Five Finger Death Punch at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY 06-DEC-2019

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It’s a homecoming of sorts for Chris Kael and Five Finger Death Punch along with Three Days Grace, Bad Wolves and Fire From The Gods.

As 2019 draws to an end, massive things are in the works for Five Finger Death Punch. More than halfway through a 29 show, 45-day arena tour run, the band announced their highly anticipated upcoming studio album, titled simply F8 would be released on February 20th along with the release of the first single from the album “Inside Out”. The album announcement was just the beginning as Five Finger Death Punch also announced a massive spring tour, kicking off on April 8th in Sunrise, Florida with Papa Roach, I Prevail and Ice Nine Kills.

Tonight’s tour stop brought the guys to bassist Chris Kael’s hometown of Lexington, Kentucky for what promised to be a fun and lively show. During Three Days Grace’s set changeover Chris appeared side stage, wearing his white and blue University of Kentucky hockey jersey, waving, pointing and egging the crowd on while tossing handfuls of picks to the eager fans.

As the stage length curtain fell from the rafters Five Finger Death Punch blasts into the opener “Lift Me Up” and the evening is off to a fiery start. Without taking a breath “Trouble,” “Wash It All Away” and “Jekyll and Hyde” come rolling from the stage that has the crowd surfers and mosh pits going full bore. It seems that frontman Ivan Moody was a little “down” earlier in the day with some flu-like symptoms which forced him to miss the pre-show meet and greet but “I got a shot in the A$$ and I feel great!” (By the way, Ivan vowed to make up his missed M&G appearance to the Lexington fans.)

There are certain trademark moments in every FFDP show and tonight is no different. Reinforcing the band’s deep and unwavering support for the military and first responders a cover of Bad Company’s “Bad Company” and “No One Gets Left Behind” is dedicated to those in attendance. It’s worth noting that for this entire tour run a portion from every ticket sold benefits America’s defenders, veterans, first responders, and their families via the Gary Sinise Foundation. Ivan also likes to bring as many children as possible on stage during their acoustic portion of the performance, unfortunately, tonight’s stage production didn’t allow the kids onstage (for safety reasons) so Ivan, with pockets stuffed to the gills with bags of candy, tossed them to the kids near the front of the stage.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and tonight is no different. After closing their main set with a raucous rendition of Burn MF, complete with soaring, stage length walls of fire, Five Finger Death Punch closes out their evening with a 2 song encore set beginning with “Under and Over It” and closing with “The Bleeding”. It is a homecoming that many Lexingtonians will fondly talk about for quite some time.

Providing the main support this evening was Three Days Grace, with the Lexington crowd more than ready for them. Three Days Grace opened their all too short set with their #1 hit single from their latest album Outsider, “The Mountain” and never looked back! With a set that covered all the bands most popular hits including “The Good Life,” “Painkiller,” “Break,” “Pain” and “I Hate Everything About You” the Lexington fans responded with a rolling mosh pit that seemed to get bigger and more intense as the performance rolled on.

Three Days Grace ended their time on the Rupp Arena stage with “Animal I Have Become” with a White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” bridge expertly worked in, followed by “Never Too Late” before closing with their mega-hit “Riot,” leaving the crowd on fire and adrenaline flowing!

Opening the evening was a hard-hitting one-two punch of Fire From The Gods and Bad Wolves. Starting things off was AJ Channer and Fire from The Gods who wasted none of their time on stage, starting off with the high energy “The Voiceless” and never let up. AJ took a quick moment to address the crowd, “sometimes life can beat you up and eff you up but Life isn’t about being knocked down. It’s about fighting back” before dropping into “Fight The World”, ultimately ending up at the barrier connecting with as many fans as possible. Fire From the Gods ends their set with their hot new single, “Right Now” from their latest American Sun album, and “Excuse Me”.

Feeding off the FFTG energy in the room, Tommy Vext and Los Angeles based rockers Bad Wolves turned up the power with a raging set which included fan favorites “Remember When” and “Killing Me Slowly” before ending with their mega-hit, a cover of The Cranberries “Zombie”.