Faith No More Lands Concussive Blows on Audiences – New York (Photos)

When exiting Webster Hall after Faith No More’s show on May 13th, I noticed spots of blood on the stairs. I didn’t see what happened, but imagined two dudes in black t-shirts getting into an argument and then getting rough enough to draw blood. They should have remembered the music is pounding enough. While I had arrived at the venue dressed casually as I would for almost any show, apparently black was the recommended attire. The color marked those who were hardcore fans; those people there to see the band they first loved decades ago.

Faith No More got their start in the 80s with a couple of hard rock albums. Around the turn of the decade, the band ditched their lead vocalist and, with Mike Patton now on board, they sharpened their songwriting and released what is arguably their finest album The Real Thing. Almost a decade after that, in 1997, the band released Album of the Year and disbanded early the next year. Now eighteen years later, the band, which includes Patton, Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum, Billy Gould and Jon Hudson, is set to release their seventh album Sol Invictus on Ipecac Recordings (of which Patton is a co-founder). Their current US tour is almost over, and they will be heading to Europe before returning for more US dates in mid to late summer.

At Webster Hall, the audience was already primed to see the band even before opener Le Butcherettes had begun. After the opener, stagehands in sterile-looking white outfits draped with white cloths over the platforms and gear, and lined up prepared boxes of colorful (fake) flowers along the front. It wasn’t the atmosphere I anticipated, but the tranquility it promised was quickly shattered when Faith No More took the stage. Before the second song had ended, people in the audience were crowd-surfing their way to the front as Patton sang and screamed, letting spittle fly from his mouth. He even wielded a bullhorn if it wasn’t clear the band was here to wield their hard rock with concussive force. Every ounce of energy they had went into their taut 90 minute set giving the audience little room to breathe. Faith No More’s tour may not be for everyone, but fans of the band should definitely catch them if they can as should hard rock fans who hadn’t been around two decades ago during their heyday. A Faith No More show is an assured assault on the body from unapologetic performers enthusiastic to be back together.