Hellpop: In This Moment Featuring Devour The Day At Bogart’s In Cincinnati, OH

*Be sure and check out the awesome photos that Mike Howard was able to capture below the article.

If music is supposed to elicit an emotional response while still entertaining, it quickly became apparent that the crowd at the In This Moment show on Monday night February 2nd received both. This rescheduled Hellpop date featured All Hail The Yeti, Devour The Day and In This Moment. Butcher Babies had to drop off this date, as they had previously scheduled commitments.

The show took place at Bogarts in Cincinnati Ohio. If you are unfamiliar with In This Moment, well shame on you, you should definitely look them up. They are a metal band formed in Albany, New York in 2005 that is fronted by the unforgettable Maria Brink. If you do choose to look them up, you’ll see why I say unforgettable. My biggest question going is is a simple one; Does the music and performance stack up to the style and art?

For me, the show started with the band Devour The Day out of Memphis, Tennessee. No offense to All Hail The Yeti, but they just weren’t my cup of tea. Devour The Day though were highly energetic and seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Their sound is a more melodic, radio friendly hard rock. Although they seemed to be a bit of an odd choice to open for what was to come with In This Moment, I found them rather entertaining. The crowd seemed to enjoy them as well, especially when they brought out their hit Good Man.

Devour The Day: Photos By Mike Howard

There was quite an intermission between the two bands. It became obvious after seeing the road crew bring out prop after prop why there was the long delay though. Bogarts is a 1500 person capacity theatre and the band used every inch of the stage for their intricate set.

The stage appeared to be a post apocalyptic hell with bodies stacked at the front of the stage and cages on both sides of an elevated podium. From this setting is where q unleashed its very own brand of metal. From the opening chords you could feel the crowd ready to release with an explosion of energy.

The first people onto the stage were two beautiful nymph like creatures with the trademark masks that crawled out in front of the cages and proceeded to set the stage for the arrival of the main attraction. When frontwoman Maria Brink rose out of the smoke and lights the crowd erupted and it was quite clear who the crowd was here to see.

Maria’s look is sexy with an edge. And her voice is raspy with a bit of a snarl. The band was tight, but mostly stayed in the background. Founding member and lead guitarist Chris Howorth (Who’s no stranger to the site, read an interview here) did step out front for a few solos, but also seemed content staying in the background. The star of the show, and of every In This Moment show is clearly Maria Brink, and she definitely knows how to hold every ounce of your attention. She spent the show 3 foot above everyone else in the band gyrating and grinding her way through song after song.

I was surprised and thrilled by the theatricality and choreography between Maria and the two nymph dancers. Each song seemed to have its own theme, with Maria changing outfits and headgear and the girls using props to accentuate the theme of each song. The show only seemed to slow down when Maria did a piano ballad by herself, and also the inevitable drum solo. But no matter what, the crowd screamed its approval.

There were times when Maria’s voice seemed to be a bit flat, but with her recent cancellations do to pneumonia, it was perfectly understandable. Besides, she is such an incredible performer you simply could not take your eyes off of her.

The band tore through many songs, with such standouts as current single Whore, Adrenalize, Beautiful Tragedy and the cover of the Nine Inch Nails classic, Closer. My only complaint was that with the constant costume changes it seemed there was an intermission after every song. This seemed to cause the concert to lose a bit of momentum at times. Nothing too picky here, just an observation.

When the band emerged to do their encore, it was obvious to the crowd what was coming. The band proceeded to tear into their biggest song to date, Blood. The crowd sang and fist pumped their way through the entire song. From the look on the people’s face, the release they were looking for had finally been fully achieved, and as Maria left the stage it was also obvious that she is an emerging star in the metal community.

*We’d like to take a moment here and congratulate In This Moment on announcing their recent signing to Atlantic Records.

In This Moment: Photos By Mike Howard