Review by Andrew Bansal, photos by Chad Alexander
June 5th 2016, Brick By Brick, San Diego CA: Los Angeles old-school heavyweights Armored Saint and their San Francisco counterparts Metal Church joined forces for a seven-date U.S. West Coast co-headline tour in June 2016, promising to deliver to the masses one of the finest traditional heavy metal shows of the year, and made their way to San Diego for a gig at Brick By Brick on Sunday June 5th that also featured opening acts Sin Circus and Alchemy. Armored Saint with their unanimously well-received latest album ‘Win Hands Down’ (2015) and Metal Church with the return of singer Mike Howe and the new album ‘XI’ (their first in 23 years to feature Mike Howe), these are two bands that aren’t just relying on the nostalgia factor to pull in the crowds, but focus on the new material as much as the ‘classics’. The San Diego metalheads turned up in good numbers to support this event, and all was in readiness for an evening of fist-pumping, horn-raising and relentless head-banging.
Brick By Brick, owned by members of Wovenwar/As I Lay Dying, is certainly the club venue in San Diego, and observing its environment and the manner in which it is operated, one could tell that a band owns and runs it. This venue has changed the face of San Diego metal, and is so inviting and pleasant that even Los Angeles folks are normally willing to endure the often tedious drive to San Diego to attend shows at Brick By Brick. Armored Saint and Metal Church played a sold-out show at the Whisky-A-Go-Go in West Hollywood the previous night, but due to scheduling conflicts, the San Diego show of the tour was the one Metal Assault ended up covering, and not regretfully so.
One interesting and unique aspect of this show was the fact that the two ‘local’ openers were in fact not local at all. Doors opened at 7:30, and first to take the stage at 8 PM was Alchemy, based out of Tijuana, Mexico. Their Judas Priest-inspired straightforward heavy metal, combined with the kind of firepower, stage presence and personality only those south of the border possess, Alchemy put on an entertaining show. They had their own fans in the audience but also made plenty of new ones in the process. Vocalist Carlos Yeme gave it his all to keep the crowd engaged, and by and large succeeded in his attempts while his band mates played their respective instruments with skill and fury in equal measures. One couldn’t have asked for a better start to this show.
More Alchemy photos:
Shortly after, next up was Sin Circus, all the way from Puyallup, Washington. They brought forth a relatively modern flavor to the evening with their brand of heavy metal, but they definitely garnered a positive response from this old-school audience and proved that they can play their instruments. Still young in age, have a long and bright future ahead of them. Besides the exuberant stage presence, solid guitar work and rhythm section, the singing was excellent and was powerful enough to resonate across the entire club, as the bassist, drummer and one of the guitarists all sang.
In addition to their original tunes, Sin Circus also did a fun medley jam of classic rock and metal covers, and those in the audience that really knew their metal had a blast trying to keep up with the band as they rapidly shifted from one classic riff to another. Sin Circus were only allotted a 30-minute set but very few here would have complained had they been given a longer set.
More Sin Circus photos:
At 9:35, the Mike Howe-fronted Metal Church took the stage to present an assortment of tunes old and new, and this crowd was going absolutely nuts as this seemed to be the band most people had primarily come here to see. The reunion with Mike Howe has undoubtedly sparked newfound interest in a band that was otherwise not doing bad by any means but weren’t anywhere near as prominent and in demand as they are now. To the band’s credit, it is refreshing to note that this reunion isn’t merely a throwback to the three Metal Church albums Howe sang on in the late ’80s and early ’90s, instead they wrote and recorded a brand new album and devoted a quarter of this set to play tunes off of it.
Guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof was his usual effortless best while Rick Van Zandt was also shredding away endlessly on his guitar, and bassist Steve Unger and drummer Jeff Plate held up the rhythm section to perfection. But without any doubt, this Metal Church performance was all about Mike Howe and his incredible vocal pyrotechnics, wild facial expressions and age-defying stage antics. Howe put on what could only be described as one of the finest performances ever by a heavy metal frontman, and has vindicated his return to the band as a move not made just for the sake of doing so but based purely on merit.
