The Trinity of Terror Tour saw Ice Nine Kills take the headline position for the evening, accompanied by Motionless In White and Lilith Czar.
Lilith Czar (formerly Juliet Simms) kicks off the evening with a solid and inspiring set of rock from her 2021 album Created From Filth and Dust. “Intro Poem” plays as Lilith and the band take the stage and launch into the hard rocker “Feed My Chaos.” Drummer Lindsay Martin is a sight to see as she pummels the skins while headbanging that sends her blonde hair flying against some cool backlighting. After “100 Little Deaths” and “Unholy,” they play an awesome cover of Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” that showcases Lilith’s vocals and finds her also playing the tambourine. The fans love it and sing along.
Lilith commands the stage and is an imposing figure with her jet-black hair, knee-high black boots, and a black one-piece cut high on the hips that makes her seem very tall. Lilith takes a moment to talk about having a dream when you are younger and making that dream happen. That leads into the song “Lola” which starts with acoustic guitar and has the crowd waving. It builds up and shows off Lilith’s voice as it soars. Next up is the hit single “King” where Lilith proclaims, “If it’s a man’s world, I wanna be king.” It also features some great guitar jamming by Evan Potter and solid bass from Justus Dixon. The hard-hitting single “Anarchy” closes out the set with the crowd showing their appreciation with applause and cheers.
Next up is metalcore, goth metal band Motionless In White from Scranton, PA. They have been around since 2005 with five albums under their belt. Their sixth album is due this June. They get things off to a great start with the brutal “Thoughts & Prayers” from the 2019 album Disguise which has guitarists Ryan Sitkowski and Ricky Olson thrashing their heads about, while drummer Vinny Mauro puts down a thunderous and rapid-fire beat. They follow that up with the title track from the 2014 release Reincarnate, and “Necessary Evil” from the 2017 album Graveyard Shift.Vocalist Chris Motionless leads the charge as he works the whole stage, frequently using the risers and the industrial mic stand that looks like something out of The Terminator. They quickly have the crowd fired up as several start crowd surfing to the front. The next two songs come from the same album and keep the momentum going. “Soft” is surely one of the highlights with its ripping guitars, heavy drums, and Chris’s aggressive vocals. Before the song starts, Chris asks the crowd to “blow the roof off this motherf***er” and sends the mic stand spinning. The crowd is fully engaged and seems to know the lyrics to every song as they sing along.
After “Disguise” and “Brand New Numb,” Chris introduces their latest single “Cyberhex” from the upcoming album Scoring the End of the World. This cool song keeps the crowd headbanging and crowd surfing and draws big cheers. “Another Life” finds the fans singing along. A great cover of The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me” keeps the crowd singing and clapping along. They finish off their set with fan-favorite “Eternally Yours.” During the song, Chris tosses a dozen roses to the crowd one by one. Chris tells the crowd, “Thank you so much,” and blows them a kiss before leaving the stage.
After a lengthy break, the lights finally dim and the evening’s headliner Ice Nine Kills takes the stage and jumps right into “Opening Night…” and follows that up with “Welcome to Horrorwood” from their latest album The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood. Almost all of the songs tonight come from that album and their 2018 release The Silver Scream. An Ice Nine Kills show is more than just a concert, it is a walk through the history of some of the most famous horror and slasher films complete with costumes and props. A movie theater marquee serves as a backdrop and displays titles of songs throughout the set. One of the highlights is during “Wurst Vacation” which is based on the film Hostel and features a butcher and a chainsaw-wielding goat. Another is the next song, “Hip to be Scared” which is based on American Psycho. It finds singer Spencer Charnas taking an axe to a man as a background screen shows blood splattering, and then he shows the severed head to the crowd like a trophy.The crowd is completely enthralled by the visuals and reacts with huge cheers and singing along. The popular radio hit “Rainy Day” is followed up by “IT is the End”. It features a child in a yellow raincoat holding a balloon, while Spencer dons a clown mask. After “Communion of the Cursed” and “Take Your Pick,” they play “Ex-Mortis” which is based on The Evil Dead movie, and has Spencer working the stage with a chainsaw attached to his hand. With a nod to Psycho, “The Shower Scene” features Spencer stalking the stage with a long knife before attacking a woman silhouetted behind a white shower curtain.
By now a good-sized mosh pit has broken out on the floor, and many are still crowd surfing to the front, with many others headbanging. Ice Nine Kills fans are diehards, and many have shown up in makeup and costumes. They just can’t seem to get enough and show their appreciation throughout the set. They are such diehards that a line to purchase merchandise extends from the lobby almost to the stage well into their set.
Two of their most popular songs close out the evening. “The American Nightmare” has Spencer wearing a Freddy Krueger hat and knife hand, and “Thank God It’s Friday” has him wearing a Jason Voorhees mask and wielding a large machete as he runs about the stage. Providing the killer riffs and driving rhythm are guitarists Chris Kelly and Ricky Armellino, bassist Joe Occhiuti, and drummer Patrick Galante. What an awesome show!
Be sure to catch this tour if you can. It is a visual and audio spectacle that is well worth the time and money. Black Veil Brides was supposed to be part of this show, but due to Covid-19 had to take a few days off. Each evening sees a different band take the headlining slot, so make sure you get there early to ensure you get to see your favorite band.
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