Five Finger Death Punch

Royal Arena, Copenhagen - 2017

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

Now, this may have been considered a co-headlining tour between Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP) and In Flames, what with the bands having equal stage-time and all that, but it was 5FDP that had the main slot this evening, and judging from the increase of the audience, as well as the many faces seen with a single red hand painted on them, I’d say it was fairly certain that it was 5FDP that the bulk of the crowd was here to see.

“You guys are fucking crazy! I like crazy.”
- Ivan L. Moody (vocals)


Much like In Flames, 5FDP also opened their show with the stage hidden behind a curtain. This time however, the curtain was thick and non-transparent, and it was removed at the beginning of the first song. Thus dropped, several things were now revealed to us. The regular 5FDP backdrop slightly hidden, as in front of it were two huge baseball bats hanging crossed, and in front of them, there was a massive skull. It was a bit of a letdown that the lines where it had been put together were as visible as they were, but other than that, it was a monster build up!
It also became clear that main vocalist Ivan L. Moody was back in the fold again. There had been some discontent about his absence from the band during their summer visit to Copenhell, where Tommy Vext had filled the spot, and in style, his return now was hailed by the masses filling the Royal Arena. An explosion of admiration would probably be closer to the reaction felt in the hall, as the band threw themselves into Lift Me Up.

The band itself was also fired up, and ready to give Copenhagen an experience it would not forget easily. Moody was the exact opposite of his name, almost all smiles, pointing out persons in the crowd, telling them how much he liked them, their outfits, or whatever else caught his eye. Vocally, I can only say that listening now to his performance, I feel Vext pales in comparison. It’s not that the latter is a bad singer, but the combination of Moody’s voice and the music of 5FDP is hard to top. They simply complement each other in a way that other voices will be hard-pressed to replicate.
The rest of the band was of course in on the fun as well, rushing about the stage, supplementing the performance with their own sprinkle of action and vitality. Bassist Chris Kael got to shine vocally for a bit, as he took the front seat in Got Your Six. Jason Hook, who early on displayed some fun guitar antics, as his guitars held a whole lightshow of their own, was also the main player during the three song acoustic section of the set, containing slightly shortened versions of I Apologize and Wrong Side Of Heaven, ending in a full version of Remember Everything, complete with lit lighters and cell-phone lights.

As you can imagine, the cooperation of band and crowd was a big deal through this concert. The pit was alive like never before, and throughout there was singing along and cheering heard backing up the actual music. In the aforementioned Remember Everything, Moody had the crowd taking over the vocals at several points, and Jekyll And Hyde got a bit more of a party mood going, as we were all invited to shout along to the “oo i oo i oo” section.
For Burn MF, 5FDP invited several members of the audience up on stage, to stand in the back and rock out with the band, which they certainly did - a clear highlight of these people’s evening. Giving their fans highlights seemed to be a recurring theme of the night as well for 5FDP - just ask the girl who was personally handed Moody’s baseball bat at the end of the show, after he had made sure every member of the band signed it first.

So, going back to calling this a co-headlining tour. I mean, it was pretty obvious who was the real headliner here, and not just from looking at which band got to play last. 5FDP had the best sound of the night, they had the liveliest performance, they had the wildest and largest audience, the had the catchiest setlist, and contrary to the other two bands, 5FDP actually looked like they were having fun.
If a drawback is to be mentioned, the only thing I can think of is that the band took a break between pretty much every song they performed. It would have been nice with a bit better flow in that regard, but hey, I guess you can’t have everything.

Setlist:

Lift Me Up
Never Enough
Wash It All Away
Got Your Six
Ain’t My Last Dance
Bad Company (Bad Company cover)
Burn MF
I Apologize
Wrong Side Of Heaven
Remember Everything
Coming Down
Jekyll And Hyde
Under And Over It
The Bleeding
The House Of The Rising Sun (5FDP version)

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