Two intense shows unfurled within blocks of each other on Monday. Local Spins has recaps of Gary Numan’s mesmerizing show at Elevation and Avenged Sevenfold’s Van Andel Arena tour stop. Photos, set lists.
Dark and Blinding: Gary Numan (at left) and Avenged Sevenfold on Monday night. (Photos/Chelsea Whitaker/Anthony Norkus)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Grand Rapids’ music week kicked off with a thunderous double-punch. British New Wave pioneer/electronic rock icon Gary Numan (“Cars”) made a headlining tour stop at The Intersection’s Elevation just blocks from Van Andel Arena where California heavy metal purveyor Avenged Sevenfold (“Hail to the King”) energized a lower-bowl-packed crowd. Writer Mark Newman and photographer Chelsea Whitaker attended Numan’s unique set; photographer Anthony Norkus captured the action at Avenged Sevenfold. Scroll down for photos, set lists from both.
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GARY NUMAN UNLEASHES LOUD, LAYERED, EXOTIC, MELODRAMATIC MUSICAL MAGIC
If a single song from nearly 45 years ago is your only point of reference for Gary Numan, you might be excused for thinking you had walked into some dark, dystopian pop desert inside The Intersection’s Elevation in Grand Rapids on Monday night.
The New Wave pioneer showed a near-capacity crowd that he has matured into a mesmerizing musician, a skilled performer who has mastered merging an often spectacular synthesis of sinister soundscapes with taut, highly cinematic showmanship that is both bewildering and breathtaking.
Numan, who celebrated his 66th birthday three days earlier, exhibited an expressive, energetic style that underscored his evolution as a performing artist and demonstrated that he remains at the peak of his powers as a standard bearer of the techno genre.
‘My Name is Ruin’: Numan on stage at Elevation. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
His 17-song, 90-minute set at Elevation – a rare headline show on a North American tour that sees Numan supporting Chicago industrial metal band Ministry – relied heavily on material corresponding to his career renaissance, with numbers chiefly drawn from his post-2000 albums: “Intruder,” “Savage,” “Splinter,” “Jagged” and “Pure.”
Numan’s sound today is much more expansive and expressionistic than his earlier efforts. Loud and layered at times, there are also exotic and exquisite touches that take the listener into a post-apocalyptic world of Eastern and Western influences, producing a melodramatic mix that is both discordant and delightful.
Many of Monday’s numbers began with an adventurous blend of ambient synths that helped set the stage for Numan’s strangely seductive songs – “The Gift” and “Haunted” acting as the two numbers that framed his most famous song, “Cars.” His dramatic flair, along with his dynamic use of powerful rhythms, kept the enthusiastic crowd engaged throughout his well-paced set.
Back by an impressive four-piece band, Numan was flanked throughout by guitarist Steve Harris and bassist Tim Slade, whose alien-like antics seemed sometimes distracting but curiously deviant. Numan never seemed bothered, fully immersed in his own audacious world – one that oddly left little room for banter with the crowd.
From brilliant opener, “Everything Comes Down To This,” to rugged retro closer, “Are Friends Electric?,” Numan enthralled his audience with his original brand of futuristic fantasies that shows he is just as relevant today as ever.
Opening the night was Front Line Assembly, the Canadian electro-industrial outfit led by singer Bill Leeb, a founding member of Skinny Puppy. The band’s seven-song, 40-minute set was an ultra-heavy mix of cyber-techno metal, its industrial-strength sound anchored by the keyboards of the band’s co-founder Rhys Fulber. – By Mark Newman
PHOTO GALLERY: Gary Numan, Front Line Assembly
Photos by Chelsea Whitaker
1. Everything Comes Down to This
2. Halo
3. The Chosen
4. Metal
5. Films
6. Pure
7. Love Hurt Bleed
8. Is This World Not Enough
9. Down in the Park
10. The Gift
11. Cars
12. Haunted
13. Pray for the Pain You Serve
14. My Name Is Ruin
15. A Prayer for the Unborn
ENCORE
16. Here in the Black
17. Are ‘Friends’ Electric?
On Fire: Avenged Sevenfold at Van Andel Arena. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
The upper bowl at Van Andel Arena may have been empty, but the lower bowl was a seething, animated horde of headbanging fans on Monday night.
California heavy metal-meisters Avenged Sevenfold brought the tour behind their latest album, “Life is But a Dream …” to Grand Rapids and promptly ignited an enthusiastic throng with excitement that built through opening sets by Poppy and Sullivan King.
With mosh-pit crowd-surfing in full swing, the band uncorked a 15-song set that included five songs from the new album as well as older fan faves “Hail to the King” and “Nightmare.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Avenged Sevenfold, Sullivan King at Van Andel Arena
Photos by Anthony Norkus
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