Aug 26

Aug 26 Show Review: Five Finger Death Punch Bring U.S. Headliner to Mountain View

Five Finger Death Punch
w/ Megadeth, The Hu, Fire from The Gods
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mountain View, CA
August 23rd, 2022

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

As far as heavier music goes, I’ll be the first to admit that bands like Five Finger Death Punch are not necessarily the ones I gravitate towards. For whatever reason, it never clicked with me the same way that metalcore and “screamo” did. With that being said, I enjoyed Five Finger Death Punch’s performance when the band brought their current U.S. headlining tour to Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Tuesday night. They put on a highly entertaining show, bringing with them a well-rounded lineup that featured both legendary metal acts and some great up-and-coming acts in the scene. The five-piece act are currently on the road in support of their new album, AfterLife, which was released earlier this month.

The show was opened by Fire From The Gods, an emerging rap-metal act from Austin, TX. With the sun beating down on the stage, the nu metal-esque group brought a high-octane performance to the fold. Despite only playing for thirty minutes, the band left quite an impression on me. The most unique act of the evening came in the form of The Hu, a Mongolian folk metal band. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything quite like this band before, and their performance has remained with me in the days since the show has passed. Their performance combined heavy metal, Mongolian throat singing, along with folklike Mongolian instrumentation. The band features only four members, while their touring band features eight performers. The Hu is an experience, and one that’s meant to be seen live.

While Five Finger Death Punch headlined the show and put on a highly entertaining performance, I have to say that the best set of the evening came from Megadeth. This is almost to be expected though; the band have been tearing it up in amphitheaters and arenas around the globe for decades, coming to fruition in the 1980s as one of the founding thrash metal acts known as “The Big Four” (along with Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax). We covered Megadeth’s performance on the “Metal Tour of the Year” last year in Concord. They put on an exemplary show then, and they stepped it up even more this time around. The band had a renewed sense of focus around them, pummeling their way through a condensed set that focused on just the hits, like “Symphony of Destruction”, “Hangar 18”, and “Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?” The Dave Mustaine-fronted act are gearing up to release their sixteenth studio album, The Sick, The Dying…and the Dead! next week, and it’s so easy to see why Megadeth have stood the test of time. Despite lineup changes, Mustaine is the focal point of the thrash pioneers, and he’s keeping this band rolling along in excellent fashion.

Armed with an elaborate stage setup, Five Finger Death Punch took the stage for a set that was bursting with energy and some of the band’s biggest tracks. A gigantic silver coiled snake loomed over the stage and audience, shaped in the form of an infinity symbol as it eats its own tail (modeled after the artwork on the band’s F8 album). Two members of the band, vocalist Ivan Moody and bassist Chris Kael, play with an absurd amount of energy, and Moody is an engaging frontman as he sings his way through track after track. “Welcome To The Circus” found him donning a neon jacket, a top hat, and a baseball bat; it’s a bit cheesy, but the opening song from AfterLife ended up being one of their best songs that evening.

The remainder of the set list found the band pulling from a majority of their catalogue like And Justice for None (“Sham Pain”) American Capitalist (“Under and Over It”), and The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 (“Burn MF”, “Lift Me Up”, “Wrong Side of Heaven”). In particular, “Burn MF” and Got Your Six’s “Jekyll and Hyde” produced some of the biggest crowd reactions of the night, and that’s where I found the band at their most compelling. Whenever they fed off the energy of the crowd, their showmanship went through the roof.

Five Finger Death Punch is a band that’s not going to be for everyone, and that’s fine. I don’t think they really care; they’re just happy doing what they do, and showing the love to their fans.

Five Finger Death Punch Set List
Inside Out
Trouble
Wash It All Away
Welcome To The Circus
Sham Pain
Bad Company (Bad Company cover)
Lift Me Up
Wrong Side of Heaven
Burn MF
Jekyll and Hyde
IOU

Encore:
Under and Over It
The Bleeding