Written By Braddon S. Williams aka “The Concert Critic”
On this date in history, 4/8/2022, my stepdaughter and I attended The Trinity Of Terror Tour at Blue Ribbon Pavilion on the Indiana State Fairgrounds. This show featured a trio of bands with three-word names: Ice Nine Kills, Motionless In White, and Black Veil Brides, with opener Lilith Czar.
Originally booked at a smaller venue, this triple headliner tour had to be relocated to the much larger State Fairground location due to aggressive ticket sales. I’m the first to admit that I was not the target demographic for this one, but my stepdaughter Emma has been developing a taste for heavier music and I am both proud and supportive of her growing love of attending live shows. Having said that, I had previously seen Motionless In White and Black Veil Brides, and I knew there would be some high energy entertainment and I wouldn’t automatically hate being there. Taking one for the team is one thing, but Emma knew I wasn’t going against my will. Not too long ago her musical taste was obsessively consumed with K-pop, so anything hard rock or metal related feels like victory.
I knew next to nothing about Lilith Czar prior to the show, and I’m certainly not going to lie and say I became a big fan, but she proved to have a strong vocal presence and a genuinely grateful attitude that built a visible excitement in the crowd as her set progressed. I didn’t hear anything revolutionary going on musically, but after doing a bit of research I learned that she has been steadily building her career for the past decade and that she is married to the Black Veil Brides’ singer, Andy Biersack.
Lilith Czar appears to be a band on the rise. Speaking of Black Veil Brides, they confirmed what I had already determined from my previous experience of their live performance; these guys are an extension of the best qualities of glamorous L.A. hard rock that ruled the late ’80’s. With singalong choruses, gigantic riff fueled anthems, blazing guitar solos (both singular and harmonized), and endless energy, Black Veil Brides collectively never stop moving and absolutely never forget why they are on that stage…they are there to entertain the predominantly young female fanbase and they do it with enthusiastic excellence.
Front man Andy Biersack has charisma to spare and doesn’t stray from his comfort zone vocally, which allows him to stay on pitch and full voiced. The rest of the band are adept with support vocals and are definitely great players. I knew going into this show that they would likely be the highlight for me and indeed they were.
Motionless In White followed and arguably had the most rabid crowd response of the evening. Some of that comes from having the best time slot, but a lot of it was due to the performance of Chris Motionless, who (like Biersack) knows his audience and relentlessly involves them in the gang choruses and hype points of his band’s music. I had last seen Motionless In White on a package tour in support of Slipknot and Lamb Of God in 2015. Clearly, MIW have grown enormously in the past seven years and absorbed lots of lessons from some of the heavyweights in the extreme metal community.
Overall, I think I enjoyed them more when they were an up-and-coming band. Back then they felt like a more wholesome alternative to Marilyn Manson. This time around they felt a little too derivative of Manson to me, but once again, I’m not their target and their target was ravenous, so hats off to them for their growth. Ice Nine Kills performed the final set of the night and I have both good and bad opinions concerning the horror lyric based metalcore band. First of all, I love the staging, the visuals, and the horror stuff. Everything happening on stage looked so good to me, unfortunately (as is usually the case with bands I don’t like) the vocals just killed the vibe for me.
Ice Nine Kills have been described as symphonic metal at times, but to me it was almost more appropriate to label them opera metal…and I just couldn’t get around my inability to ignore all that high pitched (i.e., whiny) sound.
Emma and I decided to call it a night and leave early, both concluding that we had enjoyed a tremendously entertaining evening of heavy music with great theatrics, visuals, energy, and production values.
Blue Ribbon Pavilion doesn’t have ideal sound, but it was certainly packed with all the elements of a rock show that featured young bands that are carrying the torch for heavy music and helping spread the fire to a hungry young audience. I applaud Ice Nine Kills, Motionless In White, Black Veil Brides, and Lilith Czar for their efforts and their continued success.
Tour Dates:
Aug. 30 – Denver, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre#
Sep. 03 – Omaha, NE – Liberty First Credit Union Arena (buy tickets)
Sep. 04 – Pryor, OK – Rocklahoma*
Sep. 06 – Fort Wayne, IN – Allen County War Memorial Expo Center (buy tickets)
Sep. 07 – Cleveland, OH – Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica (buy tickets)
Sep. 09 – Scranton, PA – Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain (buy tickets)
Sep. 10 – Alton, VA – Blue Ridge Rock Fest*
Sep. 11 – Asheville, NC – Exploreasheville.com Arena (buy tickets)
Sep. 13 – Milwaukee, WI – Eagles Ballroom (buy tickets)
Sep. 14 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill (buy tickets)
Sep. 16 – Bonner Springs, MO – Azura Amphitheater (buy tickets)
Sep. 17 – Saint Charles, MO – The Family Arena (buy tickets)
Sep. 18 – Cincinnati, OH – ICON at The Andrew J Brady Music Center (buy tickets)