Afternoon everyone….
Once this concert was announced, I immediately bought tickets. Not only am I a big fan of this band, but they put on one of the best shows live period end of story! That band is Five Finger Death Punch.
Ivan Moody is one of the best front man in music history. You can debate it all you want, but if you’ve never seen them live before you can’t even be in the discussion. My main genre of music is hard rock/heavy metal. But I’m not ignorant and I’ve seen over 500 concerts in my life of many different genres of music.
Most bands live barely interact with the crowd, don’t move around very much unless it’s interacting with their own band members. Especially very popular bands, they are so removed from their fans and their inactions are typically limited to turning the mic out to the crowd during a popular song for the audience to sing.
Well….
Ivan Moody did 5 complete changes of clothing in just the first 3 songs alone. Giving everything he was wearing minus his t-shirt which was the same the entire show. He handed out to fans the overshirts off his back, necklaces, rings, parts from the stage set, took selfies with kids in the front rows, signing autographs, bringing props out and giving them away as well. All while not missing a beat of the show.
Aside from that every few songs he got the crowd involved in the concert in numerous different ways. He went from one end of the stage to the other being involved with the entire crowd interacting with people up front often.
After the show he stays out on stage an interacts with fans waiting to meet him and speak with him. It’s like everyone is a VIP in his eyes. Now that’s a true legitimate hall of fame front man. He cares about his music and cares about the people coming to support the band.
Aside from that, they collectively put on an amazing show. It was a great set list. He even explained why he doesn’t perform a small handful of personal songs live anymore. If you don’t know his writing or music, his songs are very personal life oriented and have a strong personal life meaning to him from life scars. He explained that to the entire audience. He even did a solo without the band on one of those songs. It was an amazing performance.
Five Finger Death Punch is celebrating 20 years on this tour. Being this relevant for 20 years and also still this popular tells it all.
The only other original member Zoltan Bathory one of the guitarist is another great live in person performer. But as a whole they are one of the best live performances around.
Now…..
Yesterday was what seems to be a 2026 New Jersey summer day. It was crazy humid and hot and of course there was a crazy storm. It the new MO of our summer this year. We left well in time to get there but the storm said nope think again!!!!!
We missed the opening act which was a band I was interested in seeing. The band is Eva Under Fire. They are one of my daughter’s favorite bands. I have only seen them once with her many years ago in a small club named the Starlight Ballroom. Where they were an opener for Theory Of A Deadman. They only played a few songs then and have put out four albums since then.
We did get a little lucky meaning that as we arrived the storm had reduced down to just a light rain. So we weren’t completely soaked by the time we walked in. Most of the people in attendance weren’t so lucky, you could see many people soaked in the crowd.
The concert which was held at the PNC Art Center which is an outdoor amphitheater only has 7,000 covered seating. The other roughly 12,000 people had what they call “lawn seats” which are out in the open air. Luckily I bought actual seats for this concert. If my girlfriend had bought them instead we would’ve been soaked an miserable.
Five Finger Death Punch played for nearly two hours. They ended because there is an ordinance that requires all performances to end noise by 11pm. Ivan as mentioned early stays on stage after the show interacting with the fans, so he was out there for over another half an hour doing such.
Here are photos from the show:
Now for the ride home…..
Let’s just say the storm got worse and turned into a massive thunderstorm. The only road out of there is the Garden State Parkway so with the intense rain, we weren’t completely soaked barely moving. And of course there’s always the people that feel invincible who drive like assholes. Yes, there were nearly a dozen accidents that we passed on our ride home, making the journey home nearly a two hour event.
We have tickets to see Breaking Benjamin in September.
That’s it for now.
