Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil, and yes, Disturbed at the Izod Center, NJ, 4/22/09

Last night I went to a Disturbed concert.  I'm not proud....  The intention was to see Chimaira and Killswitch Engage, although that plan went straight to shit when we got stuck in rush hour traffic for over an hour and missed Chimaira's set completely.  By the time Pee, Rich and I finally got to our seats Lacuna Coil was midway through their set.  Pee pointed out that the sound quality was bad and from then on out that's all I could notice.  At one point the mic completely crapped out on Andrea (the dude that sings) and Cristina Scabbia (the more famous chick singer) gave him a replacement.  Cristina's voice is very hit or miss to me.  For some songs I like it, other times I think it's a bit whiny.  I got to say though, live these guys are fun and even though she's always running around on stage, Cristina's voice was dead on.   Plus, she's hot.

After them was the boys I came here to see- Killswitch Engage.  Howard Jones sounded awesome live.  I much more a fan of their harder songs ("The End of Heartache") rather than their slower more melodic songs ("The Arms of Sorrow"- which actual just sounds emo to me). Live the songs translated the same way.  Keep it heavy, boys!  I had heard that guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz was having back troubles, but there was absolutely no sign of this at all. The boy was running around on stage like a 10 year with severe ADD.   The set finished up with their cover of "Holy Diver", which got an amazing crowd reaction.  Despite the fact that everyone in attendance seemed to be at the show for Disturbed, the pit was the most intense for these guys.

Up next, Disturbed.  This is a love 'em or hate 'em band, and the two people I was with were each at opposite ends of the spectrum.  I don't loathe these guys, but I certainly find them extremely uncool and would not have stuck around if my ride wasn't.  David Draiman is terrible to watch live.  He looks like a tool, but he does run around a lot and repeatedly insists on the audience raising their fists (everyone listens), so it's not all bad.  They certainly are doing something right though, because everyone loved it and they sell A LOT of records.  Draiman's voice was suspiciously flawless through out the show.  After a pretty shitty drum solo, was the last song "Down With The Sickness".  For the big finale Draiman appeared on top of a platform that rose up in the middle of the crowd. I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty cool.  While he ran back to the stage singing that was the moment I realized there was some serious backing tracks helping out his vocals.  Ah well, the crowd ate it up.