In This Moment and Ice Nine Kills brought their theatrical co-headlining tour to the city that never sleeps with their friends in Avatar and New Year’s Day on November 27th, 2023. Were you at the Hammerstein Ballroom for this deadly night of slashing and fire? Better yet, did WE send you there? Relive the night with us here at WDHA!
Starting out the night strong was New Year’s Day with a career-spanning 7 song setlist. The crowd was already out in numbers before the show started, and New Year’s Day definitely brought the energy to get people excited for the rest of the night.
Next up was the “Great Metal Circus” known as Avatar. There’s something that just hits differently when a metal band from Sweden takes the stage, and Avatar proved it by demanding and commanding the attention of everyone in the Hammerstein Ballroom. The band even managed to get a wall of death that split the whole crowd from barricade to sound mixer in the back. Not too shabby for one of the opening bands!
Following Avatar was the incomparable Ice Nine Kills, the first headliner of the night. They dove right into their lead single from 2021’s Welcome to Horrorwood: The Silver Scream 2, “Hip To Be Scared”. Their signature theatrics came into play almost immediately with the axe-wielding frontman Spencer Charnas going full American Psycho on their Paul Allen-esc crew member. The band kept this energy up throughout the performance, bringing scenes from horror’s biggest films to the stage all while performing with the help of their crew. From recreating Hitchcock’s Psycho shower scene during the aptly titled “The Shower Scene”, to donning animal masks and Spencer running around with a shovel during “Funeral Derangements” based on Steven King’s Pet Sematary, to even bringing out a shark for the Jaws inspired “Rocking The Boat”. They had New York in the palm of their hand from start to finish.
Last but certainly not least, the legendary In This Moment took the stage, with all the momentum of the increasingly theatric acts leading up to a grand performance. Before Maria Brink, backed by her band and the Blood Girls, made it halfway through the first song the stage was lit up by jets of fire, signaling the queen of theatric metal has truly arrived on the stage. Throughout the duration of their set, Maria and the Blood Girls went through an amazingly choreographed performance, all while Maria hit every note and then some. And it’s not like they’re just moving a little on flat, solid ground, the band arrived on stage with a massive stage setup that included a multi-layered platform that was gradually changed and repurposed throughout the performance, a very well-tied-in and disguised area to change costumes mid-set, and a massive staircase themed around their song “Whore” used by Maria to end the show. The combination of perfectly timed pyro and fog, the stage design, the choreography, and the various costumes themed around each song made for an amazing performance, and that’s before you consider the fact they were also playing some absolutely rocking tracks, creating a perfect endcap to a night of theatrics and metal.
We hope you enjoy the photos, these are just a handful of memories from an amazing night out in New York City taken by one of our promotions assistants, Nick “Chewie” Polis.
Ice Nine Kills played a 14-song set that included –
Hip To Be Scared
Rainy Day
Meat & Greet
Ex/Mørtis
Rocking The Boat
Stabbing In The Dark
The Fastest Way To A Girl’s Heart Is Through Her Ribcage
Wurst Vacation
Funeral Derangements
Your Number’s Up
The American Nightmare
The Shower Scene
Welcome To Horrorwood
Meanwhile, In This Moment closed the show with an 11 song set that included –
THE PURGE
The In-Between
SANCTIFY ME
Blood
SACRIFICE
Army Of Me (Björk cover)
Something I Can Never Have (Nine Inch Nails cover)
Adrenalize
Big Bad Wolf
Whore
