In This Moment Deliver Spectacular Performance in Portland, Oregon

In This Moment – Roseland Theater – Portland, Oregon – 10/29/2017

Three of the metal world’s reigning powerhouses, Avatar, Of Mice and Men and In This Moment, recently joined forces to entertain the masses within the cozy confines of Portland, Oregon’s own Roseland Theater.

The event turned out not to just be another celebration of music amongst like minded metal heads. Instead the show provided fans with the unique opportunity to revel in all the bizarre theatrics, quirky antics and over the top showmanship the Half God Half Devil tour has become synonymous with.

The balcony of the venue was packed to capacity while various patrons boozed it up while they peered out at the circus that was about to take place on the lighted stage.

Swedish metal titans Avatar, who brilliantly blur the line between resplendent head banging performance and “cirque de freak show” theatrics, took the Roseland Theater’s crazies on their first evil musical journey of the evening. Avatar easily managed to enthrall the audience for the entire duration of their albeit brief but polarizing opening set.

When Of Mice & Men came on, the mood within the crowd seemed to simultaneously alter. The over the top theatrics that Avatar are known for were rapidly replaced with the ferocity of a beautifully brutal, raw metal performance.

Phil Manansala, David “Valentino” Arteaga, Alan Ashby, and Aaron Pauley seemingly came to Portland to do one thing and one thing alone, crush the masses who dared to buy a ticket.

The barbarity of the circle pit, as well as the mass of overly enthusiastic crowd surfers, must have proved to all three bands that not all Portland music lovers are hipsters that sit around coffee shops musing about avant-garde bands that only fans of the TV Show Portlandia even know exist.

By the time Maria Brink and In This Moment were set to close the show out, the crowd had already reached a heightened state of palpable anxiousness.

The best way to describe any In This Moment’s performance would probably be “Heavy Metal Theater” and the “Blood Legion” clearly came out in full force to support the cause. Countless fans deployed campy costumes, bizarre makeup and freaky masks mimicking the deranged and demented look that has become the band’s iconic trademark.

Initially a gargantuan white curtain was raised in front of the stage. The mammoth drapery served to conceal the road crew’s nefarious band related activities between sets before dropping to reveal In This Moment to the impassioned screams of their adoring Portland area fan base.

Costume changes, outlandish stage production values and well-rehearsed choreography went on to stimulate all five senses while devilishly immersing every individual in attendance that much further into In This Moment’s dark musical web.

Midway through the band’s set vocalist Maria Brink stepped behind the stage for one of what would be many costume changes on the evening.

During this short respite the “Faceless Freak”, bassist Travis Johnson, took center stage. Johnson quickly launched into the bass intro of Metallica’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls.” Following a few chords by Johnson, guitarists Chris Howorth and Randy Weitzel, as well as drummer Kent Diimmel, joined the fray as the quartet played out a passionate instrumental homage to their Bay Area thrash metal heroes.

After a few minutes of “Bells”, the band shifted gears into another Metallica classic, “Creeping Death,” while a smattering of fans began the requisite and familiar cheer of of “Die”, “Die,” “Die.”

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Surprisingly most of audience hadn’t join in en masse with the Metallica inspired incantation. I guess the Blood Legion in Portland is just slightly less enthused about Metallica than they probably should be, or maybe most of them were just born after 1990.

To close out the night Brink stepped behind her signature pulpit and donned her “Whore” dunce cap to belt out an In This Moment anthem for anyone that has ever felt powerless or full of self-doubt.

Perhaps the only question Brink and company could have asked the crowd following the three plus hours of musical debauchery and theatrics would have been, are you not entertained?

Based on the reactions of the crowd that all bore witness to Avatar, Of Mice and Men and In This Moment laying waste to the Roseland Theater, it seems as though that may very well be the mother of all rhetorical questions.