Disturbed brought messages, metal to Pittsburgh faithful
PITTSBURGH — It was the concert with a counseling session; part of a unique night where a half-capacity arena felt fully alive due to the bond between band and fans.
Multi-platinum metal foursome Disturbed began its 18-song set, appropriately enough, with “Are You Ready,” from last year’s “Evolution” album, which debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Rock and Alternative Albums Charts.
Singer David Draiman, in head-to-toe black, set the tone early, standing at the pointed tip of the stage’s runway, surrounded by the upraised arms of fans.
“The Animal” followed a few songs later, letting Dan Donegan, in a sleeveless black vest, flex his chops with a few piercing guitar blasts.
A few minutes later, Draiman gave a quick speech about the powers-that-be using a divide-to-conquer mentality on the masses. He reminded a crowd of about 8,500 that people of all political, racial and religious affiliations are welcome at a Disturbed show. That set up “Stupify,” a song against discrimination from the band’s 2000 nu metal breakout album. It sounded good and crunchy in concert, as Draiman showed off his vocal growl, fast-paced singing and a few well-timed shrieks.
Disturbed did its chunky, slightly cluttered but overall entertaining “Land of Confusion” by MTV-era Genesis, then drastically slowed the tempo for “Hold on To Memories” as the wraparound video screen showed home photos from band members. The pics of them and their kids and spouses were cute; though all the photos of them mugging with more famous rock stars grew self-indulgent.
Even more indulgent was a full-length bass solo (rarely a good idea) for John Moyer followed by — you guessed it — a drum solo for Mike Wengren.
But then things got really interesting.
As Disturbed left the main stage to make its way through the arena’s catacombs to a secondary stage, the video screen beamed a visual and audio message about addiction and suicide. Fans were reminded how important it is to let someone who is battling such demons to know that they are loved, and to intervene on their behalf if necessary. The screen flashed the phone number for the National Addiction Hotline.
Reaching the B-stage by then, Disturbed did a stripped-down version of “A Reason to Fight.” Draiman admitted he gets choked up every time he sings that song, thinking about vastly talented and beloved people we lost too soon due to addiction and depression, such as Chester Bennington from hard-rock peers Linkin Park.
Draiman pressed on, asking fans to raise their hands if someone in their immediate circle has battled addiction. The vast majority of spectators held aloft an arm. In that deep, soothing speaking voice of his, Draiman again counseled them to take proactive measures to help anyone suffering through addiction, which he described as “an epidemic” sweeping the country.
Heavy stuff, which as I’m writing it now sounds like it could have been a buzzkill, but Disturbed fans seemed sincerely touched by the sentiment. They got to do some actual touching once the band concluded its side stage set and and the four rockers strolled through the crowd, slapping high-fives along the way.
Back on the main stage, Disturbed soon got to “The Sound of Silence,” the Simon & Garfunkel cover from 2015 that made Disturbed a relevant headliner again. Wengren pounded a kettle drum and Donegan played a piano lit in pyrotechnic fire, as Draiman slowly, deeply sang about the words of the prophets being written on the subway walls. The part of the song where “silent raindrops fell” cued a rain of fire from oversized sparklers high above the stage.
There’d be more cool fire effects, and some crowd interaction, as fans heeded Draiman’s plea to quickly raise their illuminated cellphones whenever he sang the two words composing the song title of encore igniter “The Light.”
A fan the band met at its meet-and-greet was invited on stage to sing a little of “In Another Time” from the new album. She did rather well.
Draiman let loose, in that machine-gun cadence, with the “Ohhh, ah-ah-ah-ah” that launches “Down With The Sickness,” the hard-pounding fan-favorite that brought the night to a rousing finale. Two small but feisty mosh pits slammed bodies to the bitter end.
They started moshing during the opening set from Canadian post-grunge band Three Days Grace.
At the helm since 2013, Three Days Grace singer Matt Walst sang well, with just the right measure of grit, and also brought showmanship.
The crowd went wild for the 2003 breakthrough “I Hate Everything About You,” and the double-platinum “Animal I Have Become,” which the band layered with a bit of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”
Three Days Grace demonstrated they write good hooks, though the bass sound Wednesday was sludgy, not uncommon for post-grunge.
Though most importantly, the band proved its got decent anthems about the importance of communicating effectively with each other, a message hard-rock bands, such as Disturbed and Three Days Grace, have a better handle on than other music genres.
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