In Holland it almost seems like Disturbed is getting bigger every time they come over. Personally I even think the band isn’t really improving musically but the band knows how to play a perfect show. Where the band first played the smaller venues in Holland they returned to the biggest hall designed for music in The Netherlands which has got a capacity of 5000. Tonight the hall was filled with 3500 people, which is a lot since the band only played two smaller gigs less than two years ago.

Special guest on tour are the guys from Shinedown. Metalrage reviewed their previous album ‘Us And Them’ back in 2005 but the band never released an album outside of the US. With a refreshed line up the band has released their new album ‘The Sound Of Madness’ in the US earlier this year. In the upcoming months the album will see a worldwide release and thanks to Disturbed the band had the chance to do a big supporting tour throughout Europe. This evening it just didn’t work out, the band experienced a horrible night. Due to some imperfections in the mix and a bad day for frontman Brent Smith, it wasn’t the best show these guys could give. Within the venue, various instruments couldn’t be heard or were way too loud. And the vocals just didn’t live up to the quality on the albums. But the crowd didn’t seem to mind, every time Brent asked the crowd to jump, almost the entire venue started to jump. And during the song ’45’ he asked the crowd to light up the venue with mobile phones and lighters and even in the back people responded to his question. The band will be back in Europe for a smaller club tour in January 2009, let’s hope they can show what they are capable of then.

When you are visiting your first Disturbed show you are always amazed, after multiple visits you simply know this band has got a solid performance each time you see them. After a 30 minutes change over, Disturbed frontman David entered the stage in a straightjacket. He has been doing this since the release of the album so it wasn’t a big surprise but is nice to see some artists always try to find an original way to start a show. The set list of the night included songs like Stupify, Down With The Sickness, Prayer, Liberate, Land Of Confusion and Indestructible. The great thing about this band is the fact that their sound, show and performance are always perfect. Their fans are aware of this and therefore the band deserved to play the big Heineken Music Hall this time. And even though the band plays in front of 10s of thousands of people in the States, this is the biggest Disturbed show so far. Even David noticed the growth in Holland and announced that the next time the band is around, he wants to play the Ajax football stadium next door. During their set, which lasted over 100 minutes, the sound was perfect, the lights were perfect and the crowd was enthusiastic as hell. If they continue like this the band might be able to get those 10000 fists in the air next time around in the Arena next door, which has got a capacity over 40.000. Tonight they only managed to get 7000.

I want to thank Metal Mike from Aardschok for lending me his camera!