Guitar great John 5 just wrapped up his 2022 Sinner tour last weekend in the NY/NJ area. This tour was in support of his 13th self-titled studio effort. We got to attend the 2nd last show on the run at the famed Iridium in New York City. This was the 2nd show on a back-to-back at the Iridium. As John 5 stated on Eddie Trunk well over a month ago, former KISS drummer Peter Criss was supposed to make special appearance. Unfortunately, this never happened due to unforeseen circumstances. That change didn’t derail the John 5 train as he was fit and ready to go. He was accompanied by Ian Ross on bass and Alex Ricardo on drums.
Taking the stage at 8pm, John 5 came out wearing a few masks and laying a bow to his guitar. He soon ditched the masks and concentrated on delivering on the title track to 2017’s “Season of the Witch.” He then went into the song “Que Pasa,” which Dave Mustaine of Megadeth contributed to. A track that had a country feel to it was “Howdy.” Given it that feeling was John 5 using his fingers instead of a pick. During the tune “I am John 5,” a similar character of his robotic image portrayed on his ‘Invasion’ cover walked on stage and became a part of the song. In fact, John 5 had two screens on each side of the stage that played videos of iconic videos and images of various things. It was anything from Farrah Fawcett of Charlies Angels theme to the dance show ‘Soul Train’ to old black and whites of Vampirella and Bella Lugosi to just name a few. It really ran rampant of sorts of images. It made for a great accompaniment to the night’s music. I felt it was very appropriate that the song “How High the Moon” was played at the Iridium. Many don’t know but it was staple in Les Paul’s set. The Iridium was made famous due to Les playing every Monday night right up until he passed away back in 2010. After this track, John 5 played a very small Fender guitar for “Constant Sorrow.” He also made his way into the audience and sat on a patron’s lap while playing. The set ended with a flurry of snippets of classic rock and metal songs with the Queen classic “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” thrown in the middle which was played in its entirety. John 5 also played what looked like a banjo at the end of the set as well.
This show had everything. John 5 ran the gauntlet during this how. He not only delivered a high energy set, but it was also filled with guitar wizardry as well. In addition, the visuals kept the audience eyes glued to the stage all night as well. A legendary show in a legendary venue. A job well done by John 5 and his band!
Setlist:
Season of the Witch
Que Pasa
666
Crank it
Zoinks
Howdy
Cactus Flower
Land of Misfit Toys
I Am John 5
How High the Moon (Les Paul & Mary Ford cover)
Constant Sorrow
Black Grass
Purple Rain snippet (Prince cover), End of the Innocence snippet (Don Henley cover)
Crazy Thing Called Love (Queen cover)
Medley: Green River snippet (Creedence Clearwater Revival), All My Life snippet (Foo Fighters cover), Run to the Hills snippet (Iron Maiden cover), You Really Got Me snippet (The Kinks cover), Heartbreaker snippet (Led Zeppelin cover), Thunderstruck snippet (AC/DC cover), La Grange snippet (ZZ Top cover), Final Countdown snippet (Europe cover), For Whom the Bells Tour snippet (Metallica cover), Runnin’ With the Devil snippet (Van Halen cover), Detroit Rock City snippet (KISS cover), Thunder Kiss ’65 snippet (White Zombie cover), Hot for Teacher snippet (Van Halen cover), Killing in the name of snippet (Rage Against the Machine cover) and Walk snippet (Pantera cover)
Creepshow
We would like to thank Annie Atlasman from Adrenaline PR for the credentials to review the show.
