By Lisa Burke
July 11th 2015, Fox Theater, Pomona CA: As on many nights in Los Angeles, I had a tough choice to make on what metal band to go see last Saturday July 11. I chose Danzig above the other contenders Holy Grail with Exmortus, or Van Halen. I will say that while the others would have also rocked my night, I do not regret the decision. Danzig played at Fox Theater in Pomona. If you’ve never been to Pomona, don’t worry, even Pomona has never been to Pomona. This show was the kick off to their tour with Cancer Bats and Pennywise backing them up. On this night however, the opener was Saviours instead of Pennywise who will jump on the tour with them starting with their next show.
I’m guessing Pomona is one of those weird towns that has a curfew so their children can grow up safe, square, and ignorant because doors to this show were at 6:30pm and it ended pretty promptly at 10:30pm. For this reason I missed Saviours and only caught the tail end of Cancer Bats. I have seen both of these bands more than once on previous occasions so I will say that both are very good and worth seeing. Cancer Bats are a hardcore punk band from Canada. There is a definite uniqueness about this band that I find intriguing and I believe they are a good fit for touring with Danzig.
Moving on to the highlight of the night, Glenn Danzig arrives to the stage:
He always comes out looking larger than life for about 5 seconds and then once he’s front and center you realize what a tiny little muscular man he is. He also likes to crouch down right into the front row of the audience which is wonderful for the front row of the audience and absolutely no one else. I spent quite some time during the first two songs standing on the tips of my toes while straining my neck, so I guess I can thank him for the workout. Unfortunately, during the first few songs the microphone was too low and cuting out. The sound in general was poor and I haven’t been to this theater enough to know if the sound guy should be fired or if the venue should be set on fire. It did get better midway through and Glenn was a trooper. He does have some fun Barbarian dancing skills that deserve a laugh. Overall his vocal pitch was good, and he carried that Danzig strength throughout the set. There were a couple of weak and off key moments, but I really was impressed on how well he sounded and how much he stopped crouching by the end. Tommy Victor is Danzig’s current guitar player and while he can pack a punch and jump six feet in the air, he really needs to work on his solo skills. It just tends to go off on the wrong tangent a little too much, kind of like me when I start talking about the children of Pomona instead of Danzig. Also, as far as I could tell he was the only stud up there sporting the Danzig logo on his shirt. Now there are appropriate times and places for wearing the logo of your own band on stage, and this was not one of them. Unfortunately it made him appear slightly douchebag-ish. Dear Tommy, leave the logo wearing to the Europeans.
Most memorable songs for me were ‘Hammer Of The Gods’, ‘Am I Demon’, ‘How The Gods Kill’, a cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘N.I.B.’, ‘Twist Of Cain’, and ‘Long Way Back From Hell’. ‘How The Gods Kill’ is their ballad and it was the most beautiful moment of the show. Glenn killed it, the guitarist was on it, the lighting was amazing, and the mosh pit became a bro love pit. Not on the list but worth a mention was their Elvis cover. I guess he was trying something new here because he certainly let himself go on this one, and I’m pretty sure he learned immediately afterwards that he should bury that cover right next to Elvis himself due to the fact that most of the audience just stared with drool dripping off their chin not in a good kind of way. ‘N.I.B.’ is a wonderful song and a wonderful choice for Danzig to cover, however it took my ears a little time to adjust, and accept the fact that this was a Danzig version of a Black Sabbath song, and that the guitar was not going to ever sound like Tony Iommi’s. I need to say though that Johnny Kelly, the band’s drummer, was fantastic throughout the set, and also left me a bit nostalgic for the days of Type O Negative as he used to be that band’s drummer. R.I.P. Peter Steele tangent happened. ‘Twist of Cain’ just all around rips out all the floorboards, and ‘Long Way Back From Hell’ was a damn good encore ending, and a damn good reminder that I had a long drive back from Pomona Hell.
One last breath of fresh air for you and a hopeful incentive for you to get your metal ass to see Danzig, is that he made me proud of him. In fact, the last time I saw him he was supporting Doro as an audience member at her fairly recent Whisky A Go Go show. I turned around and saw this tiny little man in a giant booth and gave him a smile and a nod. I also saw him at the last Samhain show and was fairly unimpressed so on this night I was pleasantly surprised, not to mention he also didn’t piss anyone off which sent his “sometimes I’m an angry jerk” reputation flying out the window. Finally, I can’t believe I’m going to end a Danzig review without a joke about Mother. Whoa!
Set List:
01. Skin Carver
02. Hammer of the Gods
03. Until You Call on the Dark
04. Am I Demon
05. Her Black Wings
06. How The Gods Kill
07. Let Yourself Go (Elvis Presley cover)
08. Devil’s Angels (Davie Allan & The Arrows cover)
09. N.I.B. (Black Sabbath cover)
10. Black Hell
11. Black Mass
12. Black Angel, White Angel
13. Twist of Cain
14. Mother
Encore:
15. She Rides
16. Long Way Back from Hell
Remaining Tour Dates:
07/17 Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
07/18 Tulsa, OK – Brady Theatre
07/19 Kansas City, KS – Arvest Bank Midland Theatre
07/21 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
07/24 Calgary, AB – Mac Ewan Hall
07/25 Edmonton, AB – Shaw Conf. Centre
07/27 Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabetth Theatre
07/28 Seattle, WA – Showbox Sodo
07/30 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
07/31 Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl