Artist: King Diamond
Venue: L’Amour’s (Brooklyn, NY)
Opener:
Label: Metal Blade Records
Date: 11/7/2003

I have to start this off by saying that although I have been a fan of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate for many years that I never ever went to see him perform live. Last night I finally got the chance, and boy was I glad I did this.

Atmospherically, the stage was loaded with amps and each had bones strewn across them. The Road Crew laid a small white casket with the name “Abigail” on it (a popular character theme that has been maintained through many of the King’s albums). Across the casket, several black roses. I think that this was an tribute to his early days band that was called “Black Rose” as well as a suitable stage decoration but I could be wrong. Following the theme of his new CD – “The Puppetmaster”, there was a large puppet onstage.

As the stage area lights dimmed King Diamond appeared and was atop the casket while the pre-recorded “Funeral” was played. Diamond mimed the words of the Child Abigail’s funeral with a baby doll in his hand (it was a little eerie, but that is what one can expect from KD). In his hands, the trademark microphone holder (which is a cross made of bones). The band members appeared (Andy LaRoque – Guitar; Hal Patino – Bass; Matt Thompson – Drums; and Mike Wead – Guitar) and jumped into “Mansion In Darkness” and “Family Ghost”. He has an Actress doing various actions & pantomime while songs were performed. The addition of this was cool since it added to the atmosphere of the songs. Joining the group onstage and doing some background vocals was a young lady from Budapest, but I could not get her name by the time I was posting this review. At the time of the first tracks, the actress pretended she was with child and having a tough time with the delivery. As I said, pretty creepy stuff going on.

From the album “Conspiracy” the tune “Sleepless Nights” was performed. I always liked that one in particular. From “The Eye” came “Eye Of The Witch”. King Diamond then announced that he had a new album and he was going to play a couple of numbers from it. At this point they played “Puppetmaster” & “Blood To Walk” . The Actress at this time was dressed as a Marionette and moved about as a puppet would under King Diamonds control. I was enjoying the way Diamond commanded the stage, every aspect of it was under his complete control. The audience was also under his thrall and he continually thanked the crowd of L’Amour for being so supportive of him over the years.

Encore time brought the audience many high points. The drummer returned and began awesome beats that lead to “Welcome Home” (my extreme personal favorite King Diamond song). Onstage was wheeled the Actress once again in a rickety wheelchair dressed as an extremely elderly women “Grandma” as he shrieks in the song. She walked about scolding the band and audience and waving her cane as the King performed. Matt, the drummer was very impressive as he did the beats created by Mickey Dee so well.

When “Burn” came up as a number, the Actress who was dressed in a long flowing white dress depicted the position of a Witch who was being burned at the stake. I thought this among the cooler visual parts, as the moves she danced in combined with the lights flowing up from the stage onto the dress made it seem that she was aflame.

King’s 1st encore was “Halloween”. I have always felt that this tune has a real Mercyful Fate feel in the guitar work and vocal lines. Of course one does expect a lot of that in King’s music, but Fate does have a totally different groove when one compares the two groups against one another. After “Halloween”, KD left the stage after saying “Good night”. He was soon to throw a wrench in the works.

Now as I said, The Final Encore took the crowd by surprise as it was long in between the breaks so a large amount of people had left. I feel bad for those in middle exit, since I am sure that there was a rush to return in to the club in the event there was a little more than this number to follow. When KD and his crew had returned dressed in Santa garb as they rocketed in “No Presents For Christmas”. The Actress danced about in a Santa’s Helper Elf outfit which was cool. Upon the songs end, King thanked the fans and Brooklyn again and he was gone. The band remained onstage and caused havoc to their instruments and making weird effects with them as they walked offstage. A great show, one I will attend again.

Some of the fans of King Diamond might be disappointed in the fact that he plays no Mercyful Fate songs in his set. As a matter of fact, one friend of mine actually decided not to go because of this fact. I think He missed out to be quite honest. As far as pictures, I had some angle issues, but at least we have a couple for the review. Better than nothing in my opinion. I also received a couple from Metal Blade Records from a California show. Entombed and Mystical Children opened the show. I saw some of Entombed but not enough to say more than they were pretty tight as well. The audience was very into them down in the pit area.

Check out our King Diamond Live Photos by clicking HERE

King Diamond’s Set List:
1. Intro – Funeral
2. Mansion In Darkness
3. Family Ghost
4. Intro – Let It Be Done
5. Mansion In Sorrow
6. Spirits
7. Outro – Sorry Dear
8. Eye Of The Witch
9. Sleepless Nights
10. Puppetmaster
11. Blood To Walk
12. So Sad
13. Outro – Living Dead
14. Welcome Home
15. Invisible Guest
16. Burn
17. Halloween – 1st encore
18. No Presents For Christmas – 2nd encore

Official Website: www.kingdiamondcoven.com

Editor’s Note: This article was written for another medium prior to the 2005 launch of PiercingMetal.com and has been added to our content for your enjoyment.