Show Recap: DISTURBED’s Blistering, Pyro-Soaked Tour Is Still Unstoppable 25 Years Later

It’s easy to write off the current nu-metal revival as just another wave of nostalgia – aging millennials clinging to the soundtracks of their youth, or Gen Z stumbling across old hits on TikTok. But what’s happening now feels bigger than that.

Bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park have reemerged with force, selling out arenas and even putting out fresh material. The energy that once made them polarizing has become a point of pride – loud, raw, and unapologetic. And they’re not alone.

Disturbed, one of the genre’s biggest names, is riding that same wave, and they’re doing it with purpose. To celebrate 25 years since the release of The Sickness, Disturbed launched a tour in February that feels more than a victory lap, more than the simple promise of a full live performance of the landmark album. On April 18th, that promise came to life at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, where a capacity crowd witnessed the spectacle with nothing held back.

The daunting task of opening up this Friday night extravaganza would fall to Texas-born alternative metal sensations Nothing More. Riding the momentum of their 2024 release Carnal, the band delivered a tight, high-energy seven-song set packed with progressive flair and rhythmic complexity. Front man Jonny Hawkins provided about as much eye candy as he did ear candy as he explored the stage and revved up the crowd, minus a shirt and plus a powerful blend of soaring notes and primal shouts.

The entire band was as disciplined as they were enthusiastic, upping the ante on heavy-hitting bangers like “House On Sand” and “If It Doesn’t Hurt” while being faithful to their studio versions, and also eliciting heavy cheers via classic entries from their breakthrough and 2014 eponymous album like “Jenny” and “This Is The Time (Ballast)”, the latter seeing Hawkins walk out amongst the crowd via an elevated walkway extending out from the stage. But the coup de grace that sold this brief half-hour set would be a riveting performance of “Angel Song” that would see David Draiman join Hawkins for a duet to an uproarious crowd response.

At roughly quarter past 7 PM, former American Idol contestant turned post-grunge icon Chris Daughtry and the band bearing his surname took the stage, and he wasted little time in filling the entire arena with his soaring, boisterous tenor amid an equally colossal musical backdrop. The post-grunge rockers, despite not having released a new album in four years, didn’t miss a beat. Backed by a rock-solid lineup – including lead guitarist Brian Craddock, bassist Marty O’Brien, keyboardist Elvio Fernandes, and new drummer Anthony Ghazel – the band delivered a high-impact, hour-long performance.

Daughtry‘s set balanced fan favorites like “The Reckoning,” “World on Fire,” and “Pieces” with newer material, including the emotionally charged “The Day I Die.” A quiet, intimate moment arrived with “Home,” performed solo by Daughtry on acoustic guitar under a sea of smartphone lights. Yet when it came to deafening crowd responses, Daughtry would never quite top the pinnacle they reached during their signature cover of Journey’s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”.

Not long after 8:30 PM, the tone of the evening took a heavily cinematic turn as the curtains were drawn to reveal event headliners Disturbed standing in a knee-high sea of smoke and lead vocalist David Draiman being wheeled out in mental asylum attire like Hannibal Lecter. Upon being relieved of his restraints and throwing off his mask, a black-clad Draiman wasted little time in leading his band mates into a blistering rendition of The Sickness‘ opening banger “Voices”, exploring the stage and jazzing up the audience at every opportunity while bassist John Moyer flailed about with his dreadlocks cutting the air like razors and guitarist Dan Donegan was no less shy about exploring the stage with his wireless guitar unit in tow and his riff work hitting like an anvil against Mike Wengren‘s thunderous kit work.

The band wasted no time between songs, often segueing into the next track over eerie keyboard drones. Though the performances of “Stupify,” “Want” (featuring a surprise appearance by Draiman‘s sons), “Down with the Sickness,” and their cover of Tears for Fears‘ “Shout” stayed true to their studio counterparts- with the added flair of a duet with Nonpoint‘s frontman Elias Soriano -, the visual production made each one feel fresh. Draiman‘s mock execution in an electric chair during “Meaning of Life”, sprinkled with a snippet of Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Crazy Train”, was a theatrical highlight that stole the show.

The explosive renditions of each entry off The Sickness alone would have made this evening. Still, they would only prove the first half of a two-act performance that would continue unabated after the curtains would rise again to reveal an even more extravagant light show. Draiman decked out in a different outfit to usher in a series of certified classics. Obligatory entries like “I Will Not Break”, “Ten Thousand Fists” and “Indestructible” were among the banger entries to keep the energy level pulsating through every crevice of the arena, though a truly magical moment would be codified on stage when a fan named Erik was invited on stage and proposed to his girlfriend Amanda before a celebratory performance of “The Light”.

There was no real denouement to speak of as Disturbed drew their marathon two-hour set to a close. Even their serene and personal take on Simon And Garfunkel‘s “The Sound Of Silence” came with Wengren banging away on timpani and the flaming piano prop manned by Donegan, and pointed to a climactic conclusion that would come with an explosive final hurrah showing of “Inside The Fire”, with a massive pyrotechnics showcase setting the stage ablaze.

It was the sort of grand finale that promised more to come, underscoring the message that 25 years having passed was not the end of the story, be it for this tour or for what is sure to follow it.