Trinity of Terror Part III Concert Review
Peoria Civic Center
Peoria, Illinois
Thursday, November 11, 2022

 

Trinity of Terror Part III made its way to Peoria, Illinois. Peoria is keeping rock alive with the rock shows. Trinity of Terror consists of Motionless In White, Black Veil Brides and Ice Nine Kills. Each band has been around for more than fifteen years but are still considered new bands in the mind of older rock fans. I think of them fondly as Vans Warped Tour bands. Motionless In White was one of the first bands we covered in 2013. They were on tour with Asking Alexandria, Crown The Empire and Upon a Burning Body. That was an exceptional show for our very first show review.

I have seen Motionless In White twelve times. I like MIW but I did not purposely seek them out for every show. They have been touring so much where I would see them at Vans Warped Tour or opening for other bands. Their maturation into amazing entertainers makes me so happy to see the band’s growth and new fans at every show. Black Veil Brides has Andy Black at the helm who has forayed into acting with the movie American Satan and the spinoff series, Paradise City. He is one-half of the power couple with Lilith Czar, formerly known as Juliet Simms. Black Veil Brides became popular with their song “Knives and Pens”. It is a song about choice between destructive behavior or constructive behavior. Ice Nine Kills has attained tremendous success with their themed albums, The Silver Scream and The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood. Spencer Charnas and the band has been inspired by horror films and their passion has gone into these albums and the lyrics and show is very entertaining.

Starting the night was openers, Atreyu. The stage was filled with fog. Behind the band stood a thirty by forty foot LED screen and in front of the drum kit sat a smaller LED screen. In big, bold red letters Atreyu filled the screen during their set. Atreyu is a metalcore band from Yorba Linda, California that formed in 1998. The name comes from a character in The Neverending Story. Atreyu consists of founding member, vocalist and drummer, Brandon Saller, founding member, guitarist, Dan Jacobs, rhythm guitarist, Travis Miguel, bassist Marc “Porter” McKnight, and drummer, Kyle Rosa. Brandon has moved from behind the drum kit to the front as lead vocalist. Their latest album Baptize (Spinefarm Records) was released on June 4, 2021. You may have heard their radio hit, “Warrior” that features Travis Barker. They performed songs “The Time is Now” and sung a couple of lines of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston. That cover lent to the fun the band was having. They decided not to perform the entire song. The band primed the crowd for the Trinity. For more on Atreyu, go to their website: Atreyu Official

 

 

 

 

The Trinity of Terror change their lineup every evening so you never know who is going to be on stage next. Tonight it was Motionless in White. Motionless in White band consists of vocalist, Chris Motionless (Cerulli), lead guitarist, Ryan Sitkowski, rhythm guitarist, Ricky Horror (Olson), bassist, Justin Morrow, and drummer, Vinny Mauro. The stage was empty and the screen behind the stage lit up with “MOTIONLESS IN WHITE IS COMING ONLINE…” and “INITIATING BANGOVER SEQUENCE…”. A skeleton microphone holder with arms and a skull that could swing around sat in the front of the stage. The band took the stage with fog rolling in. The band members wore their signature black clothes with black and white makeup on their faces. They started the evening with “Disguise”. Behind them the LED screen displayed their name. Ryan Sitkowski was wearing a Hannibal Lecter inspired mask. The band had two female performers come out and use grinders to send sparks flying across the stage. The screen behind them incorporated imagery using their lyrics and also videos. During their performance of the single “Werewolf” images from the video went across the screen. That song video has nods to Michael Jackson with their jackets, dance choreography, and a sampling of “Somebody’s Watching Me” the Rockwell song that features Michael Jackson. the video is highly entertaining. You can watch it here.

 

 

Motionless In White full setlist:
Disguise
Sign of Life
Slaughterhouse
Werewolf
Voices
Cyberhex
Masterpiece
Dead as Fuck
Another Life
Somebody Told Me
Eternally Yours

During their performance of “Voices” the crowd sent up their LGBTQIA flags and Chris Motionless put them on display on the microphone stands. The lyrics “I know the man is everything but kind” flash across the screen and rainbow lighting lit up the stage. Chris has said on Twitter that many of the ‘lyrics were inspired by his personal conversations with people in the LGBT community’. During “Dead as Fuck”, the female performers came out as zombies and one of the zombies was on stilts and passed out candy to the crowd. Motionless in White also performed their cover of “Somebody Told Me” by The Killers. While I am not a fan of many cover songs, but I really liked this song live. Chris Motionless’ vocal abilities have gotten better over the years and he really shined tonight. He asked us if we knew what a bangover was. Well, its the equivalent of a hangover but due to headbanging. Motionless in White‘s live performance was exceedingly entertaining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Veil Brides was the next band to grace the stage. Black Veil Brides consists of vocalist, Andy Black (Biersack), lead guitarist, Jake Pitts, rhythm guitarist, Jinxx, drummer, Christian Coma (CC) and bassist, and bassist, Lonny Eagleton. The band wore black. Andy Black came out in a suit with a vest and jacket and no shirt. The band’s signature BVB imagery has changed a little to be more rigid with straight lines for the B’s. Although the older BVB was still present on the drum kit also. The background imagery on the LED screens somewhat paled in comparison to the other bands. Usually, I would say that Andy Black is the best vocalist perhaps tonight there was something off with the sound and he did not sound as good as he usually does. Maybe he can remove his suit jacket and put on the priest’s collar like in their video for “Scarlett Cross”. He thanked us all for ‘spending our hard earned money to come see a rock show’. Overall the performance was good musically but I was disappointed by the entertainment of the stage show.

 

 

 

 

 

The closers of the night were Ice Nine Kills. Many of the fans in the front row had the signature I and X covering their eyes. The band has generated a small cult following that loves horror movies and their music. Ice Nine Kills consists of vocalist, Spencer Charnas, lead guitarist, Dan Sugarman, bassist, Joe Occhiuti, rhythm guitarist, Ricky Armelino, and drummer, Patrick Galante. On the transition screen, Ice Nine Kills put up a phone number to text for a fan to win a ‘Killer Merch Bundle’. The band took the dark, foggy stage in black suits with bow ties. The microphone stand had a horror skeleton with a lit up red eye and Jason and Freddy masks on each side. Some members were wearing horror masks. Spencer came out carrying a shovel in a mask. The LED screen in the background had movie marquee imagery with the names of the songs displayed. A male performer and a female performer came out during the set and were featured in scene like a dismembering, or a stabbing shower silouhette. During “Wurst Vacation”, Spencer donned an apron and a meat cleaver and proceeded to dismember the male performer with body parts flying around the stage. The screen lit up with circus tents and a circus marquee during “IT Is The End” and of course red balloons were let loose into the crowd. Spencer wore a clown mask. For their most popular song, “A Grave Mistake” there was imagery of the broken circular window and rain and a crow in flames. The vocal ability of Spencer Charnas is highlighted during this ballad. The fans were highly entertained. The show given by Ice Nine Kills has been increased from a couple of costumes to an Alice Cooper level of showmanship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch Trinity of Terror Part III if you can. Find all the dates on the website:
 
Trinity of Terror

                                

Sources: setlist.fm, wikipedia.org, youtube.com