November 1^st, the day after all the ghouls and ghosts terrorized the northwest on Halloween, we had an amazing sold-out show at the Knitting Factory in Spokane, WA. Metal band Five Finger Death Punch headlined the “Shock and Raw“ tour, but the lineup was so talented its hard to say who stole the show.

Southern California band 2cents opened the show, getting the crowd excited from the very beginning. This was one of the best shows I have seen in terms of crowd involvement, all the bands catered to the mob. It was nice to see a show where the bands appreciated the crowd so much, just for coming to watch them play. I confess I had never heard of 2cents, but they were a good heavy band I enjoyed, as did the crowd.

The next band performing was the mighty Otep. The set was energetic and exciting. The lead singer, Otep Shamaya, is by far one of the most talented artists in heavy metal, and is also a well known political activist, poet, and song writer. The band is quite incredible, combining deep provocative lyrics, incredible hard hitting metal, and bits of spoken word artistically sprinkled in.

You could tell they were a different sort of band, more theatrical; halfway through their set they donned masks to break down and tell a story prefacing another great song. They put on quite the show, and had the entire house rocking. There wasn’t a moment during the spectacle that the noise and the excitement died down.

The next band was heavy metal veterans Shadows Fall. They guys came out and just started shredding from the get go. At the risk of sounding redundant, the set was incredible. Frenetic and wild, they had the crowd going crazy. They did well at keeping the patrons involved, keeping them jumping and screaming.

Their time on stage was brighter, a contrast from Otep before them. Where as Otep had this incredible, dark, eerie stage show, Shadows Fall was loud, fast, and lit up. Lots of strobe lights and illumination, Brian Fair going wild with his long dreadlocks. Definitely an intense, rapid part of the show.

Finally, the main headliners, the heavy, aggressive, powerful sound of

At one point, Ivan Moody -the group’s lead singer- brought a nine year old kid on stage, saying “This is why metal will never die.” He gave him a big hug, a bottle of water, and the best seat in the house, right in front of the drum set in the middle of the stage. Who says metal is nothing but Satan- worshipping, sex, and violence? That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed.

Later in the show, Ivan stated that the band plays for thousands of people at a time, but only usually gets to meet twenty or so fans every day. He then said he wanted to meet everyone at the show, and shook hands with anyone who could make it to the stage. It was quite chaotic and security was kept incredibly busy during the melee, but it also inspired an interesting moment during the show.

The band themselves were just intense. The whole club was literally shaking! It was one of the better shows I’ve been to. Zoltan Bathory is an amazing guitarist, and Jeremy Spencer rumbled on the drums. Matt Snell, the other guitarist, adds an amazing industrial dual guitar sound. Adding a bass guitarist who has been featured with Alice Cooper, Jason Hook, always helps develop a good sound. Ivan Moody is an excellent front man, channeling powerful bursts of anger into his vocals.

I’ve been to a few shows at the Knitting Factory, and walking around talking to concert goers I heard no negative sentiments about any of the band. This was surprising, usually when there is a show with three or more bands at an event, often times there will be mixed reactions with every act.

Every band was a hit with the crowd, all of them putting out tremendous amounts of effort in their performances. I spoke with a few

members of security at the show, and one told me he was surprised for being a smaller venue the amount of popular bands that perform there. The Knitting Factory is by far one of my favorite locations to see a performance.

All of the staff was really helpful. There were a few people angry about not being able to leave the show to smoke, as the smoking balcony is closed during sold out shows. Once in a while someone would be asked to leave for trying to smoke in the bathroom, but other than that I never saw any real problems from the crowd.

The security did a good job keeping the show safe and fun, making sure no one was getting to out of line and ruining the show for anyone else. The managers I met were very nice and professional, and overall the Knitting Factory’s goal is to make sure everyone has a safe, good time, and they thoroughly accomplished that this show.