August 4th, 2015 was a special day in Boston, MA history and not because of the freakishly sized hail and multiple thunder storms. This night was the return of the legendary Faith No More. The Blue Hills Bank Pavilion was packed in tight with fans (some still damp from the storms) ready to have memorable sing-a-longs with Mike Patton and company. Before they were to hit the stage, the crowd was warmed up by opening act, Refused.

Never having a chance to listen to them previously, I made sure I was right on time to catch the entire set from Refused. The lead vocalist, Dennis Lyxzen, was entertaining to watch as he danced around the stage and was literally oozing charisma. There were a few occasions where he even jumped down into the crowd, walking among the rows of seats filled with fans, and high-fiving everyone. As for the set list, they played three tracks from their latest release, Freedom (Epitaph Records), and then mixing in older material as well. One of the bigger pops of the set came during ‘The Deadly Rhythm’ when the band hit the interlude and busted out the intro section of Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’. Overall, Refused did a great job in getting the Boston crowd pumped up and ready for Faith No More.

After what seemed like hours waiting for the set to start, Faith No More was on stage and delivering hit after hit. The stage was completely white outside of the large array of plotted flower arrangements all over the stage. The set list was stacked from the opener, ‘The Real Thing’, down to the closing encore tracks, ‘Motherfucker’ and ‘Just A Man’. Given that this tour was to promote the latest album, Sol Invictus (Reclamation Records), it did not surprise me that a majority of the tracks would come from this album. Some favorite new tracks played include ‘Separation Anxiety’, ‘Superhero’, and ‘Matador’. Since barring the recent show this spring, Faith No More had not been in Boston in a handful or two of years, it was imperative that the rowdy fans got to hear some old classics. ‘Be Aggressive’, ‘Midlife Crisis’, ‘Evidence’, ‘Epic’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, and of course their cover of ‘Easy’ were some of the highlights of the set. During the last song of the evening, ‘Just A Man’, Mike Patton crowd surfed into the seated audience while still belting out the lyrics flawlessly. Certainly a first in my concert going experiences. After the encore ended, most fans stayed for a few extra minutes trying to work a second encore out of the band, but security unfortunately ended this quickly.

Overall this was everything I had hoped for and more for my first time seeing Faith No More after listening to their music for the better part of fifteen years. The openers, Refused, got everyone worked up and ready to go. Faith No More’s live presence, the set list, sound, really everything, was downright flawless. I could go on about how I really wanted a different song here and there, but I consider myself beyond fortunate to see this band play live since when I started listening to them, they had already broken up. It was an absolute pleasure watching this band live and I was not let down as these guys still bring it!

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WORDS BY TIM LEDIN

PHOTOS BY MEG LOYAL PHOTOGRAPHY