John 5 and The Creatures @ Route20, Sturtevant, WI 11/10/2018

Having never been to Route20 before I was pretty impressed. Part eatery and club. Good food too! The room itself is large and you can get right up front and literally stand right in front of the stage. There is also a second level overlooking the entire room. Sometimes it is awesome not having a barricade between the performer and  audience, but clearly necessary at certain gigs. I took advantage of getting in a little early by heading right up front where John 5 would stand. Pre-planning has always been key with me. 

Normally, I’m not one to be floored enough to become speechless. John 5 and The Creatures accomplished that and with ease. An impressive stage set up only added to it. My only complaint was the drummer was buried so far back and crammed between two beautiful LCD stand. Those LCD stands played clips of classic horror movies. Such as “The Exorcist”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and so on. Next to those were blow up Halloween scenes that the members entered the stage from on either side. On occasion in between songs A person dressed up as a character would walk on stage and perform a task whether it was peeling a mask off of John 5 or throwing out candy to the crowd. 

John 5 and the Creatures were a relentless assault of the eardrums. So, so efficient and technical. True to form, John 5 gave those famous grins and head shakes while ripping solos.  With the vibrant scene I became enamored. Visually stunning. Then came the actual music. Walking in I figured he play mostly stuff off of his 8 solo albums. The medley played towards the end of the set clearly encompassed all of the music John had either loved growing up or has had his hand in writing.  It was an eclectic mix or classic rock to alternative to metal. The crowd lost its collective minds. When it was all said and done. The band itself was tight as can be. Not one of them skipped a beat and played off of each other quite well. It was a masterful event. I would highly suggest getting out to this show at all costs.

Set List:
1. Making Monsters
2. Flight of Vulcan Kelly
3. 666 Pickers from Hell, CA
4. Rifle
5. Hellhaw
6. 1st Victim
7. Season of the Witch
8. Zoinks
9. Nutjam
10. Behind the Nut
11. Blackgrass
12. Crazy Ones
13. Mando Jam
14. Sandman
15. Medley
16. Triple D & Solo
17. Guitars, Tits & Monsters