Apocalyptica Rides the Lightning into The Fillmore
Apocalyptica rides the light into The Fillmore, in the City of Brotherly Love, home of the Super Bowl champs, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The rowdy Philly fans packed into The Fillmore, a 2,500-capacity room situated in a historic metal factory located in the Fishtown district of Philadelphia, PA, for a night of Metallica with a twist.
But before the three horsemen of the stringed instruments could blow Philly’s mind with Metallica covers, a hurricane had to make landfall.
Nita Strauss
Many may know her as Alice Cooper’s insanely talented guitarist. Or perhaps the official guitarist of the LA Rams football team. Or maybe even as Val Wolfe on Paradise City. Metalheads and guitar freaks alike simply know her as Nita Strauss. If all that wasn’t impressive enough, she’s also the first female-endorsed guitarist for Ibanez Guitars.
As the lights dimmed to flashing strobes, it seemed as if the room was caught in a storm—a hurricane, if you will. Flanked by her band—Josh Villalta (who’s also her husband) on drums, Katt Scarlet on keys, Johnny D Young on rhythm guitar, and Kasey Karlsen of Deadlands for songs with vocals—Nita took the stage.
The set comprised heavily of her latest album, The Call of the Void, with some earlier tracks from Controlled Chaos. Notably, the first six songs in the set were purely instrumental, while the last four featured Kasey Karlsen on vocals.
Nita Strauss Setlist
1. Momentum
2. Our Most Desperate Hour
3. Summer Storm
4. Mariana Trench
5. Scorched
6. The Quest / Drum Solo
7. Victorious
8. Digital Bullets
9. Dead Inside
10. The Wolf You Feed
Apocalyptica
If you’re not familiar with Apocalyptica, you’d have to go back about thirty years (Yes, Thirty!) to when the band released their first album, Plays Metallica by Four Cellos, a tribute to Metallica using nothing but cellos. From there, with many more albums, they eventually blended modern musical equipment with their stringed instruments, adding drummers and guest vocalists. Apocalyptica bent the reality of metal and rock. Highly suggest digging into their whole discography—you’ll be blown away by what these guys can do.
Fast forward to today, and Apocalyptica is on stage in support of their latest album, Play’s Metallica Volume 2, fittingly a sequel to their very first album. No concert featuring Metallica covers would be complete without the band opening with The Ecstasy of Gold.
Song by song, the Philly crowd was left in awe of what they could do with just cellos. With each member encouraging the audience to sing along, the energy only grew, leading to even more seemingly impossible feats. The most notable moment of the night was their performance of Call of Ktulu, which featured the original bass master track played by Cliff Burton, Metallica’s original bassist. The band closed with their re-recorded version of One, featuring spoken-word lyrics from James Hetfield of Metallica.
Apocalyptica is Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso, and Paavo Lötjönen.
Apocalyptica Setlist
Intro: The Ecstasy of Gold (Ennio Morricone)
1. Ride the Lightning
2. Enter Sandman
3. Creeping Death
4. For Whom the Bell Tolls
5. Battery
6. Call of Ktulu
7. St. Anger
8. The Four Horsemen
9. Blackened
10. Master of Puppets
11. Nothing Else Matters
12. Seek & Destroy
13. One
Outro: To Live Is to Die
Catch Nita and Apocalyptica on the Rest of Their Tour
2/6 – Warner Theatre, Washington, DC
2/7 – The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA
2/8 – Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA
2/11 – Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY
2/12 – MTELUS, Montreal, QC, CA
2/13 – Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Toronto, ON, CA
2/14 – Andrew J. Brady Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
2/15 – Athenaeum Center, Chicago, IL
2/16 – The Fillmore, Detroit, MI
2/18 – Uptown Theater, Minneapolis, MN
2/19 – Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, MB, CA
2/20 – Coors Event Centre, Saskatoon, SK, CA
2/21 – Midway Music Hall, Edmonton, AB, CA
2/22 – Grey Eagle Event Centre, Calgary, AB, CA
2/24 – Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, BC, CA
2/25 – Moore Theatre, Seattle, WA
2/26 – Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
2/27 – Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
2/28 – Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
3/1 – The Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ
3/3 – Paramount Theatre, Denver, CO
3/5 – ACL Live – Moody Theatre Austin, TX
3/6 – Majestic Theatre, Dallas, TX
3/8 – Bayou Music Center, TX