Disturbed brought the heat once again to Philly (but luckily didn’t burn any banners hanging in the Wells Fargo Center). The band was here to celebrate a milestone in their career, 25 years since their debut album The Sickness. The band was originally supposed to celebrate the 20 year anniversary in 2020 but plans changed after the covid pandemic hit.
The first leg of the tour started in February with Three Days Grace and Sevendust as the openers. After seeing footage of the tour on social media, I knew this was a special show I would not want to miss. The band celebrated another special moment as they played a sold out show at Madison Square Garden, which is usually a bucket list show for any artist.
After seeing Disturbed perform two times previously, I always enjoyed the energy they bring to the stage, as well as the inspiring messages they send out to the audience. You can feel the love that singer David Draiman has for his fans, and his presence is felt as a strong frontman. If you’re familiar with the band, mental health is a very strong subject that is always touched on.
The openers for this leg of the tour were Nothing More and Daughtry, and unfortunately due to Phillies traffic and other circumstances, I was only able to catch the end of Daughtry’s set when we got there. Nothing More is a band that has been around but I would still consider up and coming in the rock world. David Draiman has collaborated on a song with them called Angel Song, so it only made sense for them to join the tour. Daughtry has recently gone more into his heavy side with new songs like Artificial and Pieces, bringing him back into his rock roots.
After setting the security alarm off (might have been the chains on my top?!) we finally made it into the venue and through the hallways I could hear Daughtry performing his cover of Journey’s Separate Ways. We made our way over to the WMMR table where DJ Jacky Bam Bam was doing a live broadcast of concert coverage for the radio station. Despite all the chaos of fans crowding Jacky, he asked my brother and I if we wanted to talk on the live broadcast. For those of you who remember Need for Speed 2005, Disturbed’s song Decadence was featured on the video game’s track list.
After talking on the air, we made our way to check out the end of Daughtry’s set. The singer started talking to the crowd a bit about not being afraid to be yourself as he led into one of his final songs. The stage was almost set up more dark and mysterious, but Daughtry knew how to captivate the crowd.
As the anticipation grew for Disturbed’s set to start, we made our way around to get some photo ops and talk with some fans around us. As soon as mysterious loud music started to play we rushed back to our seats. The band came out with a strong opening and the crowd went wild as the electrifying performance began. I will admit that I am not one of the OG Disturbed fans, but I know most of the hit songs. I got excited when the third song in was Stupify, but after a while I realized I probably should have gotten more familiar with all the songs from The Sickness album. As a few songs went by we were lucky enough to be upgraded to the pit, which actually turned out better than the seats (we had more space to breath).
Now that we were up close and personal, I was able to rock out next to the mosh pit (don’t worry I wasn’t in it). Towards the end of the first set, singer David Draiman came out in a prison outfit and was put in an electric chair with very realistic effects (it really looked like he was being shocked and honestly looked scary). This was just one of the moments that was a throwback to the origins of the band.
After the last song from that album, a banner came down the stage saying “We’ll be back in 20 mins”. Not sure what to do we ended up sitting back in our seats to save some energy for the second part of the show. We had a fun conversation about music and different bands with the people around us that the 20 mins eventually flew by. We got back up for part two of the set and made our way back to the pit.
As the second set started with the Greatest Hits, I immediately felt the excitement start all over again. With the pyro, the epic jumps and the cover of Sound of Silence, the band captivated the audience the entire time. As the last song was coming up, I took in those final moments as I was able to experience another amazing performance by Disturbed, and celebrate all they’ve accomplished in their career.
Set List below:
The Sickness (Set 1)
- Voices
- The Game
- Stupify
- Down With the Sickness
- Violence Fetish
- Fear
- Numb
- Want
- Conflict
- Shout
- Dropping Plates
- Meaning of Life
Greatest Hits (Set 2)
- 10 Thousand Fists
- I Will Not Break
- Bad Man
- Land of Confusion
- Indestructible
- Sound of Silence
- The Light
- Inside the Fire
ROCK REPORT 