Sunday, Mothers Day at the House of Blues, rocked with the double bill of Kill Devil Hill and Adrenaline Mob. Both bands are made up of established superstars in a coalition of musical minds performing equally as good as their previous ventures.
The foundation of Adrenaline Mob is Mike Portnoy. 25 years with Dream Theater, Mike established himself as one of rock’s most premier drummers. He started and or played in several bands such as Liquid Tension Experiment, Avenged Sevenfold, Flying Colors and many other projects. Mike Orlando, guitarist with speed unlike no other, has two solo albums Sonic Stomp and Sonic Stomp II and has worked with Zakk Wylde and Bumblefoot. The front man and vocalist Russell Allen came from System X and the bottom end is held up by John “The Hit Man” Moyer on bass originally from Disturbed.
Kill Devil Hill’s bottom end is provided by Rex Brown formerly of Grammy nominated, platinum selling band Pantera. On the drums, Vinnie Appice’s list of bands that he has laid down a powerful rhythm is almost legendary. He has played with Dio, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Ozzy Osbourne, WWIII, Axis, Rick Derringer, and at age 16 performed with John Lennon. Mark Zavon provided the guitar who also was in WWIII, toured with Stephen Pearcy of Ratt, and in the 90’s recorded with the band Scream Parade. Ear shattering vocals of Dewey Bragg filled the front stage with powerful melodies and heavy metal screams, rounded out the foursome.
Kill Devil Hill fueled the fire getting the audience into metal in increasing volumes. Dewey’s mic stand which was like a big solid chain with skulls dangling led with songs like Strange, Gates of Hell and Voodoo doll. On this last song a sort of small mosh pit built in the center of the crowd. Kill Devil Hill rocked Draw Bridge which left Adrenaline Mob set up nicely to finish the off Mothers Day.
The electricity in the air went crazy during Freight Train, in which Mike Portnoy commented that the crowd was like Dio, small but with a lot of power. Imagine even more crowd noise when they started the song, The Mob Rules by Black Sabbath. Mike Orlando was on fire playing like it was the last time he would ever play.
I wondered why Vinnie’s drums stayed on the stage after Kill Devil Hill ended and Adrenaline Mob played most of their set. This was answered as he came out to the roar of the fans and they played some old Dio. Vinnie and Mike took it to another level dueling it out back and forth in an all out drum jam. Both bands came out together for a double bass, double drums, guitar and vocals rocking in up even higher for some more Sabbath getting the crowd into it with War Pigs.
The fun would never end it seemed as Mike Portnoy got off the drums and grabbed a guitar and played the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”
It is a breath of fresh air to see a band really enjoy themselves as much as Adrenaline Mob seemed to, and it was infectious with the fans. I hope to see a tremendous amount of more good music from both bands and will most definitely look forward to seeing them again.
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