Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan, and Mike Portnoy. Three dynamo musicians that need no introduction on their own, much less as a three-piece supergroup. The Winery Dogs rolled into Derry New Hampshire’s Tupelo Music Hall this past Sunday on their 2023 World Tour. Intimate venue, the cold weather outside, and hot music. Let’s dive in…
Boston Massachusetts was invaded by Alter Bridge and tour mates Mammoth WVH and RED for the Kings and Pawns Tour. Alter Bridge is out supporting the band’s latest effort which is a fantastic record. As I walked up to the venue a long line of music fans were eager to get into the building to get the night started. After a short wait as the nearly sold-out crowd filtered into Roadrunner one of Boston’s new venues.
Albert Hall is a grandiose venue epitomising Victorian-era design, with a high ceiling and ornate plasterwork, and some rather excellent acoustics. My last trip here to see Wardruna was absolutely magical. Walking in about half an hour before the first act Northlane and the venue was already almost entirely filled with dense fog, showcasing pink purple lights and little else, and a room overflowing with excited chatter. Tonight was to prove a night of contrasts the versatile venue was filled with warm tones and cold air
This tour package is one of the many that were postponed from the pandemic, originally expected in early 2020, but now two years later, Heilung finally returns. Sadly, not with the original support of Gaahls Wyrd, but bringing the equally if differently impressive Eivør, and Lili Refrain. Tonight is a night with a theme of mythic vocals and the gods of old.
Happy new year! Time for the first show of this very fresh and unsullied year, and what better show than the opening night of the new album tour for Misthyrming. Having almost silently dropped one of the best black metal albums of 2022, Með hamri, in December, Misthyrming are doing a small tour through Europe. They are joined by Kringa, whose 2022 album All Stillborn Fires, Lick My Heart! should also feature high on the black metal 2022 lists, Ritual Death and Nubivagant. As the candles are lit and the skulls put out on their little tables, we’re in for a good evening’s entertainment.
1-5-23, St Vitus, Brooklyn, NY
This was a hell of a show from start to finish and the best way I could have started the 2023 year if you want to quantize it that way. Boozewa (ˈbooze-ˌwä), features members of Backwoods Payback, hailing from West Chester, PA started the night off. Good lord, riffmas stayed late this year and treated Brooklyn with a healthy heaping of head-banging, fun time signatures, thick bass, and caveman drums.
What year is this!? At the Starland Ballroom on the night of this show, it might have been 1999, as much as it was 2023. Minus the fashion trends of the time. It was a time capsule of metalcore that just aged up to musical perfection with God Forbid’s second reunion show in five months, and Bleeding Through back from hiatus as well. The opening bands included Living Wreckage, which features members from Shadows Fall and Anthrax, plus Shai Hulud, and Nora.
It was a chilly night in December at The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ for the sold -out Holidaze Rager 2 tour featuring Killswitch Engage, Rivers of Nihil, Unearth, and Lybica. As the parking lot quickly filled up and fans lined up, it was evident we were all about to experience a high-energy show to match the anticipatory buzz of the crowd. The venue has a maximum capacity of 2500 people, and it certainly felt that way as the night developed.
A seasonably cold night in the Bay Area was heated up considerably by old-school, razor-sharp American Heavy Metal riffs on this late November night. All the usual suspects were out in their finest vintage shirts bought on ebay and secondhand spikes and leather as W.A.S.P. made their long-awaited return to North America on their 40th Anniversary tour. The crowd was extra-hopped up (pun intended) from the second I got on line outside the venue. Clearly, people were pre-gaming at nearby watering hole spots like Tommy’s Joynt, The Cinch Saloon, or Harper and Rye.
With a Sunday night show to cap Thanksgiving weekend, veteran death metallers Exhumed stomped into NYC in support of their latest album “To the Dead.” (Read our review here.)