SharePapa Roach performing their Rise Of The Roach Tour at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Saturday 8th February 2025.
American nu-metal band Papa Roach were at the Motorpoint Arena on Saturday night to celebrate the release in 2000 of their defining multi platinum second album, Infest, and it was a packed Arena present to help them out.
A band still on the top of their game after some 32 years together, they were also able to draw from their ten other albums to deliver a set list of songs that delighted everyone, and with the newer songs fitting snugly in with the classics, the band have certainly evolved and changed but they have never lost their identity.
When the huge white banner that hung in front of the stage emblazoned with their iconic dead roach dropped to reveal the band, front man Jacoby Shaddix’s energy was immediately infectious. They began their set with Even If It Kills Me, that had pyrotechnics blasting into the air which continued into the devastating opening riffs of Blood Brothers, and by the time that the instrumentals kicked in on the visceral Kill The Noise, Shaddix had the capacity crowd in the palm of his hand.
Their 2006 hit …To Be Loved had the crowd singing along which was swiftly followed with Getting Away With Murder. On Swerve, Liar and Forever the sound was perfect, each instrument clearly heard and Shaddix’s crisp and sharp vocals were exactly on point. Leave A Light On (Talk Away The Dark) saw the Arena illuminated with phone lights, which stayed on for the beautiful goose bump inducing Scars.
They upped the tempo for the enormously energetic Help that saw Shaddix’s voice full of power, guitarists Jerry Horton and Toby Esperance’s guitar playing sounding immense and Tony Palermo’s drumming was simply huge.
For the encore there was Between Angels And Insects, Infest and the epic Last Resort that saw smoke and strobe lighting bringing to an end a chaotic but cathartic evening, that had ended all too soon. The myth is that cockroaches are said to be indestructible and on this performance the same can be said of Papa Roach.