20 Years With Five Finger Death Punch in Austin

Cody Jinks and Eva Under Fire joined the 20th anniversary stop at Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin Monday night. Five Finger Death Punch had spent two decades building songs around massive riffs, blunt-force choruses and the kind of crowd participation that turned an amphitheater into something closer to a rally. Monday night at Germania Insurance Amphitheater felt less like a nostalgia stop and more like a reminder of how many of those songs had become permanent parts of the modern hard rock songbook. The bill itself was strange enough to be interesting. But as Ivan Moody said, ‘We will tour with anyone who isn’t going to have Beyoncé on their next record’. Eva Under Fire opened. Cody Jinks followed. Five Finger Death Punch closed. That was a long way to travel stylistically in one night, but the crowd seemed more than willing to go along with it.

Eva Under Fire had the least forgiving slot, playing early while people were still making their way into the amphitheater. They did not treat it like a warmup. Eva Marie gave the set its center of gravity. She had the kind of voice that could cut through a half-full outdoor venue without sounding like she was trying too hard to prove she belonged there. The band leaned into hard rock without getting swallowed by the heavier acts around them. Then Cody Jinks came out and reset the room completely. No explosions. No giant metal production. No need for any of it. Cody Jinks worked best when the songs were allowed to do the heavy lifting, and that was exactly what happened. “Fast Hand” and “David” settled the crowd in quickly. “Ain’t a Train” felt made for a Texas audience. “Hippies and Cowboys” needed no introduction.

There was a looseness to Jinks onstage that fit his songs. He did not seem particularly interested in overperforming them. He just let them land. And the crowd loved every minute of it. “Heavy Load”, “Mamma Song” and “Which One I Feed” slowed the set down without losing the room. “Must Be the Whiskey” brought the energy back, and by the time he got to the AC/DC cover of “It’s a Long Way to the Top”, the transition into Five Finger Death Punch did not feel nearly as strange as it might have on paper. Cody Jinks then closed with his classic “Loud and Heavy”.

Five Finger Death Punch took over the stage

Then the lights went out. Five Finger Death Punch opened with “Welcome to the Circus” and never spent much time easing into anything after that. “Eye of the Storm” and “Legacy” followed before the first real surge of the night with “Lift Me Up”, “Jekyll and Hyde” and “Wash It All Away”. Those songs were a good reminder of why the band had stayed this big for this long. The formula was not complicated. Huge guitars. Huge choruses. Enough space for Ivan Moody to hand half the song back to the crowd. Twenty years in and it still worked better than ever.

“Bad Company” came next, and at this point Five Finger Death Punch had played that song so many times it felt less like a cover than a permanent piece of their catalogue. “De Oppresso Liber” pushed the set back into heavier territory, followed by “Burn It Down”, the drum solo and “Burn MF”. Then the show changed gears again. “Far From Home” brought the room down, and “Wrong Side of Heaven” hit harder because of it. That contrast was still one of the more interesting things about Five Finger Death Punch. The band sold aggression better than almost anyone in mainstream metal, but a lot of the songs people connected with most were about things that were much less comfortable. Addiction. Regret. Isolation. Bad choices. The mess after the anger wore off.

“Wrong Side of Heaven” did not need much help live. The crowd already knew where to meet it. “IOU” pulled the energy back up before the band loosened up and Chris Kael started throwing out pieces of songs everyone in the building knew. “Enter Sandman”. “Last Resort”. “Livin’ on a Prayer”. It was goofy in the best way. For a few minutes the show stopped feeling like a metal production and turned into one very large bar singalong. The band would start a familiar line, the crowd would take it, and that was enough to keep the energy high. Ivan came back out and then it was back into “Trouble” and “Never Enough”.

A fitting end to the 20th anniversary show

“Under and Over It”, “Sham Pain” and “The Bleeding” closed the night, with “The Bleeding” landing exactly where it should. There was something fitting about ending a 20th anniversary show with one of the songs that helped start the whole thing. The band was bigger now in every obvious way. Bigger stages. Bigger production. Bigger catalogue. Bigger crowds. But the basic relationship with the audience had not changed much. Five Finger Death Punch knew what its fans wanted, and more importantly, the fans knew what they were going to get.

Monday night was not about reinvention. It was about proving the old machine still ran. And it did.

Photos (c) Jordan Maloney