Trespass America Festival feat Five Finger Death Punch and Killswitch Engage – TOUR REVIEW

We had the awesome opportunity to attend and write a review of the inaugural run of the Trespass America Festival summer tour featuring Five Finger Death Punch, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Pop Evil, Emmure, God Forbid and Battlecross! Check out the review after the break.

First and foremost, let’s talk a little about The Rave/Eagles Club, which is the host of the Wisconsin date of the tour.  This dirty old building is located in a very shady neighborhood in Milwaukee called Avenue West which is also home to the Ambassador Hotel. This hotel was, until renovations and changes, linked to drug dealing and prostitution.  Not necessarily the safest place to go to for a rock concert because you are busy worrying about your personal safety as well as the safety of your car and other personal items.

The Rave/Eagles club consists of multiple different size rooms that host shows.  They have the Eagles Ballroom, The Rave Hall, The Penthouse Lounge, The Eagles Hall, The Rave Bar, The Rave Vibe Room, and the Rockstar Lounge.  This particular tour was located inside The Eagles Ballroom, which was exactly that, a large ballroom that was flanked on all sides by large concrete pillars with eagles on them.

The get the show started, Detroit, MI natives Battlecross opened the tour with a lot of anger and a very loud sound.  There were quite a few people already in the ballroom when Battlecross opened, whether they didn’t enjoy thrash music or they just didn’t like this band, the patrons of the ballroom for the most part did not enthused during their set.  I personally didn’t enjoy the excessively vulgarity of the band’s vocalist, Kyle Gunther. He introduced their song “Breaking You” by stating, “This song is about punching people in the fucking cocksucker!”  After Battlecross finished up, there was still a lot of good music to be enjoyed and the excessively high temperature of the venue became more intense.

More thrash music followed with God Forbid who is based out of New Jersey.  The two songs I caught the names of from their set were “Equilibrium” and the song “A  Few Good Men”, which both came off their 2012 release “Equilibrium” on Victory Records. The crowd seemed a bit more enthusiastic for these guys, probably because they were warmed up by this point.  One thing didn’t change, the anger of vocalist Byron Davis was just as intense as is highlighted in this quote, “You’ve all just been fuckin’ violated!”

The next act was one that I knew I would enjoy. Emmure quickly set up and were off, changing up the genre of the show from thrash to something a bit more metal.  “I Thought You Met Telly and Turned Me Into Casper” and “10 Sign You Should Leave” were two of the crowd favorites it seemed, with quite a few mosh pits opening up to prove it.  Vocalist Frankie Palmeri said, “What’s up, we’re Emmure and you can’t fuck with us,” to which the crowd went wild and started cheering.  Emmure not only brought a ton of excitement, they brought a whole new level of musicianship to the table.  There was clearly a progression to the show and I was hoping it’d only get better with each band.

Before I start with Pop Evil’ set, I just want to say that they seemed to be the odd band out on the bill.  These guys are nowhere near the metal/thrash genres that all the other bands fall under.  It’d be more appropriate to call these guys hard rock, and they certainly stood out among this tour’s lineup.  When Pop Evil took the stage however, the ballroom was really getting full and there seemed to be quite a few fans in the room.  I only caught the title on one song, “Hero,” but I enjoyed the rest of the tunes and the change of pace they brought.

By the time it was Trivium’s turn to rock the stage, the ballroom had gotten even more packed and as soon as they came out the room erupted in applause.  It was clear that the prime time part of the show was starting now, with the increase of people, the increase of cheering, and the increase of people drinking, this was the part that people were waiting for.  There were mosh pits, there was crowd surfing, and there were plenty of solid tunes from Trivium.

I thought it was crowded before, but Killswitch Engage brought even more people into the ballroom and place seemed as if it was about to burst.  “My Obsession” and “Reckoning” were a few of the crowd favorites, even though they seemed to enjoy just about every song.  Killswitch Engage, who, like Trivium, has been around since 1999, had a much more polished sound than the earlier bands.  Killswitch Engage clearly had the idea of musicianship in mind and it showed with every powerful guitar riff and lyric.

“Under and Over It” from Five Finger Death Punch’s 2011 release “American Capitalist” opened their set to thundering applause.  The majority of the t-shirts I saw indicated that most people were there to see Five Finger Death Punch, and the noise they made proved as much. Also, the band played this same venue on their last tour, so that may have helped as well.  “The Way of the Fist,” “American Capitalist,” “Bad Company,” “White Knuckles” and “War is the Answer” are just a couple tunes off the powerful set list that the band put together.  The entire set pulled songs off all three of the band’s studio albums.  I was very surprised to see such a vast age range of people gather to watch these guys.  There seemed to be every age group and every type of person represented at this show.  At one point during their set vocalist Ivan Moody brought a bunch of young kids on stage from the crowd and let them hang out for the length of a song.  It was odd seeing Ivan instruct the little kids to flip the middle finger to the crowd, but it was entertaining nonetheless.  Being very political, just like the band, Ivan talked about war and even brought out a “Support Our Troops” flag at one point.  Around that time they played my favorite song from the set, “Far From Home.”  FFDP put on a powerful performance that entertained the crowd and made dealing with the venue and surrounding neighborhood worth it.

From my experience at Trespass America Festival Tour I would recommend at least giving all the bands on the tour a listen.  As for The Rave/Eagles Ballroom, I would say avoid this place if possible.  The location, the usual brutish security, the drink prices, and the subpar sound all make this place a fairly unpleasant experience.

Information about the review…
Tour: Trespass America Festival Tour feat Fiver Finger Death Punch
Bands: Five Finger Death Punch, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Pop Evil, Emmure, God Forbid, and Battlecross
Reviewer: Michael Nutting
Date: July 19, 2012
Venue:  The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, IL