Disturbed @ Sentrum Scene

Chicago-based metal band Disturbed descended on Oslo for a sold out show on May 1st.

Disturbed is known to be a band of big shows and big venues, as well as their vivid stage shows and pyro works accompanying their live tracks. However, this show was held at Sentrum Scene, a relatively small venue for a big show, and there was hardly any stage shows apart from the projector on the backstage.

The band started with a ‘warm-up’ video montage consisting of their previous shows, which managed to cheer up the crowd eventually. Their opening track was a heavy hit from their latest album, Are You Ready, which was followed by the old hit Prayer and Vengeful One. Their setlist included a mix of their older and newer hits such as The Animal and Voices and also the Genesis cover Land of Confusion.

Touching speeches

One of the things that make Disturbed a bit more different is their dedication to the societal issues of today’s world. In between the songs, David Draiman held a couple of touching speeches about various topics, including the negative effect of internet and social media on our lives. He also shared his worries about people with depression and alcohol issues, about the people we lose in our lives and how we can actually help them.

In his talk, he also mentioned names of famous musicians who passed away recently, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave, also invited the audience to be silent for 1 minute for all the ones we have lost. This show was not just about a musical event, but also a gathering for people to unite, to befriend each other rather than polarising and stay apart.

HOWEVER.

Maybe it was the sound, or maybe it was the audience not being very responsive to what David was trying to achieve. The whole show felt like a mixture of detached elements, lacking soul and uniformity. Light shows were very dull and not impressive at all, and the break in the middle of the show where guitarist Dan Donegan, bassist John Moyer and drummer Mike Wengren did «solo» performances was very weak, and somewhat unnecessary as it didn’t add much to the show. Plus the guitar sound was so bad that I was curious as to whether the sound guy was doing it intentionally.

Good intentions, but…

Towards the end of the show, band decided to get a bit softer and appeared on stage with an acoustic setup for their most famous song on Spotify, a Simon & Garfunkel cover, The sound of silence. Finally the guitar sounds were quite ok, at least, and David’s voice was fitting this song perfectly.

All in all, I totally appreciate the effort to make a musical event into a social awareness act, and touching upon difficult topics like mental issues, alcoholism and depression, however, in the end this was supposed to be a music show and the show itself lacked the «spirit» to glue all these good intentions together with the power of music.

Disturbed @ Sentrum Scene 01.05.2019: 4/10