John 5 Electrifies Turtle Lake

Friday night John 5 came to Turtle Lake and he had the crowd mesmerized. John’s range and performance was truly incredible and a pleasure to see in person.

Turtle Lake is a great venue for a concert. Large stage, nice sized arena and great sight lines throughout the concert hall. This was my third concert at Turtle Lake and I’ve enjoyed every one immensely. If you’ve never been there it is worth the trip!

Liliac was the opener and started on time. They are a hard-rock band from Los Angeles, consisting of family members. Lead singer Melody Cristea with sister Abigail on drums and brothers Samuel on lead guitar, Ethan on bass and Justin on keys. Abigail has been on leave from the band, though she was active in the pit and throughout the concert hall taking photos and videos. In Abigail’s absence, they have a 16 year old named Paul playing drums.

I have been following Liliac on social media and was looking forward to seeing them live. They gained national attention when they appeared on CBS’s reality talent competition The World’s Best in 2019. On the reality show they played Dio’s Rainbow in the Dark and just blew me away. So I was ecstatic that they were opening for John 5. Despite my high expectations, Liliac did not let me down. They were high energy and obviously had grown a bit since I saw them on CBS. I love Melody’s raspy voice and Samuel has really grown as a guitarist. Ethan and Justin had changed the most, growing in size and talent as well. Their set was fantastic and I can’t wait to see more growth from them and where their careers go from here.

John 5 started 10 – 15 minutes early and was non stop. He was dressed in his long, white overcoat with the red 5 on the bottom. In addition to playing solo, John has played with some big names in rock and metal including Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue and David Lee Roth. I lost track of the total number of instruments that he played Friday night, but in addition to guitar he also played a banjo, a mandarin and a ukulele. The guitars he played varied in size and style including an LED lit guitar and also played a few riffs on a guitar with a toy space gun looking thing. He played twangy country songs and all styles of rock. On a few songs, he played with such intensity that it looked like he needed a break after the song. John 5 ranks near the top in guitarists that I have seen and his versatility was amazing!