Have you ever seen a band just before it had a new CD coming out? Have you seen a band that’s last two records debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Album Chart? Have you seen a band that still, despite those last two claims feels as if it has something more to prove to its fans and the general public? Well, if you were smart enough to see Disturbed at Piere’s on Thursday night, then you know you got those last three things along with a killer show. This was one that if you missed it, feel bad about it, you should feel bad about missing it...it was that good.

First of all, I don’t know how many shows over the years that I have been to a Piere’s, I know many people have seen plenty more than I have, but I have never seen a crowd as large and as amped to see a band play here. It was electric and that was even before the first band got on stage. Once Disturbed hit the stage and belted out the first chorus of the night, “Prayer”, you knew that the crowd and the band would be on equal terms and that the other party had to keep up the energy to impress the other. This was a monster show and the crowd didn’t disappoint.

What followed up “Prayer” was a very active and energetic version of “Liberate” off of the “Believe” CD from a few years back. This song is great live, even if it really sounded quite like the original, but Disturbed is a band that is probably known as much for song-writing as they are for their performances, if not even more. When a band writes good material for a CD and it doesn’t lend itself to be turned into a live “jam”, sometimes you can feel as if you just heard the CD at 11. This wasn’t the case with Disturbed, while most songs held to their recorded form(s), you could feel the energy of the song(s) kicking in to such a degree that the crowd didn’t care that it was really damned hot in Piere’s that night. When it is the crowd that is generating the heat, you can deal with it.

By the time the band got to “Voices”, the place was just out of control, in a mannerly way! How does this happen? You have crazy mosh pits in the middle of the floor, a couple thousand people rocking, waitresses serving only the best and Piere’s is still standing! “Voices”, the first track from Disturbed’s first record is a pretty intense song, live the crowd was into it, singing about as loud as David, but nothing gets messed up. Amazing.

“Remember”, a good crunching riff in a great song, marked the halfway point of the show and while I know this song was once a single and all, I really thought going into the night that I might be the only one that really liked that song, well, I was wrong...really wrong. The band, the crowd and the guys running the boards all seemed to get the energy that was coming from the P.A. at that time and you had to just love where you were at that time of this day. Another song that I was wondering how it would go over was the new single; “Inside the Fire”, a very dark and emotional song about suicide, one that lyrically has been reported as being a personal look into David Draiman’s past with an old friend, kept the crowd’s attention and energy.

You don’t really get many shows where the band is this tight and the crowd is this intense, OK, if you watch Disturbed and Slipknot tour this summer together, you’ll get it every night that they play, but we aren’t talking about a stadium here, we’re talking about Piere’s and the intensity is something that probably keeps the big bands coming here. So, keeping on the intensity level, might as well point out that the night ended with “The Sickness” and once again, everything was right about the song and the show, you couldn’t ask for better unless this wasn’t your kind of music...which would then beg the question: why are you here?

Last couple points about the Disturbed show are these: 1. David wants you to buy the new record on June 3, its release date. 2. Fans of the band Disturbed don’t much care for the band’s competition on June 3rd. 3. Although you’d have expected “10,000 Fists” to be played this evening, it wasn’t, which was a minor disappointment. 4. You get over it quick when you hear the rest of what was played this evening.

Coming before Disturbed was 5 Finger Death Punch and Art of Dying. No offense to AOD, but this is now about 5FDP. Wow, you want an opener to push the headliner, but who knew that 5FDP was this good? I own their CD, so I have an idea how good they can be, but I might have not expected the vocals to be as good as they were...you always have to question the scream/sing/scream method that is popular now, well, these guys are good.

“Ashes”, which is an amazing song on record got turned into a metal-fest as the opening song of the night. This song, has intense drums and guitar work that is far more intricate sounding than just the typical bar chord jam song, but the band replicated the on CD sound to play out for the crowd. Of course when you have a show like this, you must have a “Pit” and Piere’s had a pit for all the mosh-ers to mosh to. (That is an odd sentence, but until you saw and heard what I saw and heard, well, you just might have to get a ticket next time the guys from 5FDP are in town.) “White Knuckles” was the song of the night for the pit, the people crowd surfing and those that just wanted to rock. This was a special night for the people in attendance, this isn’t a great economy, the country is at war, this is an election year and yet the crowd is getting it all out of them without truly losing their collective minds.

A good release of emotions happened at Piere’s on Thursday, next time either Disturbed or 5 Finger Death Punch is here or anywhere within a few hours, you probably should go see them. If you have some things you’d like to vent, I’m sure that either band would be happy to make a soundtrack for you to vent to...for that night.