Rock Out With My Shot Out: Disturbed - PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ 7/31/16

Disturbed returned to headline The PNC Bank Arts Center in NJ for the first time in 5 years. Support for this tour was Breaking Benjamin, Alter Bridge and Saint Asonia.

It was about this time last year when Distubed made a surprise return with a brand new album that most people did not even know about. They were last seen in the summer of 2011 headlining the Rockstar Mayhem Festival. I guess the 4 years off did them good, since they came back stronger than ever. The new album "Immortalized" has already had 4 singles including the cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence". I have heard the cover many times on the XM radio channel "Octane" and I though they did a great job and put an interesting twist to it. Hearing the song live at this show for me is when I really got an appreciation for it. Singer David Draiman vocally did the song justice and it actually sounded better live than the album. He also had the entire crowd light up the venue with their phones during the song. It was definitely a highlight of the night.

I was at that PNC Disturbed show back in 2011 and it was actually my first time seeing them. Even though the band put on a great performance back in 2011, the crowd was terribly quiet. The crowd at this years show was actually one of the loudest I have heard at PNC, which was great. This was a dual headlining tour with Breaking Benjamin and Disturbed getting the same stage time but Disturbed closed out each show.

The one thing Disturbed like on stage is pyro and a lot of it. This was probably the most pyro I have seen at a show next to "Trans Siberian Orchestra". At one point the pyro shot into fire curtains that continually burned nearly the length of one song. It actually looked like the stage accidentally caught fire at first but it was just a different take on the pyro effect.

It was Dan Donegan's birthday and David stopped the show to have the crowd wish him a happy birthday. This was hands down one of the best shows I have seen this year with an awesome line up of bands, all putting on great performances.

Disturbed will be doing some fall dates with "Nothing More" opening, so you still have a chance to catch them if you missed this huge summer tour.

Camera Gear: Canon 70D & Canon 18-135 F3.5-5.6