Fozzy Plays To A Jam Packed Studio Seven

Atlanta, GA based heavy metal band, Fozzy, made a stop in Seattle at Studio Seven during their Judas Rising Tour. The band which consists of Chris Jericho (vocals), Rich “The Duke” Ward (guitar), Frank Fontsere (drums), Billy Grey (guitar) and Paul Di Leo (bass). They band delivered a high caliber performance with most of the evening’s material coming off of their last three releases – Judas, Do You Wanna Start a War, & Sins and Bones.

With a wall of amplifiers, drums and speaker cabinets the band performed for close to ninety minutes. Some in attendance only knew of Jericho because of his work as a professional wrestler. Most in attendance were fans of both Jericho the wrestler and the frontman, so everyone was excited to see how the band would perform in a smaller venue. Many were already wearing their Fozzy gear that they had purchased earlier in the evening.

With the house dimmed and red lights illuminating the stage, Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” was being blasted through the sound system. The band made their way onto the stage one at a time and they kicked into their single “Judas”. Jericho finally made his way to the stage and everyone in the audience was singing the chorus as loud as they could.

Jericho would stand on top of the riser that was placed at the front and center of the stage. He played to the crowd and made for an awesome front man – interacting with everyone towards the front of the stage. Ward was very active at stage left, often jumping off of his riser or leaning back into the crowd where people in the front would prop him up as he ripped many a riff and solo from his guitar. Grey was also on fire, making his way from stage right to stage left and Di Leo would make his way over to Ward on stage left and they, on more than one occasion, would face each other as they riffed out the songs that they were playing, such as “Drinking with Jesus”, “One Crazed Anachrist”, “Sins and Bones” and “Spider in My Mouth”.

Highlights of the evening were when Ward invited a member of the audience onto the stage – she got up there and was having an awesome time dancing in between Ward and Jericho. Ward then took off his guitar and brought a younger fan on stage and that young fan had the best place in the venue, as he got to jump up and down and eventually got a high five from Jericho before Ward picked up the fan and put him back into the crowd with his parents.

The fog machines which were next to Jericho’s riser as well as the fog cannon he used to intro “So You Wanna Start a War” were used sparingly, enough to add the show but not enough to fill the venue. The band was very engaging with the crowd, often high fiving everyone in the front of the stage, acknowledging everyone throughout the rest of the venue.

The band didn’t leave the stage as most bands would prior to performing an encore. Jericho stated that it was rather pointless to leave the stage, have the audience chant “Fozzy! Fozzy!” over and over just to come back and play one last song. So he covered his head with his towel, and the crowd was screaming “Fozzy!” over and over and before pulling the towel back off, acting as if he and the rest of the band had made their way back on stage to play one more song. The band finished their set with “Sandpaper”.

Fozzy put on a stellar performance. Their longtime fans were happy and they won over the neighsayers who many have had any doubts as to whether Fozzy could deliver live – and they most certainly did.

Set list
Judas
Drinking with Jesus
One Crazed Anarchrist
Sin and Bones
Burn Me Out
Painless
Spider In My Mouth
Do You Wanna Start A War
SOS (ABBA Cover)
Lights Go Out
Enemy
Bad Tattoo

Encore
Sandpaper

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