But great as this Metal Church set was in its salutation to true old-school heavy metal and as masterful as the performance was by all of the band’s members, one did feel that their set was a little too long and wore out in its intensity and impact due to a lack of variety from one song to the next. An 80-plus minute set is too long for a co-headliner, and a bit unfair and unjust on the band playing last on a Sunday night. That being said, Metal Church were undeniably impressive and it’s a good thing to have them back firing on all cylinders.
More Metal Church photos:
Metal Church set list:
01. Fake Healer
02. In Mourning
03. Start the Fire
04. Reset
05. Gods of Second Chance
06. Date with Poverty
07. No Tomorrow
08. Watch the Children Pray
09. No Friend of Mine
10. Killing Your Time
11. Beyond the Black
12. Badlands
13. The Human Factor
With Metal Church not leaving the stage till 11 o’ clock and the changeover taking more than 30 minutes despite shared backline, it was already 11:35 by the time Armored Saint took the stage, and the crowd had definitely thinned. But that didn’t deter this band from putting their best foot forward as they always do, and they only keep getting better and stronger with age. For the longest time, Armored Saint would just do the one hometown gig and the odd one-off European festival every year and that’s all they would do, but following the 2015 Metal Blade Records release of their seventh LP ‘Win Hands Down’, they have been more active than they’ve ever been, touring the States as headliners, as support to Saxon, and now co-headlining with Metal Church. This band has been known, admired and worshipped in the Los Angeles metal fraternity for more than three decades, but is criminally underrated elsewhere. Armored Saint is nothing less than a national treasure. and it’s great to witness that non-LA audiences are finally getting a chance to find that out for themselves. Unfortunately on this Sunday evening, quite a few attendees departed the venue before or mid-way through Armored Saint’s set, and they definitely missed out on the best band of the night. Between Metal Church and Armored Saint, the latter without doubt has the better body of work, better musicianship and better stage presence, and this was all the more evident through the two bands’ performances at this show. If the order was the other way round and Armored Saint played first, they would have made Metal Church look and sound extremely mediocre, but luckily for Metal Church, that didn’t happen.
Vocalist John Bush was at his sparkling best, and the awesome foursome of Joey Vera, Phil Sandoval, Jeff Duncan and Gonzo Sandoval played their respective instruments with unmatchable aplomb. ‘Human Vulture’ and ‘Pay Dirt’ were pleasant surprises in the set, and the ‘Win Hands Down’ material was as powerful as any of the classics like ‘Reign Of Fire’, ‘Can U Deliver’, and of the greatest songs in metal history, ‘March Of The Saint’. Fans certainly didn’t complain about the inclusion of as many as three songs from the ‘Symbol Of Salvation’ album, and there was also a sprinkling of the ‘Delirious Nomad’ and ‘La Raza’ albums in the mix. In addition to the musicianship and performance, it was also entertaining to note bassist Joey Vera trying his best to stop people in the front row from viewing the whole concert through their cellphone screens. At one point someone handed John Bush an armor helmet, much like that on the ‘March Of The Saint’ album cover, and Bush wore it briefly even as he continued to sing.
It was a pity that they played a shorter set than Metal Church and had to play so late, but they emphatically proved that whether as a headliner, support act or co-headliner, Armored Saint always wins hands down.
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More Armored Saint photos:
Armored Saint set list:
01. Win Hands Down
02. March Of The Saint
03. Tribal Dance
04. An Exercise In Debauchery
05. Human Vulture
06. Pay Dirt
07. Muscle Memory
08. Symbol Of Salvation
09. Aftermath
10. Left Hook From Right Field
11. Reign Of Fire
12. Can U Deliver
13. Mad House
Remaining Tour Dates:
6/10 – Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
6/11 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater