John 5 and the Creatures at Manchester Music Hall 11-08-2018

Written By: Michael Deinlein

John 5 and the creatures deliver a magical performance in Lexington with Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow and Michael Tyree.

You could feel the anticipation in the room building as the stage was being cleared and reset for John 5 and The Creatures as several large Halloween inflatables and John’s custom riser were put in place. Without much fanfare, the house lights drop and a loud roar welcomes John 5 to the stage and they immediately tear into “Making Monsters,” “Flight of the Vulcan Kelly,” “Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Pickers in Hell,” “This Is My Rifle,” “Hell Haw I.G.R.,” “First Victim,” and “Season of the Witch” in rapid-fire succession.

Now more than halfway through the show John 5 takes one of only two short breaks to address the crowd; “Thank everyone for coming out, it looks like we have some repeat offenders, some Creatures who are traveling to see us at several shows – which we love”. He goes on “I do this because I love playing guitar, really no other reason, I just love playing for you” The next song is from our upcoming album due out in January, it’s called “Zoinks” followed by the “Nut Jam” and “Behind the Nut Love”.

One more time John 5 is center stage “the last time we were here in Lexington it was pretty good but tonight I feel it is better. Today I went to Walmart and hung out, it was cool, I love coming here” drawing a huge roar from the crowd. “This next song is for little Trent, he loves the song but hates the video” as the guys launch into “Carrie”.  

Finishing up just as he started John 5 along with bassist Ian Ross and drummer Logan Nix aka The Creatures finish the night just as it started, in blazing fashion performing “The Black Grass Plague,” “Here’s to the Crazy Ones,” “Mando Jam” John 5’s crazy mandolin Jam, a Metallica cover of “Enter Sandman” where everyone in the crowd was singing at the top of their voices.

John 5’s popular medley starting off with a bit from Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” along with Snippets of “Cat Scratch Fever,” “Search and Destroy,” “Man in the Box,” even “Roxanne” ultimately ending with “Killing in the Name” and Pantera’s “Walk” had the crowd going at every change in song.  John 5 and the creatures finished off a memorable evening “Ddd”- Triple D’s Solo leaving everyone thoroughly satisfied.   

Providing the main support this evening was Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow.  “Hellzapoppin is a world renown theatrical ROCK-N-ROLL circus stunt-show where some of the deadliest stunts in live entertainment are performed to a LIVE audience with emphatic rock music.”  Lead by “The Govna” Mr.  Bryce Graves along with Nik Sin, Short E. Dangerously, The world-famous Lizard Man and Eric Ross, Hellzapoppin delivered one awe-inspiring act after another including fire eating, eating razor blades, sword swallowing and Short E. Dangerously “walking” on a table full of broken glass shards.  After Hellzapoppin finished their last spectacular sideshow act, they all were found at the merch table meeting and taking pictures with everyone and anyone who was interested.

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