After a long hiatus, Faith No More has triumphantly returned to the stage. They are rested, hungry, and eager to rock. However, there were only six dates total in the United States (Three San Francisco, two NYC, one Philly).

Faith No More decided, for whatever reason, to play The Mann Music Center. The Mann is the summer home for the Philadelphia Orchestra and I will bet hasn't seen a bigger group of degenerates since Metallica played there in 1994. The Mann has excellent acoustics, beautiful shots of Philadelphia sitting a top the Fairmont Park section of Philadelphia, and a wonderfully laid out complex. Parking sucks, but when does it not.

My point here, it really isn't the type of the venue you would think a band like Faith No More would play. Mike Patton later remarked "Thanks for making us feel at home. We don't usually play places like this."  Faith No More is a band that took what you thought they were going to do and turned it upside down. They were unpredictable, innovative, and before their time. This versatility and unpredictability made it difficult to pin point the opening act. Your opening acts were an unfunny "comedian" and Rahzel, the human beatboxer. Fans of Faith No More will know Rahzel from Mike Patton's Peeping Tom album. Five minutes of beatboxing is kind of cool. The novelty wears off fast and Rahzel performed for an hour. These two opening acts did two things 1) made me hate my existence and 2) made me salivate for Faith No More.

I thought Faith No More was going to come out firing, whipping up the crowd with rousing renditions of their best loved songs. Instead, they came out with a soulful cover of Peaches and Herb's Reunited. Fitting yes, expected, no. The cover version saw Mike Patton and keyboardist Roddy Bottum trading off vocals like Peaches and Herb. As soon as that slower song ended the band erupted like Eyjafjallajokull, the Icelandic volcano into From Out of Nowhere and Be Aggressive.

Mike Patton was on top of his game almost like he never left the helm of Faith No More. His ability to run from rapping into falsetto, and then to almost operatic like, is amazing and enviable by any singers. But just the ability to sing is only half the game for Patton, he is also charismatic as hell and I am sure could charm the panties off your girlfriend, if you had one. He commanded the stage and your attention was no doubt focused on him 3/4 of the night.

The songs of Faith No More are held down by a throbbing rhythm section performed by Mike Bordin (drummer) and Billy Gould (bass). A lot of their songs are based on a very strong bass line or drum line and they didn't disappoint last night. At times though, the keyboards of Roddy drowned out the bass (Last Cup of Sorrow), but it wasn't too noticeable.

The pacing of the concert was also not what you would expect from a rock concert. Once Faith No More kicked up the tempo with From Out of Nowhere, Be Aggressive, and Caffeine, they slowed it down with Evidence. This up tempo harder rocking songs, punctuated by a slower song, was the theme of the evening.

Songs like Midlife Crisis, Surprise You're Dead and Ashes to Ashes sound fresh and timely. However, the band's largest hit Epic still sounds overplayed thanks to mainstream rock radio. Faith No More did a good job at trying to change it up a bit, but it still is too overplayed to make a difference.

Where will this reunion go? There are talks of another album, perhaps a larger tour. However, I'm sure not even Faith No More know exactly. But as a fan of the band, I am enjoying the reunion ride while it lasts. Here was last night's setlist:


Reunited (Peaches and Herb cover)
From Out of Nowhere
Be Aggressive
Caffeine
Evidence
Chinese Arithmetic (ft. Rahzel)
Surprise! You're Dead!
Last Cup of Sorrow
Easy (Commodores Cover)
Midlife Crisis
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Ashes to Ashes
Ben (Jackson 5 cover)
King for a Day
Epic
Just a Man

Encore:

Chariots of Fire
Stripsearch
Digging the Grave