Review & Photos: Pop Evil and Bad Wolves rock Columbus with Animal Instinct Tour

Written By Neil Shumate, OOTB Publications

Pop Evil has been through some lineup changes and they’ve explored various sound directions, but throughout the alterations they continue to keep grinding with perseverance and remain headstrong. Friday night’s live performance at The Bluestone in Columbus, Ohio proved their enduring solidarity as a band and the show was one for the books.

The five members—with two original members, vocalist Leigh Kakaty and guitarist Dave Grahs; longtime guitarist Nick Fuelling; and Devour The Day/Egypt Central members Joey Walser on bass and Blake Allison on drums—dove into a prominent setlist composed mostly of recognizable active radio hits that have propelled them to a leading heavy rock band since forming in 2001 (including: “Breathe Again,” “What Remains,” “Torn To Pieces,” “Walking Lions,” “Footsteps (Go Higher),” “Trenches,” “Eye Of The Storm,” “Deal With The Devil”).

The band also played an acoustic crowd singalong version of 2005 fan favorite “100 in a 55” (Kakaty said, “I can’t believe I’m playing a song I wrote in 2005 almost twenty years later!”) as well as a performance of their freshly released industrial infused heavy hitting single “Deathwalk.”

Halfway through the set, Kakaty paused to express thanks to the openers and to give a special shout out to local Columbus’ rock radio station 99.7 The Blitz long time DJ Ronnie Hunter.

Just before performing “Skeletons,” Kakaty introduced the song my denouncing division and proclaimed the night to be one of shared unity together through music. Fans sang along: “We live in a world gone mad, that's lost control… / We're only human, we're flesh and bone.”

Going into 2025, Kakaty told the crowd to keep an eye on their social media in January for a possible tour announcement and to expect the band’s eighth album sometime in the Spring, of which he said will be Pop Evil’s greatest album to ever be released.

Hard rock supergroup Bad Wolves—now fronted by Daniel "DL" Laskiewicz (The Acacia Strain) since Tommy Vext (Divine Heresy) went solo in 2021–energized the packed venue with head bangers “Bad Friend,” “Knife,” “Die About It,” “Legends Never Die” and more softer songs “Sober,” “Killing Me Slowly,” “NDA,” “Hear Me Now.”

Lead guitarist Doc Coyle (God Forbid), bassist Kyle Konkiel (Scar The Martyr, In This Moment), drummer John Boecklin (DevilDriver), newer rhythm guitarist AJ Rebollo (Issues) all displayed a great deal of friendly chemistry among each other throughout the set.

Closing with the band’s hit cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie,” DL dedicated the song to the late Dolores O’Riordan. The crowd cheered uproarsly as DL jumped off stage and ventured to the center of the crowd while passing the mic for fans to sing portions of the song.

Earlier in the evening, The Animal Instinct Tour opened with two bands from Canada: Sierra Pilot who performed some modern hard rock-and-roll with grungy vocals (“Hollow,” “Breathe,” “Horizons”) and Oni who opened the show with a bit of dirty/clean metalcore and a bit of radio friendly modern rock (“Spark,” “Realign,” “Deja Vu”).

POP EVIL (click to enlarge)