King Diamond Cincinnati Concert: A Metalhead’s Dream Come True

Oct 20, 2024

Show day. Being the concert veteran that I am, I decided to only work half a day. Cincinnati traffic can be brutal and I was taking no chances. With the venue being an hour away I would normally leave for a show around 4:30-5pm. But this is King Diamond and Overkill we are talking about. On the road about 1:45pm and almost immediately the 35 years of concert going experience starts to pay dividends. Why are so many people on the road at 2pm? Don’t these people work?

I have my 15 year old son with me, and with relatively few concerts under his belt, I’m sure he’s questioning if we really needed to leave this early. Another lesson learned.
The Andrew J Brady Music Center is a newer venue in Cincinnati. Maybe a few years old at this point. Seen a few shows there. Really nice, clean venue. They seem to get all the rock/metal shows coming through the area.
After dealing with moderate traffic, we pull into the venue lot a little after 3pm. Being in the heart of downtown, the venue sits between the Bengals and Reds stadiums. As we made our way to find food, we hear King soundchecking in the distance. The closer we got we immediately recognized the tune- “Sleepless Nights”.

We had a few hours to kill before showtime. Got some food, checked out the pro shops of both sports teams, and walked the city, arriving back at the venue at 6pm for doors. We had spent our time well. Let the show begin.

Night Demon-
We had seen Night Demon once before opening for Satan last year, so we knew what to expect. Solid band with good energy throughout their 30 minute set. On a side note, their drummer looks like he could be the love child of Weird Al. So of course my son immediately dubbed him “Weirdest Al”

Night Demon Setlist

Outsider
Screams in the Night
Hallowed Ground
The Howling Man
Ritual
Escape from Beyond
Night Demon

Overkill-
I have seen Overkill probably 25-30 times dating back to ‘93/‘94. Love these guys. They always bring it and never disappoint. And tonight was no exception. Blitz may have lost a step physically, but he has lost nothing vocally and at the ripe old age of 65 that’s an amazing testament. The whole band was tight and sounded awesome, as they should, being that everyone except the drummer has been playing together in Overkill for the last 25 years. Speaking of the new drummer…total old school approach, love it. For some reason, I always thought Jason Bittner never fit in Overkill. I also thought he never fit in Flotsam and Jetsam. Weird, cause he’s a great drummer.
I wasn’t that crazy about the song choices in the Overkill set. Of course you had the classics like Hello from the Gutter and Elimination. Would have liked to hear at least one song from Horrorscope. They played 2 songs from the latest record, Scorched, as well.
It really didn’t matter though, it was just great to see Overkill back in action. 45 minutes came and went fast.

Overkill Setlist

Scorched
Rotten to the Core
Bring Me the Night
Hello From the Gutter
The Surgeon
Ironbound
Elimination
Fuck You

King Diamond-
As with Overkill, I’ve seen King/Mercyful Fate so many times I’ve lost count. But my son has never seen King, so I was excited for him because he was excited. I’m jaded at this point, so it’s nice to get to relive the excitement through him.

This being just the third show of the tour, we purposely did not check setlist FM or look at any YouTube footage cause we wanted to be totally surprised….and surprised we were.
14 song set which is about what I expected. For the most part, a killer set list including 2 new songs. The first new song called “Spiderlilly” was pretty weak. Then again it was my first time hearing it. Nothing memorable about it at all. The second new song, “Electro Therapy” was nothing short of awesome. Sounded like a total old school King Diamond song.
The one misstep song wise was was the inclusion of the song “Voodoo”. I have never liked this song. Totally out of place with the rest of the set. With the vast amount of KD songs to choose from, just seemed an odd choice.

Perhaps the weirdest part of all is that King came out in 3 different masks throughout the show. He only played about 3 songs in his traditional face paint. Then he comes out in what I would call a baby face mask. After a couple more songs, the band kicks into “Welcome Home” and out walks Grandma, or so I thought. It was actually King dressed as Grandpa! A total mask covering his whole head-no top hat! Seeing king as a balding old man with straggly white hair donning spectacles was quite a sight to behold.
The last mask he used was kind of a half mask. Think Phantom of the Opera meets Leatherface.
Apparently these masks were characters from his upcoming album. I have to admit at first I didn’t really like seeing King as anything other than King, but as the show went on the concept kinda grew on me.
The last song they played was “Abigail”, and another surprising thing happened-King totally screwed up. I’ve never seen him do that before.
The band got through the first verse and chorus, and then it was time for a short instrumental section, but King went immediately into the second verse way too early. Guitarist Andy Laroque is looking at King, as is the rest of the band, trying to figure out what is going on. Much to the bands credit they recovered in about 5 seconds and they all got to the point in the song where King was at. It was really quite cool to see. I least I know one thing…the band without a doubt is totally playing live.

If you are on the fence about going to this show, don’t be. All 3 bands brought it and it was a great night of metal. King usually brings out really good bands to be part of the package and this tour was no exception.
An hour trip back home, in bed at 1:30am and up at 6am for work.
All for the metal.

Review & Photos: Ryan Todd

King Diamond Setlist

Arrival
Mansion in Darkness
Halloween
Voodoo
Spiderlilly
Sleepless Nights
Welcome Home
The Invisible Guests
The Candle
Masquerade of Madness
Eye of the Witch
Burn
Electro Therapy
Abigail

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