28-04-2015 Sixx AM

Supports: Apocalyptica; Venue: Electric Factory, Philadelphia (USA)
By: Carina Ullmann

The American band Sixx:A.M. featuring Nikki Sixx, D.j. Ashba and James Michael were hitting Philadelphia on their “Modern Vintage” tour this April, and the fans from all around the country and also the world happily gathered.

On this sunny day, the queue in front of the Electric Factory in Philadelphia was rather long already, and you were able to see familiar faces all along if you had been attending any earlier gigs of this tour. It´s a big family, this is at least how it all felt like when enjoying the sun and having good chats before the doors opened. It´s been a nicely mixed crowd, all age groups, many people from abroad like me and also many different kinds of people. It was pleasant to see how fan groups of all of those bands on the line up celebrated the day together, with smiles on their faces.

The evening started off with the Japanese band Vamps – a band that I had not yet seen before, but they seemingly do have a passionate fanbase that does not hesitate to travel from abroad or all parts of the US to their shows – just to see them, and then enjoy the rest of the concert from the back of the venue. Music-wise, the band might have split the audience into two – you either really enjoyed it, or you were not that amazed by them. Nevertheless, it was a good arm-up act to get the crowd more and more going and to loosen up their neck muscles for later on headbanging.

After a little break, Apocalyptica came on stage and you were able to see how many people in the crowd were either curious to see what was coming or were looking forward to the performance as they had seen the band before. Their new singer Franky Perez was fitting well for not only the new songs off the “Shadowmaker” album, but also for the older tracks originally recorded with many different popular singers. The audience was nicely going along with the songs, loudly singing along with “I don´t care”, and doing the same with the band´s instrumental version of Metallica´s “Nothing else matters” that was one of the rather quiet moments of this thoroughly rocking and sweaty performance.

It took a while even though all the stage hands were giving their best – but once the intro started and the lights dimmed, you were able to feel all the excitement for Sixx:A.M. that had built up. Then the lights went on, the cheering was loud and the madness of a Sixx:A.M. concert once again started, the train started rolling. Singer James Michael, Nikki Sixx and D.J. Ashba were rocking the stage with so much power and visible fun, that you just had to enjoy watching it and joining in when it comes to rocking out. The band had no fear to get close to their fans, standing on the barrier, giving the fans the feeling of being a part of this band and this whole show. When it comes to the band´s setlist, it was a good mix of really rocking but also slower and thoughtful songs, such as “Skin” and “Accidents can happen”, both which seemed to be quite some of the audience´s favorites. Of course the band had to finish off their set with “Life is beautiful” – no song could be more fitting, when looking into all the happy eyes and smiling faces after the show.
Whoever had made their way to the show clearly got a nice all-round package of good music that nicely filled this evening.

Links:
Sixx AM Official
Apocalyptica Official