Unfortunately it is rather common these days to throw bands of totally different music genres together and call it a “best thing since sliced bread” Tour.
Luckily this didn’t happen when Dan Rozenblum (The Pantheon Agency) had the vision to bring English Dogs across the big pond to headline the Forward Into Battle – USA Tour 2012. The other bands on the bill were The Casualties, Toxic Holocaust and Havok.
We had an interview scheduled with English Dogs drummer and founding member Pinch (check here), so early Sunday afternoon I made my way to the Summit Music Hall in downtown Denver, CO to catch a glimpse of the thrash vs. punk showdown. Denver’s own Thrashers Havok took the stage about half an hour after doors and I was actually really surprised on how many people were in line to get in. Dave Sanchez and gang never disappoint and played a solid 30 minute set. By the time they finished the room had filled up nicely and everybody got ready to watch the second band of the night; Toxic Holocaust.
I have seen them a few times over the years and just can’t say enough positive things about Joel Grind and the musicians he surrounds himself with. Way, way under rated band and they should be much more popular over here. Their music infuses elements of Thrash and Speed metal with a slight Celtic Frost, Venom, or old Sodom undertone. Love it! Check them out next time they come to a city close by; you won’t regret it.(For more about their performance and a link to more pictures; check out my concert review for Metal Storm.net)
The Casualties; a band I knew nothing about and enjoyed watching immensely. They’re more of a hard core punk band and the crowd really liked their set. English Dogs vocalist Adie Bailey told me during their set that The Casualties are a hard act to follow; and he was right about this. The mosh pit was going literally non stop during their 45 minute set; and the Denver crowd managed to pull off an awesome wall-of-death!(Check out a couple more pictures of The Casualties right HERE)
Then it was finally time for the headliner; English Dogs. Those lads haven’t toured the United States since 1986; and this is not a typo! Well, to be fair, some of their members toured here after the 80’s with various other bands.
Since the tour was named Forward Into Battle it was more than fitting that only the members from this 1985 release were present with the addition of two outstanding musicians. In other words during their North American run the touring line-up is: Gizz (guitar), Pinch (drums), Adie (vocals) plus session members Craig Christy (bass) and Ryan Christy (guitar). Not only are Craig and Ryan brothers, they are twins and owners of a tattoo shop in Dana Point, CA.
At one point or another there were about 500 folks in the venue, but to my surprise some patrons left after The Casualties. Nevertheless there was still a sizeable crowd present to watch those dudes, who are well into their 40’s I might add, rock out on stage, and to those who left; folks you missed out!
“Good evening Denver; we are the English Dogs, let’s get Forward Into Battle”
And so it started. English Dogs played the entire 1985 album Forward Into Battle as well as 1986’s EP Metalmorphosis and I wanna say just only one song off 1984 EP To The Ends Of The Earth.
Since the guys are more,…hmmm,…mature, older, wiser, ….than they were the last time on US tour, their material sounded tight as hell.
Gizz is THE man on guitar, holy smokes! He whipped out those technical solos with such ease just like back in the days.
Vocalist Adie Bailey went off the stage and stood on the barriers more than once during their performance. He gave the audience the chance to be up close and personal as well as the opportunity to sing and chant along with him. His voice hasn’t lost anything over the years, but during some songs, especially “Wall Of Steel” I don’t even know why he was singing at all, since most of the audience was screaming the song almost louder than him.
Pinch was great, but since he also plays for The Damned it was no surprise to me that he has not lost his edge of drumming.
The addition of the Christy brothers was such a great move, and them being long time English Dogs fans themselves they played the material like it was their own.
With such a diverse crowd I was surprised how nice everybody got along. I haven’t seen that many mohawks and spiked hair in a long time. Young as well as old showed up with denim vest’s full of band patches and also the occasional bullet belt was spotted, nice! Unfortunately the evening ended way too soon and hopefully this was not the last time we had the chance to see English Dogs play.
Check out some live performance footage on superskum.
Check out their Facebook page for upcoming dates and hopefully a big announcement in the coming weeks.