I must state that it’s impossible to not have a great time at Reggie’s! After seeing so many shows here, and seeing the same die-hard fans attend time and time again, it’s obvious that this is the Chicago mecca for Heavy Metal and tonight was no exception!
Acracy opened the night with their brand of progressive Power Metal reminiscent of early Fates Warning. The keyboards gave it a nice touch, along with impressive vocals & guitar work, & they even covered the Rainbow classic “Man On The Silver Mountain”.
After a brief changeover, all six members of the triple-axe attack Leatherwolf hit the stage. This is a new line-up of the band, with drummer Dean Roberts being the only original member & it was interesting to witness the refreshed band perform classic cuts like “Rise Or Fall”, “The Calling”, “Rule The Night”, and “Thunder” plus tracks from the 2022 “Kill The Hunted” album (a favorite of mine). Overall, it seemed a seamless transition between old and new Leatherwolf material & in my opinion this line-up is talented, tight, and performs well live. Vocalist Keith Adamiak does a great job commanding the crowd & channeling the spirit and energy of Michael Olivieri, so let’s hope for new material from them soon!
Setlist:
Behind The Gun
Rise Or Fall
Spiter
Nobody
Alone In The Night
Street Ready
Kill The Hunted
Rule The Night
Thunder
The Calling
Finally, at 10:00PM we are presented with three banners decorating the Reggie’s stage. The classic Riot logo hangs overhead, while the two covering the amplifiers show a close-up of the band’s seal mascot, and the cover of the brand-new studio release “Mean Streets”. They opened with the first song from the album, “Hail to the Warriors”, and it was obvious that Heavy Metal magic was in the air. The crowd was full of dedicated metalheads that knew the Riot material inside & out, with this version of Riot (Riot V) always delivers having seen them now for the third time. In comparison to the new album players, guitarist Nick Lee & drummer Frank Gilchriest did not perform live, having been replaced by Jonathan Reinheimer & Jason West respectively. As expected, the band put on a stellar set of classic Riot, and new Riot V tracks that had everyone headbanging and raising their fists. We got heavy hitters “Fire Down Under”, “Road Racin’”, and “Outlaw”, plus a taste of the Rhett Forrester era with “Restless Breed”. This line-up plays these songs with execution, and Todd Michael Hall’s vocals are completely on point. He is an absolute beast of a singer, and extremely impressive.
Highlights of the set were “Love Beyond The Grave”, as this is a top track on the new album, & plus when signature song “Swords And Tequila” was performed, a bottle of Jose Cuervo was being passed from band to crowd. In addition, the night wouldn’t be complete without a few tracks from “Thundersteel”, the bands epic 1988 masterpiece that features current bassist Don Van Stavern: the title track, “Fight or Fall”, and “Bloodstreets” are always crowd pleasers, and “Johnny’s Back” was the encore for the night.
Setlist:
Hail To The Warriors
Fire Down Under
Victory
Feel The Fire
Road Racin'
Fight Or Fall
Bring The Hammer Down
Outlaw
Flight Of The Warrior
Restless Breed
Bloodstreets
Take Me Back
Love Beyond The Grave
Metal Warrior
Swords And Tequila
Thundersteel
Johnny’s Back
Check out other new content & SUBSCRIBE TO THE METAL MAYHEMROC YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Y8gRcKQODNMWwyLBfIHOA
1997
Support Metal Mayhem ROC and keep the metal alive by grabbing some killer merch from our shop – every purchase fuels the podcast you love!
https://metalmayhemroc.etsy.com/
GET SPECIAL MMROC SHOW UPDATES!
Become a part of a community of fellow metal heads who get updated on special episodes, interviews and and exclusive metal news.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
