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Disturbed at Tempe Beach Park Last Night Tue 21 Sep 2010, 08:34
CrowX
Administrator
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Sunday's performances were sponsored by KUPD, and tellingly, the acts were exactly the kind of stuff the station spins, acts like Hellyeah, Airbourne, Halestorm, Stone Sour and co-headliners, Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed.
"Not a fan of Disturbed?" A fan near me questioned after he overheard me talking to a friend in line.
"You will be!" he promised as we got frisked.
Disturbed took the stage. Like anyone who's been near a radio during the past ten years, I've heard their inexplicable play-list staple "Down With the Sickness" about nine thousand times, made memorable by the song's infamous hook, the sort-of crazed primate noise issued by singer David Draiman.
Turns out Draiman's vocal range is actually really impressive. Though he mostly warbles on in that throaty baritone associated with the genre (you know, those ultra enunciated "yehahhhah-uh"s), he actually has some astonishing range. The screams where violent but defined, and occasionally he did this thing almost like throat singing, which found his vocals sounding otherworldly.
While Avenged seemed content to kick out the party jams, Disturbed's set took on a curiously political slant as the show went on. After a bouncy take on Genesis' "Land of Confusion," the next song, "Another Way to Die," found the band playing in front of footage of natural disasters and recent oil spills. It felt a heavy handed, but it was practically Waiting for Godot compared to what came next.
As the band ran through "Indestructible," the video screens featured film of American soldiers in the Middle East, Native American warriors and various explosion, bombs falling and cannons firing.
"How about a little patriotism from you motherfuckers," Draiman said. "Chant: U.S.A! U.S.A!" As the crowd shouted back, it was shocking how straight up the band presented themselves. Disturbed doesn't just support the troops, it supports them blowing shit up.
"Every broken enemy will know," Draiman sang, "I'm an indestructible master of war." A digital American flag waved on screen.
I had never considered the socio-political aspects of Disturbed, but during "Stupify," it all got too blatant to ignore: Disturbed make Tea Party rock, music for the disenfranchised, fed up and pissed.
"All the people on the right wing, rock, all the people on the left wing, rock," Draiman sang, but he's no centrist, just a populist. Just like the Tea Party leaders, he realizes people are angry and scared, and they really want to get together and yell about it.
I'm well aware that I'm probably reading too much into it, but consider the band's closing tune, "Down With the Sickness." Over chugging riffs, the song's narrator, a victim abused by his mother, turns the tables and becomes the aggressor, a misogynist and eventually a killer.
As a couple thousand kids sang along, I knew that no one was going to go home and murder their mom. Yet they related to that frustration, and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe there wasn't a healthier way for us to deal with our fear than to wallow in it and glorify the violence of desperation.
So, to the guy I met in line, I didn't leave a fan. But I did leave understanding the appeal of Disturbed.
Disturbed Set List:
Asylum
The Game
Prayer
Liberate
Land of Confusion (Genesis cover)
Inside the Fire
Stricken
Another Why to Die
Stupify
Ten Thousand Fists
Indestructible
Down With the Sickness
Sunday's performances were sponsored by KUPD, and tellingly, the acts were exactly the kind of stuff the station spins, acts like Hellyeah, Airbourne, Halestorm, Stone Sour and co-headliners, Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed.
"Not a fan of Disturbed?" A fan near me questioned after he overheard me talking to a friend in line.
"You will be!" he promised as we got frisked.
Disturbed took the stage. Like anyone who's been near a radio during the past ten years, I've heard their inexplicable play-list staple "Down With the Sickness" about nine thousand times, made memorable by the song's infamous hook, the sort-of crazed primate noise issued by singer David Draiman.
Turns out Draiman's vocal range is actually really impressive. Though he mostly warbles on in that throaty baritone associated with the genre (you know, those ultra enunciated "yehahhhah-uh"s), he actually has some astonishing range. The screams where violent but defined, and occasionally he did this thing almost like throat singing, which found his vocals sounding otherworldly.
While Avenged seemed content to kick out the party jams, Disturbed's set took on a curiously political slant as the show went on. After a bouncy take on Genesis' "Land of Confusion," the next song, "Another Way to Die," found the band playing in front of footage of natural disasters and recent oil spills. It felt a heavy handed, but it was practically Waiting for Godot compared to what came next.
As the band ran through "Indestructible," the video screens featured film of American soldiers in the Middle East, Native American warriors and various explosion, bombs falling and cannons firing.
"How about a little patriotism from you motherfuckers," Draiman said. "Chant: U.S.A! U.S.A!" As the crowd shouted back, it was shocking how straight up the band presented themselves. Disturbed doesn't just support the troops, it supports them blowing shit up.
"Every broken enemy will know," Draiman sang, "I'm an indestructible master of war." A digital American flag waved on screen.
I had never considered the socio-political aspects of Disturbed, but during "Stupify," it all got too blatant to ignore: Disturbed make Tea Party rock, music for the disenfranchised, fed up and pissed.
"All the people on the right wing, rock, all the people on the left wing, rock," Draiman sang, but he's no centrist, just a populist. Just like the Tea Party leaders, he realizes people are angry and scared, and they really want to get together and yell about it.
I'm well aware that I'm probably reading too much into it, but consider the band's closing tune, "Down With the Sickness." Over chugging riffs, the song's narrator, a victim abused by his mother, turns the tables and becomes the aggressor, a misogynist and eventually a killer.
As a couple thousand kids sang along, I knew that no one was going to go home and murder their mom. Yet they related to that frustration, and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe there wasn't a healthier way for us to deal with our fear than to wallow in it and glorify the violence of desperation.
So, to the guy I met in line, I didn't leave a fan. But I did leave understanding the appeal of Disturbed.
Disturbed Set List:
Asylum
The Game
Prayer
Liberate
Land of Confusion (Genesis cover)
Inside the Fire
Stricken
Another Why to Die
Stupify
Ten Thousand Fists
Indestructible
Down With the Sickness
