Concert Review: Sevendust/In This Moment/Pop Evil/Monster Truck at the Bismarck Civic Center's Exhibit Hall 05/14/13

Pop Evil Photo Taken by Lindsey Russell. In this Moment Photo Taken by Elyssa Bjugstad. Sevendust Photo Taken from John Connolly's Instagram (jmc7d)

Live music wasn't really a part of my life until 2010. Living in Minot, North Dakota means you're off most major band's tour radars, and going to a show meant getting a ride with my dad and it, understandably, was hard to talk him into going to a Rob Zombie concert. Thusly, my formative concert experiences consist of the admittedly awesome memory of getting to see Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P) front Heaven and Hell, and then seeing the Newsboys by my count six separate times. I love Peter Furler, but man cannot live on Entertaining Angels alone.

Then, in 2010, I rediscovered my passion for music in the form of Brian “Head” Welch, and seeing him perform to at best two hundred people in an exhibit hall in Bismarck opened my eyes a bit and helped broaden my horizons in terms of what I defined as a “show” and where to look for them. Less than a month later my passion for live music was solidified when I saw Sevendust perform in front of the, well, catastrophe that is current day Puddle of Mudd in Minot. I wasn't well versed in the 'Dust catalog at that point in time, I'd had them lumped in with the nu-metal bands that I'd avoided for fear of even further social isolation in high school, but it was impossible to deny that they put on a hell of a show that night. In the years since then I'd been hoping for them to make a return to ND so I could properly get into the music and build on that initial experience. Finally, a week short of three years from that original show, they made a triumphant return with buzz band In this Moment and Pop Evil opening.

At least, I thought there were only two openers. Imagine my surprise upon arriving at the venue when I discovered there was a fourth band on the bill. I had never heard of Monster Truck previously, but I came out a fan. Despite a generic as all hell name, a horrible sounding keyboard, and only getting cheers by mentioning weed (there was a LOT of cannabis in attendance), they managed to win me over. I don't quite understand their placement on this bill, their sound is straight up classic rock, the singer/bass player could pick up side gigs as a Ronnie Van Zant lookalike, and they should for all intents and purposes be playing the bar circuit to reach their precise target audience. Luckily, they have enough charisma that they did begin to win over the crowd by the end, and at the head of an evening of fairly modern sounding rock their anachronistic style came off as fresh. I doubt I'll ever be seeing them on Billboard, but I'll keep my ear to the ground for more Monster Truck.

As I mentioned before, living in North Dakota means being off the radars of a lot of bands. When we do get shows, they're usually towards the end of cycles if at all. However, this was the rare occasion where we actually got a band on their record's release day. As the frontman was more than happy to point out on multiple occasions, Pop Evil's third album Onyx was less than twenty four hours old when they took the stage in Bismarck. I'm sure they would've preferred to be in a major market to celebrate this milestone, but I give them credit, they made the most of the crowd they had. Songs like Monster You Made, Last Man Standing, and new single, as well as my father's new favorite song on the radio, Trenches were greeted with eager singing and jumping. It was unfortunately at this point that fights started breaking out (admittedly all centered around the same drunk from what I could see) and people began getting a bit unruly which hampered my enjoyment. I appreciate people getting into a show, but when you're elbowing my friends in the face to stick your camera or your fists in the air some level of self control needs to be exercised.

On the other end of the spectrum from Pop Evil are In this Moment, who are still riding the incredible success of 2012's Blood. I actually saw them open for Shinedown and Adelita's Way about a month before that album dropped last year and having that perspective made this more recent set all the more surreal and frankly awesome. Last time, they got to play maybe six songs tops, their stage setup was limited to two pikes worth of skulls and Maria's mic stand, but you could tell from the songs and the crowd's reaction that something was probably going to happen with these guys. One hundred and fifty thousand records later, the skulls and stands are still present, but the setup has gotten far more elaborate around them. There are curtains for Maria to dance behind, smoke machines and smoke guns are used liberally, there's even a weird bunny man who comes out and gropes Maria during a song! The level of surrealism was perhaps a touch over the top, but I can't deny the effect it had on the crowd. Songs like Whore and Blood had almost the entire floor jumping and moshing, the crowd was eating all of it up. If almost any other band tried inserting a medley of Raining Blood and Master of Puppets into the middle of an alternative metal set they'd probably be booed off the stage, but I have to say, In this Moment can make it work. For the most part.

At this point in the evening it almost felt like it should've ended there. In this Moment had played for over an hour, a lot of the crowd, too much actually, was headed for the doors, and exhaustion was starting to set in at least for my group. The show had started at seven, and we were now approaching eleven with no sign of a headliner. I'd come for Sevendust and even I was starting to feel fatigue. Luckily, my boys came through. From the opening of new single Decay through till the end Sevendust put out the same energy and fire that I remembered from three years ago, except this time I was able to sing and scream along with every note. The setlist proved a perfect blend of new material like Till Death and Got a Feeling in with the expected hits like Denial, Bitch, Black, even my personal favorite Rumblefish. These guys have had a career where the entire world seemed to be actively working against them, they've overcome bankruptcy, terrible management, and a record company going out from under them to arrive at a bigger and better place than ever. They've also done all this without forgetting where they came from. At the meet and greet afterwards fans were passing around original cassettes of the first self titled album to have signed, band members were giving hugs, Lajon Witherspoon even came over and introduced himself to my friends who weren't involved with the proceedings. Sevendust have been the hardest working and touring band in rock and roll for going on twenty years, and blessedly they seem to show no signs of slowing down nine albums in.

It was a long evening, and one that could've benefited from a bit more organization. I arrived half an hour before the show started as per my VIP instruction e-mail only to discover that radio contest winners were still inside and I was essentially going to have to bake in the sun for half an hour longer that I could've spent eating or sitting with my friends in the GA line which I found irritating. Exhaustion did really set in by about midnight while waiting for the band which caused some tension amongst the crowd waiting to meet the band and the merch people. But overall, the end result overcame the bumps in the road. I've now had two great Sevendust live experiences and I can't wait to have many more in the years to come.