I rolled into the city of sin with my homie and bandmate in Angst, Abe Allen, for a cool quick trip to see the first night of the big Danzig tour! I was seriously hyped for this tour and glad to catch it since these dates are few and Glenn doesn’t like to tour much anymore. I was really excited to take this trip for four bands I have loved for a long time. Thanks for making this happen, Abe!

After a great flight with Delta (fantastic crew and service), we bedded down for the night, a bit of an early night gave us the energy for the next day and the big gig ahead. We likely should have skipped the White Castle visit, but I cannot resist my favorite  childhood food when staying at the Virgin Hotels. The hotel rules on every level and will always get my business!

Heading down to the show, we quickly checked out the merch while Cro-Mags took the stage. A great assortment of merch for all four bands could be purchased, including some cool posters and exclusive Danzig comic books for sale, which I took advantage of fully, with the bit of cash I had. Bring cash for Danzig merch. Cards, tap pay, and apps for the rest is fine.

The Virgin Theater is cavernous at around 5000 seats, with a small mosh pit area. We were way in the back, but the sound seemed good overall in the venue. Not a bad seat in the house visually and the great staff took care of us! Cro-Mags ripped through a fast set of their best-known songs in hardcore history to an enthusiastic crowd. Harley Flannigan leads the band, and his crew is the best in recent memory. Harley is so positive and humble, it’s a far cry from the previous version of the band with JJ. For my second time seeing the band, they were tight and entertaining. “We Gotta Know” and “World Peace” were personal highlights for me.

Abbath was up next, and is always a good time live. Although he has been doing his Abbath Doom Oculta old-school sets in Europe of late, this was a more general set of his excellent solo material and Immortal classics. Abbath is such a great performer, it is a bit of a shame the performers up front were bathed in darkness, with no spotlights on them. Maybe the light eluded them because… Satan! I know it’s the “troo kvlt” in them, but damn it, let us see your faces and widdly widdly jazz hands on the guitar, man! All good, the video screens started to be a factor with just cool, creepy, modest visualizer which matched the pummeling Blackened Death Metal of Abbath’s most recent solo music perfectly. A great set and a great opportunity for new fans to appreciate another legend.

I had not seen Down in over a decade, I was curious to see how they would do on this night. In the last few years, we’ve covered Philip with Pantera reborn all over the world, Kirk Windstein with Crowbar many times, Pepper Keenan and COC, and Jimmy Bower with EyeHateGod, but not too recently. I think the last time I saw Down, Kirk was not with the band, but it was great to have him back. The band came on stage with just a Down logo on the screen and the lights in the room on. They launched into “Lysergic Funeral Procession” and the place went nuts! As opposed to Pantera and Scour where Philip can just let it rip with his gutteral vocals, his melodic singing is 100% on point fronting Down. No wonder some people consider this to be his best project, since he’s such a phenomenal singer. Celebrating 30 years since the debut album NOLA (Atco/East-West))was released, it was great to hear the majority of that album performed, with seven of the nine songs represented. One gripe I have is that the mix was bad for Down and made me wonder if they don’t have a touring sound person with them. The bass and drums were obscenely loud and with two of the best guitar players of all time on stage were buried in the mix. I was a little bummed. That being said, a phenomenal set was played and of course, the epic closer “Bury Me In Smoke” is always a banger! Everybody is trading instruments and having a laugh, such great fun! Glad to have this important band back in action!

Down setlist (from setlist.fm)
Lysergik Funeral Procession
Lifer
Hail the Leaf
Ghosts Along the Mississippi
Pillars of Eternity
Losing All
Stone the Crow
Eyes of the South
Bury Me in Smoke

Finally, it was time for Danzig and there was quite a bit of a changeover time between the last bands. But of course, Danzig’s stage setup is more elaborate with his iconic skull drum riser and all his other totems across the stage from his different album art and eras. A lone simple skull was on the video screen from Danzig (Def American Recordings, 1988) too and this was really great to see. The entire night’s visuals complimented the song and screamed “big rock vibes” to me.

Hitting the stage hard and opening up with the favorite starter, “SkinCarver,” it was great to hear the whole crowd singing along and Danzig sounded amazing vocally. He cut a striking finger in his leather jacket and a typical serious scowl! The fans embraced him and I think people don’t really understand his value to heavy music across four-plus decades and three historic bands. Following up with the rarely heard “Brand New God” and big hit “Twist of Cain” – they were off and running. Also, it was great to see two of my favorites on stage with guitarist Tommy Victor of Prong and Steve Zing of Samhain/Mourning Noise/Blak29.

Mixing in huge hits with deep cuts, I was impressed with this setlist. I saw the band a year and a half ago on my birthday in Chicago which was more focused on classic albums and a little less variety. I think people were a little surprised to get The Hangover 2 song “Black Hell” instead of The Hangover song “13,” but it was also pretty cool to hear three songs in the setlist that haven’t been played in nine or ten years.

After a proper closer of “Mother” still his biggest hit as a solo artist, the band came out for an encore after a very long break and the crowd chanted their name! We got to enjoy “She Rides” and “Dirty Black Summer” which was sped up a bit to great effect! Overall, an incredible night came to a close. While Glenn does not favor touring anymore, I sincerely hope he does a little bit more of these shows with his namesake band and this bill. This will be a hard show to top in 2025 for the the entertainment value and the money!

Ghost Cult was lucky enough to attend night two of the tour at Thunder Valley Casino and you can check out the photos from that show in this review by our pal Raymond Ahner, the legend of Bay Area concert photography!

Danzig setlist (from setlist.fm)
SkinCarver
Brand New God (First time since 2015)
Twist of Cain
Evil Thing
Hammer of the Gods (First time since 2016)
How the Gods Kill
Her Black Wings
Killer Wolf
Black Hell (First time since 2016)
Am I Demon
Not of This World
Mother

Encore:
She Rides
Dirty Black Summer

Buy Danzig music and merch here:
https://amzn.to/4iEMSwe

Buy Down music and merch here:
https://amzn.to/4c8khNB

WORDS BY KEEFY
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PHOTOS BY RAYMOND AHNER
Follow his work here: