Avatar thawed a chilly night in Chicago as they brought their own blend of theatrics and metal to The Riviera Theatre.
Despite the frigid and snowy conditions on a weeknight, fans still turned up as Avatar made their In The Airwaves Tour stop in the Windy City. This tour is hot on the heels of their latest album, Don’t Go In The Forest, which was aptly released on Halloween.
These shows are always a visual, as well as a sonic, treat with the outfits, the makeup, the head banging hair windmills, and all around metal circus vibes. However, this tour sees an uptick in production as the band uses moving platforms to dramatically glide onto the stage and move around throughout the show. It’s a simple addition, but effective all the same. The sliding stage platforms helped to add a flair of the dramatic to proceedings. Johannes, Jonas, Tim, and Henrik were wheeled in together with John coming in separately behind his drum kit.
Johannes stayed relatively calm for the whole of the first song, which, let’s be honest, seeing him standing still for the entirety of a song felt totally out of character for him, seeing him standing still for the en. Luckily, that didn’t last. The show kicked off the metal sea shanty (those are words we never thought we’d say) “Captain Goat.” It wasn’t long before normal service was resumed and the speed and ferocity were kicked up a notch.
As you’d expect, the majority of the set consisted of songs from Don’t Go In The Forest, such as “In The Airwaves,” “Death and Glitz,” and “Tonight We Must Be Warriors.” Setlist staples such as “Bloody Angel,” “Let It Burn,” and “The Eagle Has Landed” were all included, much to the joy of the crowd. The evening concluded with the three heavy-hitters “Dance Devil Dance,” “Smells Like A Freakshow,” and, of course, “Hail The Apocalypse.” What a way to round out the night!
There are some bands that use theatrics as a gimmick, and others that use it as part of their whole embodied persona. Avatar definitely fall into the latter group, to the point that it isn’t theatrics but rather just who they are. It doesn’t replace the need or ability for good music; instead, it enhances it. Avatar’s music stands up on its own merits, without the need for the face paints and outfits, but it certainly helps to add another dimension to it.
The In The Airwaves Tour is coming to an end, with their final show scheduled for December 7th at the House of Blues in Dallas. Here’s hoping it won’t be too long before they are back stateside.
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