Disturbed Are Using Pyro for a Powerful Purpose on Their Take Back Your Life Tour

The band’s encore actually set off the venue’s sprinkler system

Last night in Camden, New Jersey, Disturbed brought out all the stops at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion. They ignited as much fire as possible on a shed stage, and the four tiers of flames actually set off the venue’s sprinkler system during the encore. All of the pyro his helping the band with a powerful purpose much bigger than the massive flames in their set. With the Take Back Your Life Tour, the band is bringing incredibly difficult topics like addiction, depression, and suicide, into the very brightest spotlight where they need to be.

Check out our full photo gallery and setlist from the show below.

Early in the evening, breakout sensations Jinjer kicked things off with brute force. The Ukrainian metallers have been making some serious noise Stateside, having recently wrapped up a solid headlining tour last year. Now, they’re pushing hard rock heavyweights Breaking Benjamin and Disturbed to give a little extra every night.

They kicked things off with “Perennial,” then proceeded to play several songs from their latest studio effort, 2021’s Wallflower. They also treated fans to the viciously calculated “I Speak Astronomy.” They wrapped things up with “As I Boil Ice.” While the group has a solid amount of material stockpiled, they’re using this time wisely to push their latest record here in the U.S. The band sounds as tight as they do on tape, and vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk is a ferocious force on stage.

Jinjer have a few headlining dates sprinkled into their schedule as this run with Disturbed winds down. They also have a highly anticipated performance slated at Blue Ridge Rock Festival on Sunday, September 10. With any luck, Jinjer won’t take too long to return to North America where they are picking up an incredible amount of steam.

Hard rock hitmakers Breaking Benjamin rarely disappoint anymore. At this point, what you see is what you get. The band’s lineup has been consistent since band anchor Benjamin Burnley brought the group back in 2014. With a staunch group of musicians surrounding him, Burnley and the rest of the band simply stroll onto the stage and crank out hit after hit.

They opened with “Failure,” the lead single from their 2015 comeback album Dark Before Dawn. From there, it was a barrage of hits and fan favorites spanning their entire discography. Highlights included “Until the End,” “Red Cold River,” “Blow Me Away,” “I Will Not Bow,” and the breakout hit “Polyamorous” from their 2002 debut LP Saturate.

The band’s 2004 classic We Are Not Alone got a lot of attention. The band pulled four hits from the record – “Follow,” “Sooner or Later,” the criminally underrated “Simple Design,” and the smash hit “So Cold.” The platinum album is one of the better rock records of the early 2000s, and it’s great to see the band giving it the love it deserves.

The wrapped up their solid 13-song set with “The Diary of Jane.” One of the band’s biggest songs, the crowd erupted as the opening notes gently tapped their eardrums. There’s probably no better way to end a Breaking Benjamin show at this point in the band’s career.

Disturbed have long been at the forefront of heavy music. Over the last two decades, the band has dominated not just rock, but popular music as a whole. Beginning with the release of their sophomore effort Believe, Disturbed proceeded to release five albums from 2002 to 2015 that all debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Along with Metallica and Dave Matthews Band, they are only the third band in history to achieve this feat. Now, the band is armed with a massive arsenal of hits and they’re showcasing their entire career on their current tour, which is a huge treat for the fans.

The band walked onto the stage behind a huge curtain hiding the insanity of their stage show. When the curtain dropped, the band launched into “Hey You” and stage was immediately set a-blaze. The lead single of their latest release Divisive which arrived last year, it was a great way to kick things off with the crowd screaming every “Hey You” and nearly drowning out frontman David Draiman. After starting with something (relatively) new, they went all the way back to their landmark debut with “Stupify.” Then, the pyro intensified and so did the music with their 2005 anthem “Ten Thousand Fists.”

With a discography chock-full of commercial hits and fan favorites, choosing a setlist is probably getting pretty tough for Disturbed. They’re doing a good job, though, pulling at least one song from every single one of their eight studio efforts. Another highlight early on was the soaring “Prayer,” one of the finer cuts in their catalog.

Shortly after “Prayer,” Disturbed played “A Reason to Fight” from their 2018 LP Evolution. The band is using all their pyro for a powerful purpose on this tour. They’re using songs like “A Reason to Fight” to shine a light on overall human well-being. Before performing the song, the band plays a powerful PSA about suicide prevention on the venue screens. After the song, Draiman gets completely candid with the audience about his own demons. Fully exposing the rawest part of his soul, he speaks about how he contemplated suicide last year. His powerful message is poignant. Over the last few years, we’ve lost some of rock’s greatest musicians like Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park to suicide, not to mention the tens of thousands of people we lose every year because they took their own life. It’s been long overdue for mental health to be discussed more openly, and for it to be more than okay that people to ask for the help and support they need to take back their lives.

Midway through the set, they broke out their bruising hit “Another Way to Die” for the first time on this tour. The song hasn’t seen the lights of the stage since 2017. Disturbed have been keeping some songs in their back pocket on this run, treating fans in each city to a rare gem in addition to their regular set.

Later on before performing “The Light,” Draiman took a significant amount of time to interact with fans, spread some hope and positivity. One fan was invited on stage to share his story. He met the band during the Meet & Greet earlier in the day, and Draiman was moved by his story. Draiman handed him the mic, and he told the crowd how the band’s song “Hold” got him through losing his mother, and “Prayer” got him through the loss of his son.

Music is a powerful thing, and Disturbed are maximizing their power right now for the ultimate good.

The band wrapped things up with the riff monster “Stricken.” Then, with the capacity crowd screaming for more, Disturbed returned to the stage for a hefty three-song encore that started with “Unstoppable.” Then, the played the song that started it all – their seminal song “Down With the Sickness” from their first LP. They proceeded to end with “Inside the Fire,” and that’s when things really escalated.

The band made the song’s title literal, as the stage was absolutely engulfed in the most fire the fans had seen all night – so much so that it set off the venue’s sprinkler system. “I guess we did it again,” Draiman said, referencing a similar incident earlier in the tour. As the water rained down from the rafters, the band played on and finished up the night with a moment that those in attendance won’t soon forget.

The current Take Back Your Life Tour runs through September 2, wrapping up at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana.

Disturbed’s eighth studio album Divisive arrived last November via Reprise Records. Produced by Drew Faulk (Papa Roach, Highly Suspect, Motionless In White), the album hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock and Top Alternative Albums charts. The record features a very special guest appearance by Heart’s Ann Wilson on “Don’t Tell Me.”