In This Moment brought The Witching Hour Tour featuring P.O.D., New Years Day and Ded through Columbus, Ohio last week. The intent; to make sure all in attendance didn’t forget this show. Verdict in, they succeeded.
First up on stage was Arizona based Nu Metal band Ded. They immediately brought high energy and intensity to the stage and took control of the crowd. The fans started to jump and headbang from beginning to end of every song. At the end of the set, lead singer Joe Cotela asked the crowd to raise their middle fingers one last time and thanked them for coming out. As the band left the stage guitarist David Ludlow gave away the setlist.
Up next was New Years Day from Anaheim, California. They opened with “Kill or be Killed”. As the song went on, fans started crowd surfing as they had in the first set of the evening. After the song, lead singer Ash Costello announced “the metal gods must be pleased” and went on to say they would please them by playing Pantera’s “Fucking Hostile”. The fans started to mosh and headbanging instantly when the song started. After the dust had settled,Costello announced “the gods were pleased” and went on to say how the crowd was the best one yet on this tour and thanked them.
Third in the lineup was P.O.D. They opened with “Here Comes the Boom” and the crowd went crazy and started surfing. Security in front of the stage were overwhelmed by how many fans were coming over the barricade and as a result of they couldn’t keep up with the number of bodies coming up and over at the same time. At one point, lead singer Sonny Sandoval jumped off stage, stood on the barricade and interacted with fans. He high fived them and had them sing along. The fans couldn’t get enough of their performance.
Last up for the evening was In This Moment. As fans waited impatiently for them to take the state, a black curtain was hoisted in the front of the stage for the band to take to place on the stage and make a dramatic and grand entrance. Fans immediately took notice and left food stands and merchandise tables in anticipation. As the lights went dark, the crowd let out a deafening cheer.
The curtain dropped and on the stage was In this Moment. This was the band everyone was waiting to see. They opened their set with “Blood”, a fan favorite that fans sang along to word for word. The fans sang along with all of he songs played that night.
As the show went on lead singer, Maria Brink, took a moment to introduce the members of the band while joking around with them. Then guitarists, Chris Howorth and Randy Weitzel went on to play iconic rock riffs such as “Crazy Train” and “Paranoid”. Maria Brink then came out wearing her signature dunce whore cap and went on to tell a story on how she was told she would never amount to anything.
She told fans to always be themselves and not to let anyone tell them who or what to be. Balloons then dropped from what seemed out of thin air and floated down to the fans below. Fans started bouncing them back and forth while the band played “Whore”. As the band left the stage, the crowd chanted for an encore. In This Moment came back out on the stage, then thanked the fans for a memorable night and gave a bow to end the show.
Review and photos by Kirby Green.
