It was the 17th of April, a Sunday, and Hollywood Undead returned to Norwich once more with metalcore mates from Attila tagging along. This wasn’t going to be your usual Sunday evening with a roast dinner and a Disney film on channel five, Hollywood Undead made certain that this would be the case.
Travelling all the way from Atlanta, Georgia, Attila established the strange tone of hybrid genres by cracking through nine tracks deriving predominantly from their 2013 record About That Life. What we were about to witness was the weirdest blend of metalcore and rap metal as the lead singer, Chris “Fronzilla” Fronzak sported a pair of sunglasses in a dimly-lit room. Although it may not be everyone’s ‘thing’, the combination of metalcore beatdowns and a lead singer spitting bars with a grouchy voice only helped to keep the audience bouncing. It was certainly a set where genre-boundaries didn’t particularly matter as Fronzak asked us if we were into Hip Hop, before crunching the LCR with the typical Morse-code metalcore riffs.
They fiercely opened their set with ‘Middle Fingers Up’ generating instant mosh-pits and several circle-pits ensued as their slot unfolded whilst interaction between the audience and their band was slightly reserved, although we were constantly reminded that Attila were “here to party and to fuck shit up”, and you got to give it to them, they surely put on a high-quality performance. The only issue I seem to have with Attila is that I remain uncertain as to whether they are a self-aware parody of everything that is questionable about the American metalcore genre or whether they are 100% serious about their image and how they come across. To me, there is just something ever-so-slightly immature about the lyrical content of their songs and wearing sunglasses indoors, but maybe I’m just being too picky and missed the boat with this group to take it at all seriously. However, if you can look past the silliness of their look and the absurdity of their songs, and just embrace what they’re all about, Attila can show you a good time and get a packed venue ready for the headline act.
So now Attila had the LCR warmed up, and as more people squashed in to get closer to the main event, Hollywood Undead finally unveiled their large set with two drum kits, a turntable and an elevated stage, allowing plenty of room for the dynamic show that was about to proceed. Kicking off their setlist with Usual Suspects off their most recent album Day of the Dead, all six members collated on-stage, complete with their iconic masks. Where Attila blended metalcore and hip hop, Hollywood Undead daringly combined dubstep, metal and hip hop as if to throw the boundaries of genres right out the window. Say what you want about Hollywood Undead, it was very obvious that they have a strong and dedicated fan base as just about everyone around me completely lost it when they came on stage, not to mention how easy it is to sing along to their choruses, even if you’ve never heard the song before. There’s an almost irritating catchiness to their music; everyone tells you you shouldn’t enjoy it, but you can’t help but bop along to what they have to offer.
Hollywood Undead don’t just stop at defying conventional standards of music though, but they also completely switch-up how a show should unfold as one moment a band member is leading the vocals on a song, and the next moment he’s playing bass in the background. At first it was so easy to lose track of who was who, but in the end I realised that that wasn’t really the point to Hollywood Undead. They all bring a certain individuality to the band, but they don’t let fixed positions hold them down at all. Typically, an audience would only ever interact with the lead singer of a conventional rock band as they maintain the attention and communication of the crowd, but with Hollywood Undead, just about everyone gets a chance. Each character is just as important and significant as the other in creating their on-stage presence. Was a bit of a shame that they abandoned their masks so soon into their set, especially considering how Slipknot can manage an entire show with their masks still on, but different strokes for different folks; the individualism of each band member was probably more important than maintaining a look of anonymity.
Speaking of audience interaction, however, Hollywood Undead did a very audacious thing in hoisting some teenage lads onto the stage to perform with them. It definitely hindered the up-beat pacing of their setlist and these boys nervously played whatever they could remember on guitar in-front of an audience of strangers, but fair play to them for actually doing it as it must’ve took a lot of guts. Eventually though, it became a bit awkward as they ended up being the butt of a few jokes for the band members as what would’ve been a golden opportunity to have a life-changing experience spiralled into a mildly embarrassing few moments on stage. Needless to say, it was nice to see one of the teenagers embrace the comedic side of the entire thing as he feebly screamed “Undead!” – and the crowd went wild with laughter. I can’t help but wonder how those guys took it all afterwards.
Hollywood Undead treated us to a couple of covers of ‘Seven Nation Army’ and ‘Du Hast’ which certainly raised my eyebrows a few times before finally getting to their anthem ‘Everywhere I Go’ which had each and every audience member swinging their arms shamelessly in the air to the chorus. It was at that point that Hollywood Undead as a band just clicked for me, I finally ‘got it’ and I couldn’t help but hum it all the way home.
Closing their set with the more heartfelt track Hear Me Now, it became pretty evident that although Hollywood Undead aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, they’re not going to let that prevent them from putting on a high quality show. They’re not just doing it for themselves, or for the fans, but to subvert any labels you want to assign them and to sod the haters. They’re just having a good time and you can either tag along or go elsewhere.
As I arrived home my flatmates asked me if I enjoyed myself, and despite never really being into Hollywood Undead, I would’ve been lying if I said I didn’t.
Words – Chris Hambling
Photography – Kayleigh Warren
