Ice Nine Kills bring Halloween back to Seattle Early
“THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE! HEAVY METAL BAND COMES TO SEATTLE TO RUIN THE YOUTH!” Is probably what a 50s headline would read.
Ice Nine Kills brought Halloween back to Seattle while performing at The Showbox while on tour with Falling In Reverse. The crowds line was circling around 2 blocks for what was no doubt a sold out show. With the venue quickly filling up Nu-Metal band From Ashes to New came first, the performance was energetic with the duo vocalists trying to warm up the crowd throughout the night. Every few songs the bands rapper would talk about personal experiences in his life or about how “fake the world has become”. The band put on an impressive performance where at the start of the night they had a couple people moving around to their music while at the end of their set the managed to get the entire crowd off their feet, definitely a band to look out for if you’re a fan of Hollywood Undead or older Linkin Park.
Not soon after Ice Nine Kills hit the stage, I’ve always kept an eye on this band after the release of their previous album Every Trick in The Book, a concept album where the band adapted famous horror novels into songs and the following album, their latest release, The Silver Scream, followed the same concept but with horror films instead. It is clear that the band is dedicated to keeping the horror identity they created for themselves.
The music that played over their stage crew setting up was creepy and ominous just like that of the films they adapted into song. You could even hear Jason Voorhees’ creepy breathing from Friday The 13th, which set up what the audience was about to experience. Finally the band hit the stage, all members dressed up as a character from horror movies such as Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Guitarist Ricky Armellino), Georgie from IT (Guitarist and Co-Vocalist Dan Sugarman), The Crow from The Crow (Bassist Joe Occhiuti), Jigsaw from Saw (Drummer Patrick Galante) and lead vocalist Spencer Charnas went through various characters starting the night as Freddy Kruger from The Nightmare on Elm Street, Michael Myers from Halloween, Jason Voorhees, a killer Santa Claus, and finally Pennywise from IT. Throughout the bands set they also had people on their crew perform as additional characters for the appropriate song including a shark for Rocking the Boat which is their adaptation for Jaws and Pamela Voorhees for the bridge of Thank God it’s Friday.
The bands setlist consisted mostly of songs from the aforementioned album, The Silver Scream, but they also performed 2 of their most popular song from their previous album. The band kicked off the night with The American Nightmare and right from there the band had the crowd moving and sing along to every word, as the night went on they performed their songs Thank God it’s Friday, Stabbing in the Dark, SAVAGES, Merry Axe-mas, Rocking the Boat, andThe Jig is Up off of The Silver Scream and Communion of the Cursed and Me, Myself and Hyde off of Every Trick in the Book. Throughout the night Charnes interacted with the crowd as much as he possibly could even going as far as having fans let him stand on their hands while supporting his weight which was super awesome to see.
Overall Ice Nine Kills delivered a killer performance with amazing stage theatrics to go along with the world they built for their album, the band is at their most energetic now more than ever and you can tell that the band is excited to continue with adapting horror related content. I personally will be looking out for what they do next.
