DISTURBED drummer Mike Wengren‘s brand new “cover band”, SEVEN, played its first two concerts ever Friday night (January 10) and last night (Saturday, January 11) at RallyPoint in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Fan-filmed video of Saturday’s show can be seen below (courtesy of WisRockin’).
Joining Wengren in the group are Brent Taritas (formerly of RHYTHM METHOD on guitar, NAUGHTY CHAIR),Jeremy Jayson (BELLEVUE SUITE, KING KONG) on guitar, Simon Farmery (RUBICON CROSS) on bass, André Beaudot (formerly of NAUGHTY CHAIR) on vocals, Bobby Rouse (formerly of RHYTHM METHOD) on vocals and Rich Hoffman (ALMIGHTY VINYL) on vocals.
SEVEN‘s setlist included covers of MEGADETH‘s “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”, RATT‘s “Body Talk”, TESLA‘s “Modern Day Cowboy”, WHITE LION‘s “Tell Me”, LOUDNESS‘s “Crazy Nights”, EXTREME‘s “He-Man Woman Hater” and KING’S X‘s “It’s Love”, among others.
Last month, Wengren told the 102.9 The HOG radio station about SEVEN: “I actually put together a cover band of some local musicians and myself on drums, and we’re actually playing January 10th and 11th at RallyPoint. The show is already sold out, actually, both of them.
“Living here for a long time now, I got to to meet [a bunch of talented people],” he continued. “A lot of my buddies are really amazing musicians in so many other bands, and throughout the years I always said to myself, ‘I wanna play with this guy. I wanna play with this guy and this guy.’ So one day we just kind of called each other and [said], ‘Hey, let’s just get together and jam.'”
Asked what kind of songs SEVEN covers, Mike said: “It’s gonna be like old-school [MTV] ‘Headbangers Ball’. Name a video that used to be on that thing and that’s gonna be [in the setlist]. There’s a huge gamut — some of the ’80s hair metal, some of the heavy metal stuff. Yeah. It’ll be fun.”
Regarding the SEVEN lineup and band name, Wengren said: “It was super easy to pick the lineup. We just were, like, ‘Hey, do you wanna jam?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Do you wanna jam?’ ‘Yeah.’ It was super easy. It took all of 10 minutes. And then coming up with a band name took us, like, over six months. We were, like, ‘Let’s just call it SEVEN [because there’s seven of us].'”
Asked if he thinks SEVEN will play more shows after this weekend, Mike said: “We’re definitely open to it. We’re putting a lot of work into it. We all take it very seriously. Hopefully it goes well and we have some fun. I mean, the thing is everybody’s pretty busy doing their own thing. Everyone’s got other projects and whatnot, especially myself with DISTURBED. So, when the time permits, yeah, why not?”
SEVEN is:
* Mike Wengren (DISTURBED) – Drums
* Brent Taritas (formerly of RHYTHM METHOD, NAUGHTY CHAIR) – Gutar
* Jeremy Jayson (BELLEVUE SUITE, KING KONG) – Guitar
* Simon Farmery (RUBICON CROSS) – Bass
* André Beaudot (formerly of NAUGHTY CHAIR) – Vocals
* Bobby Rouse (formerly of RHYTHM METHOD) – Vocals
* Rich Hoffman (ALMIGHTY VINYL) – Vocals
Last October, DISTURBED announced the 34-date “The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour”, which will kick off in Nampa, Idaho on February 25, 2025 and is produced by Live Nation. The tour celebrates 25 years of DISTURBED‘s seminal debut album which launched the band into public consciousness and is one of the most important and influential heavy metal albums of all time. Each night will feature two sets of music, opening with DISTURBED playing the five times platinum “The Sickness” in full, followed by a full set of greatest hits. The first half of the tour will feature support from special guests THREE DAYS GRACE, featuring the return of original singer Adam Gontier, and opener SEVENDUST, and the second half will feature special guests DAUGHTRY with opener NOTHING MORE.
Since “The Sickness” was released in 2000, the album was certified five times platinum by the RIAA, spent a total of 106 weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart, and Revolver named it one of “Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums.” Billboard said of the title track upon release: “‘Down With The Sickness’ is, of course, the quintessential DISTURBED song, harnessing all the band’s seethe and its now-famous tribal beat and guitar chug into three and a half minutes of alt-metal mayhem. It’s menacing, it’s rhythmic, it’s rebellious.”
Emerging out of Chicago at the turn of the century with an insidious, infectious, and inimitable vision without comparison, DISTURBED have quietly dominated hard rock on their own terms. They make the kind of music that pushes you to hold on tighter, fight harder, and persevere forever. It’s why they’ve claimed a place at the forefront of 21st century rock with record-breaking success, sales of over 17 million-plus units, nearly 8 billion streams, and sold out shows around the globe. The band have six RIAA album certifications, and singles from all eight albums have reached the top ten of the Mainstream Rock chart.
The two-time Grammy Award-nominated quartet have notched five consecutive #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 for “Believe”, “Ten Thousand Fists”, “Indestructible” and “Asylum”, occupying rarified air alongside METALLICA — the only other hard rock group to accomplish this feat. Since their influential five-times-platinum debut “The Sickness” in 2000, they have built a bulletproof catalog highlighted by a procession of smashes, including the platinum “Stupify”, “Inside The Fire” and “Land of Confusion”, two-times-platinum “Stricken”, six-times-platinum “Down With The Sickness” and seven-times-platinum “The Sound Of Silence”, to name a few. The latter notably received a Grammy Award nomination in the category of “Best Rock Performance” as the band earned “Best Rock Artist” at the 2017 iHeartRadioMusic Awards. Still, DISTURBED never stop, and their most recent 2022 album “Divisive” featured their 17th No. 1 at Rock Radio “Hey You”, “Unstoppable” and more.