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It was a night of rock 'n' RRROOOOAAARRR!!! at Wings Stadium Friday night with Godsmack, Planet Earth and Breaking Benjamin.
Flames? Godsmack had 'em. Explosions? Massive light show? Video screens?
Explosions with confetti? They had those, too.
How about dancing girls? Doing a belly/go-go dance on elevating pedestals as flames lick at their toes while the band does a snakey and sinful instrumental, along with two extra percussionists, also on pedestals, beating congas and adding a Middle Eastern flair? Of course they had all that.
About the only items lacking from Godsmack's stage show were live jungle cats, robotic flame-throwing dragons and a flock of flying monkeys. If they had those, then they might've had a show.
Boston's nu-metal sensations -- their new album "Faceless" just went platinum this week, though it's fallen down the charts after debuting at No. 1 for its first week early in April -- have thrown everything into this tour.
The large audience -- the actual count was not available from Wings officials near the end of the show, but it looked to be just less than sold out -- responded by forming the usual swirling, bouncing and moshing mass in the pits. A T-shaped catwalk jutting from the stage on which singer Sully Erna strutted divided the area on the floor and probably served a purpose of keeping the crowd from getting too uncontrollable. As Erna said, "We had to separate you because you know if we put you together you'd kill each other."
This wasn't a show of peace and love. Godsmack's set was introduced by a video message saying that, "in this time of war," we should be united so "our nation will become stronger than all." This was followed on the screen by a scarred man, crawling naked from a tub to scrawl messages on a gray floor, which directly led to an image of a jet, a waving flag and the words, "United We Stand."
They're all for supporting the troops, it's evident, but that was just a weird mass of images and messages.
The main message of Godsmack is one of inchoate anger, sometimes shouted, sometimes sung, by Erna. He strutted, in regulation Iggy Pop brand leather pants and sang with classic angst-metal fervor, songs like "I F------ Hate You," "Faceless," "Changes" and others from the new CD and much from their past three others. The band chugged and crunched along, pausing a few times for a squalling cathartic solo from guitarist Tony Rambola. In general, their sound is that of a grunge-free trip from inspirations Alice in Chains toward Korn darkness and rage.
And when you've gotten as dark as you can, what can you do? Dancing girls, and the rest of the slickly produced stage show, are a nice touch. There were three video screens that, when not showing videos, ran a live feed from at least four cameramen shooting tilted angled shots of all four members of the band doing their stuff on the Wings stage. It was mixed and edited so smoothly that it would've been fine for broadcast.
Godsmack can get musical, and showed brief glimpses of a dim light before returning to the darkness. They're different from others, who try to go to extremes to show how they're much more angry. Like Planet Earth, middle band on the bill.
PE features the voice of Jahred Shaine, who raps, sings and gives off an unearthly ROAAARRR!!! when words fail him, a fun type of vocalizing that has its roots in bands like Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse. He was joined by DJ Product 1969 on turntables, who also added his roar when things needed more roar-y.
The nu-metal/rap/funk band actually has a variety of sounds that, mixed together, sounded more interesting than just a blast of extreme noise. Their new CD "Blackout" is their turn to more rock, less rap. But at Wings they put it all together, even adding a dash of reggae with a slightly warped version of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry."
Breaking Benjamin and their fans got the short end of the stick due to a very long line. It took an hour and a half for this reviewer, who arrived about 45 minutes before showtime, to get in thanks to all patrons being filtered through one entrance manned by four security staff patting down people. It's always a good thing to make sure nothing dangerous gets into these shows, but maybe Wings could have sprung for a second security team at a second entrance?
It looked like a quarter of the audience managed to catch most of Breaking Benjamin's short half-hour set. This reviewer caught their last song, which was nice and loud and had a lot of ROARRRing.