This was the package tour the UK had been waiting for, three big hitters from the 00’s – Godsmack performing their biggest UK headline show to date and bringing along the mighty P.O.D and Drowning Pool as support.
Sure enough, Hammersmith Apollo is full to the brim by 7pm, giving openers Drowning Pool a headliner crowd for their all to brief 5 song set. Opening with Sinner and closing with Bodies, the band – with Ryan McCombs of Soil fame back on vocals – get stuck in to whipping the crowd into a frenzy, although their cover of Rebel Yell seems like an odd choice with so many other options available in their back catalogue.
P.O.D. come out of the gate swinging with Boom and then Satellite, while the baying crowd lose their minds, in fact, you could be forgiven for thinking they are the headliner, especially during mega-hit Youth of the Nation. Between phone torches and swaying hands, the San Diego band tick off every audience participation box before ending the night with the logical one-two of About to Die and Alive.
Sadly, as well celebrating 30 years as a band this year, Godsmack also appear to be celebrating finding new ways to rip off MetallicA.
The first intro tape (for the actual intro) is a full AC/DC track (just like MetallicA), before the audience is immediately confused by what can only be described as the most bizarre pre-gig video since Ozzy Osbourne dressed up to parody pop stars, as instead of some sort of atmospheric music and lights we get a huge video screen with Mixmaster Mike’s visage filling it as he proceeds to try and excite the crowd in some sort of pre-recorded mashup, that it wouldn’t be surprising to learn he shot for a whole bunch of artists, before it cuts to a live feed of Godsmack walking from the bus to backstage and then on to the stage. This was actually pretty cool, but many people will probably remember MetallicA having a backstage camera during the Wherever I May Roam Tour in the 90’s, but that’s quickly forgotten as frontman Sully Erna leads the charge through Surrender and You and I from most recent album Lighting Up the Sky.
Most fans will know this, however, just in case the video screen kindly informs the London crowd what album they are playing from and what year that album was released. Fortunately this is not for every song, only the first time they play a song from that album, but good Lord is it bizarre – the setlist is not chronological, we are not grouping songs by albums either, the set does go back and forth, so it seems an odd thing to do other than to say “hey look how well we’ve done!”. Occasionally, these images are animated through AI and, again, that’s quite cool, if more than a little distracting.
The video screen is best when it’s showing the boys on stage, particularly the overhead shots of Will Hunt on the drums, most of the rest of the time it is a little distracting, but occasionally shows the music video of the track being played – usually the one that makes Sully look good.
We don’t need to go into the where’s and why’s of the absence of Shannon Larkin and Tony Rombola, but suffice to say their stand-ins are more than up to the task, particularly Will.
This is very much a greatest hits setlist, with all albums covered and there is no denying the performance of the band, but with all the books and solo tours it’s beginning to feel more and more like the Sully Erna show, including a story about how HE put the band together and how The Scars Foundation was the most rewarding thing HE had ever done (hey remember when MetallicA started the All Within My Hands Foundation?), not to mention, of course, his drum battle which frankly got old about 10 years ago. It’s understandable that every gig a band does has a number of people who have not seen them live before, but when one of your little tricks has been immortalised on DVD it’s really not necessary to still churn it out 20 years later. Even MetallicA stopped doing the drum off with Lars and James after the aforementioned tour.
There is a subtle change to this musical interlude though – no more do we get a snippet of YYZ, we are now treated to the intro to Enter Sandman (lol) and while all the medley of classic beats takes place the video screen shows clips of the bands they are paying homage to, only all of which are playing much bigger venues than Godsmack could sadly ever hope to headline.
The encore sees a piano brought on stage for Under Your Scars, during which Sully pays tribute to a lot of artists lost through suicide or addiction. A touching tribute slightly marred by the fact it’s so rehearsed every name he mentions appears on the screen with their birth and death dates.
For all the unnecessary patting himself on the back, distracting images and missing classic band members though there is a great coverage of the band’s career with ripping versions of Straight Out of Line, Cryin’ Like A Bitch and 1000hp. As previously mentioned, performance wise Godsmack were on fire, Sully just needs to remember the 3 other people on stage with him and that maybe they aren’t as popular as he’d like to think.
7/10
