Photos and Review By Reina Peli
Did I hear this right? HELLPOP II in Pittsburgh on January 25th? Oh yes please! I was excited about this tour from the moment I heard about another round of the beautiful Maria Brink of In This Moment. I saw her during the Carnival of Madness tour in August 2013 at the old Star Lake Amphitheater. Now it’s called First Niagra Pavilion or something like that until they change the name again. I fell in love with the band after a friend turned me onto them. I started by listening to ‘Whore’ and asked myself why does she have to scream all the time? Then I got it. Just like that. Because she is Maria Brink, that’s why. ‘Whore’ is a song about everything you can hate someone for. About rising above whatever may be holding or bringing you down. Her voice delivers a clear message that is in your face.
On the playbill for HellPop II we had, Before the Mourning, All Hail the Yeti, Devour the Day, Butcher Babies and In this Moment. I will admit that I do not follow the first 4 bands. I will say though, All Hail the Yeti caught my attention and I will be purchasing a CD. I dig their gritty southern-ish metal sound. And I totally dig their mic stands!
Lights go down, smoke comes up, In This Moment comes out. Violating my ear holes with their HellPop. The show is more of a Hellish, theater performance than rock concert. Dramatic lights silhouette the band cloudy with smoke and a deep thunderous beat exploding underneath. It’s dramatic to say the least. Some of my favorite songs were played Adrenalize, Beast Within, Blood, The Gun Show, and Maria did a really nice performance of Into the Light from their second album The Dream. I totally connected with her emotional performance.
The highlight of the show for me was their cover performance of Nine Inch Nail’s Closer, which will be included as a bonus track on the Special Edition release of Blood, coming out January 21st. Included with the CD will be a DVD feature of the entire show shot in Madison WI, earlier this year rightly named Blood at the Orphem. Watch the trailer here. It will include over 100 minutes of songs from the band’s career, behind the scenes footage and interviews. You can watch the Beautiful Tragedy clip from the DVD here. I can’t wait to get my hands on this and add to my collection.
I did find out that Chris Howorth (guitar) of In This Moment has two Chihuahuas named Pancake and Twinkle. I also have a Chihuahua named Curlie. She goes on great adventures around the world. Maybe one day they can join each other onstage? How cool would that be?
Aside from the theatrical lighting, which didn’t allow me to get over the bottom photos, here is some eye candy for you from the night.
In This Moment
Butcher Babies
All Hail the Yeti
Before the Mourning
