In This Moment brought the Hard Devil Half God tour to Las Vegas, with guests Avatar and Of Mice and Men, 3 solid bands performing in a packed Brooklyn Bowl at the Line Promenade. This show had an early start time - doors were at 4pm and show time was 5pm - all 3 bands had to be up in San Francisco for the Aftershock festival the next afternoon. But the fans lined up early, and the show was packed for the first band on the stage for the night, Avatar.
Avatar from Gothenburg, Sweden started off the night, a goth / metalcore band with outfits resembling bizarre carnival freak show, with lead barker/vocalist Johannes Eckerstrom a sight to see onstage. With his overly animated expressions and dance movements he has a very compelling voice that compliments the band very solidly. The band opened the show with "Hail the Apocalypse" which set the tone with some badass guitar playing to go along with Johannes growling vocals. Avatar played a shorter set than normal due to time constraints, and finished off their show with the appropriately titled "Welcome to the Freakshow".
Of Mice and Men played earlier this year at the Las Rageous music festival in downtown Las Vegas, and it was like a different band, they were amazing and solid. The last festival show was the first for Aaron Pauley taking over vocals, and their sound and energy with Pauley gelled in the last few months to a solid fused group. Of Mice and Men had the crowd moshing and crowd surfing during their entire set. The band kicked things off with the song "Unbreakable", and kept things going with "Would You Still Be There". The band closed out their amazing set with the hard driving "The Depths" - a killer set by a band who has continued to grow and become even more impressive.
IN THIS MOMENT brought Half God Half Devil to Brooklyn Bowl and this was one of the most visual shows I have seen - led by Maria Brinks on vocals and piano, Chris Howorth on lead guitar and vocals, Travis Johnson on bass guitar, Randy Weitzel on rhythm guitar and Kent Diimmel on drums, this is a powerhouse band and Maria is an amazing front woman. The stage setup had a red tent in the middle at the back of the stage where Maria would do her costume changes after every song, and in the front of stage there was a massive fog machine with tubes running to the front of the stage where industrial fans whipped the fog into a tornado like swirl the entire show. Maria would stand with her long blonde hair whipping about in the frenzied fog, and it was visually something like I have never seen before in a concert.
In This Moment opened the show with the song "Blood" and then went into "River of Fire". Half way through the show Maria left the stage, and the band kicked into a couple Metallica songs followed by Kent performing an extended drum solo. Maria returned and the show continued with the tongue n’ cheek take on Billy Idol’s "White Wedding" titled "Black Wedding", then Maria took center stage by herself, and did a touching tribute to Vegas Strong with In Phil Collin's "The Air Tonight". They finished up their show with "Oh Lord", and exited the stage to the thunderous applause and screams from their fans, only to return for an encore with the crowd favorite "Whore", which featured her two backup dancers dressed in all white robes with masks with crosses on them, handcuffed to signs that read shame and whore.
Maria introduced her band and dancers once again, and thanked the crowd for all their support and for coming out to their early night show. this was an amazing concert, all 3 bands just killed it, it was one of the best at Brooklyn Bowl this year by far. Catch this tour in a city near you, there are plenty of dates left for the Half Devil Half God to make it to your town.
IN THIS MOMENT SETLIST…..
Blood
River of Fire
Adrenalize
Roots
Burn
Lay Your Gun Down
Band Solo
Drum SolO
Black Wedding
In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins cover)
Sick Like Me
Oh Lord
Whore