilt it and obliterated that thing all over again. I didn’t want them to leave the stage at all.
It just kept getting better, though, with All That Remains coming up next and, in my opinion, they were good but they didn’t impress me as much as Hatebreed, Rains, Sevendust and then Five Finger Death Punch.
After the first four bands of the night wrapped up, it was time for the carnage to begin. The lights went down in McElroy Auditorium and the crowd just lost it.
As the energy rose and anticipation climaxed, some of the biggest lights I’ve ever seen shined onto the crowd.
They played everything a Five Finger Death Punch fan could have wanted to hear, from the beginning song of “Under and Over It” to the encore of “The Bleeding.”
At one point they brought out a guest guitarist to play a classic rock medley of “Highway to Hell,” “Crazy Train,” “Smoke on the Water,” “Walk” (to memorialize Dimebag Darrell) and capping it off with an Iraq-tribute compliments of their smash cover hit, “Bad Company.”
Front man Ivan Moody definitely knows how to work a crowd, interacting in between almost every song. One part that sticks out in my mind is when they performed “Far From Home,” they started out a cappella. When telling the audience to sing along and they weren’t loud enough, he told them to try again, after it still didn’t meet his expectations, he told them that they either “didn’t know the words or just didn’t give a shit,” which was hilarious.
After the crowd
finally got the idea, the chorus hit, which was booming and devastating the building with the band coming in with the rest of the song.
After another song he mentioned that someone had told him the crowd was being too violent, to which he said “Last time I checked, this isn’t a Journey concert. Let’s show them what real violence is!” This was the lead-in to “White Knuckles.”
At one point of the show, Moody brought some children on stage to rock out with the band as well, which was heartwarming. Moody deemed them “the next generation of metal” as they rocked their faces off for one of the songs on the set.
One thing that really stood out to me was the fact that Moody took time to thank the security crew and mention that they were one of the best crews of the tour.
I have to take some time and at least mention the light show. There was no pyro, only lights, which was amazing. Pyro can be cool but I think a lot of bands rely on it way too much. This light show on Share the Welt was outstanding, almost blinding at times; a big plus for me.
Ending with “The Bleeding” as the encore, there was nothing about the show that I didn’t like. This was one of the best shows and tours of the year. If you missed it, you missed out on more than just a show, you missed out on the concert experience of a lifetime.