Jonathan Davis
October 26, 2018
Brewster Street Ice House- Corpus Christi, TX
A cool breeze whipped through the Brewster Street Icehouse on October 26th, 2018 as the crowd gathered for the evenings event. Fans of all ages & race aggregated for the amazing night of prodigious rock music, from 3 amazingly talented bands that fit so well together on a single tour. The lights dimmed & the fog machine hissed, spilling fog out onto the stage, engulfing it in a magenta glow. The house music slow faded away as the members of the opening band, Julien-k took to the stage one-by-one while Analog Beaches & Digital Cities played over the stacks. Frontman, Ryan Shuck, hit the stage and the Corpus Christi, TX crowd erupted in cheers & whistles… Julien-K began their night with Flashpoint Riot, a synth heavy number that had fans jumping to the banger from the start.
The band continued their set with Strange Invisible, A high energy, upbeat piece that continued capturing the audience in attendance by the brain & stomped the phenomenal hit into their Hippocampus for eternity. After the song was over, & the crowd cheered them on lead vocals, Ryan Shuck, took time out to introduce the band for those who didn’t already know. As he is engaging the crowd a female fan yells over the crowd “I Love You!” Shuck replied: “Ha Well I love you too!”
After a brief exchange with the fans, Julien-K went on to play their hit single Photo Voltaire off their 2105 album California Noir… Photo Voltaire is one of those songs that takes a deep imprint in your head & you find yourself singing the chorus coupled with a longing to play it over and over when jamming the song. Continuing their musical onslaught with Institution a hauntingly memorable hook that grabs you by the head & nods it with the beat over & over ‘til the end.
Julien-K played Deep Beat Overground directly after Institution; This sensational song begins with a sharp, rich synth winding down before flooring the crowd within the first thud of the drumbeat, send the fans jumping in concordance like a finely tuned machine. Ryan Shuck, then addressed the crowd again thanking them for supporting live music & their band that evening, giving praise to Jonathan Davis & The Birthday Massacre for inviting them on the tour. Shuck also revealed that he & Julien-k guitarists Amir Derakh are 2 founding member of industrial rock group Orgy. The crowd was floored to hear this & began cheering even louder. Julien-K finished up their night with the New Order cover that propelled Orgy to the top of their genre & treated the audience to Blue Monday. The crowd went insane with the highly recognizable beginning percussion. Julien-K preformed the hit classic with precise timing & structure, you couldn’t discern it from Orgy’s classic cover.
Not much time passed between Julien-K’s amazing set end and, The Birthday Massacre’s, set began… The crowd in attendance received the sextet with rapturous emotion as they belted out an 11 song setlist, jam-packed with hit single after hit single. In rapid succession, The Birthday Massacre played Counterpane, Red Stars; All of Nothing; Superstition; Destroyer; One; Video Kid, Pins and Needles; Games; In the Dark & finished off their phenomenal set with their single Blue off their LP Violet.
That time of night was upon us, hordes of people packed in closer & closer to the stage, void of shoulder room… The vaudeville style music dissolved slowly into the air like magic. The stage lights dimmed to a black nothing & slowly came back on a dark, deep red hue. The crowd began screaming, hands raised high in the air. Tension so thick it could be cut with a knife. Jonathan Davis’s band was in place with Ray Luzier, sitting behind his trap-set, looking comfortable & at home… Davis slowly saunters out on stage looking left, then right and with a very familiar, sly grin upon his face. Before reaching the mic stand, Jonathan Davis’s shoulders dropped lower, signifying how insouciant he felt when his gaze rested upon the throng of fans howling his world-renowned moniker.
With a vengeance, Davis, grabbed the microphone & the band began flooring the audience with Underneath My Skin. The first track off Davis’s debut solo album, Black Labyrinth. Like a machine, Jonathan Davis & the band continued pushing through their 13 song setlist. With more marvelous, metal hymns off the brand new critically acclaimed solo album. As well as a few original hits written for the movie Queen of the Damned… Such hits like Everyone; Forsaken; Final Days; What You Believe; and the hit single Basic Needs. By this time the corpus Christi metalheads were awestruck at the unbelievably astounding performance thus far.
Davis continued his set with Slept So Long, written by Jonathan Davis for the award-winning movie Queen of the Damned & originally performed by Jay Gordon of Orgy. Davis continued wowing the coterie of attendees with more instant hits like Medicate; Your God & another gem from the ground-breaking vampire cult classic with, System. You could watch the smile on Jonathan Davis’s face grow bigger & bigger with every youthful exuberance that was exalted from the Texas Sized deluge of fans You could see it power his soul causing his aura to shine outwardly like the radiance of a diamond… With little to no hesitation he finished off his extraordinary set with a staggering cover of Neil Diamond’s Love on the Rocks and Davis’s 6th song of the debut solo album with Walk on By.
Jonathan Davis walked off stage with a smile that went ear-to-ear after thanking everyone who attended. The fans cheered & chanted “Davis! Davis! Davis! Davis!” ‘til Jonathan Davis, indeed made his way back out onto the stage to satisfy his beloved fans with a two-song encore. He gifted the crowd with Happiness & What it Is… The first hit single off Black Labyrinth. Jonathon Davis thanked his lovely fans again & took off behind the stage as some fans cheered, some wiped tears from their eyes & others were left in pure awe. Be sure to catch Jonathan Davis’s Black Labyrinth tour when it hits a city near you.
I give this show a 10/10!
Review by: Jared Wingate