Red Fang, Lord Dying, Black Tusk
Friday, November 9 at Kingdom
Enthusiastic fans came out in droves on November 9th to witness Red Fang and Black Tusk grace Richmond with their presence at Kingdom, along with tourmates Lord Dying, who took the stage first.
Red Fang, Lord Dying, Black Tusk
Friday, November 9 at Kingdom
Enthusiastic fans came out in droves on November 9th to witness Red Fang and Black Tusk grace Richmond with their presence at Kingdom, along with tourmates Lord Dying, who took the stage first. Their energy was impressive and they powered through a solid set. However, their particular brand of somewhat progressive doomy rock, reminiscent of bands like Mastodon, was well-executed, but somewhat run-of the mill. Their riffs were solid and a few of their songs stood out as catchy and memorable, but it still seemed like much of the audience was counting the seconds until the two main acts went on. I also wasn’t quite sure what was up with their name, it seemed a bit too much like a randomly-generated generic metal moniker.
Black Tusk were up next, and they put on quite the show. I was familiar with their music from before, but had briefly confused them with another band, Black Anvil, and was expecting a straightforward doom set. I was very happily surprised when they launched into an aural assault of brutal, fast, and thrashy doom with a grimy, gritty, hardcore edge. Every song they played was very fast and catchy, and they had amazing energy, constantly running around the stage and headbanging aggressively. This was a vast improvement over Lord Dying, who basically just stood in one place. I actually found myself enjoying their set the most out of the three bands.
Red Fang played last; I rushed back from having a drink next door at McCormack’s just in time to catch the beginning of their set. Although I’ve liked Red Fang for a while based on their catchy music and hilarious videos, I always just sort of chalked them up as a band that sounds like The Sword, except with more emphasis on partying. Seeing them live totally changed my mind, and made me value their musicianship and versatility a lot more. They played a lot of songs live that I hadn’t heard before, including a slow, self-deprecating ballad that was actually really good, and some faster, angrier stuff that had less of a singsong feel to it. They also put on an amazing live show; I had counted on them being energetic and fun, but they also played extremely well and tightly, even improvising solos, fills, and leads in almost every song.
The off-beat sense of humor of their music videos (which include, for those of you who haven’t seen them, improvised sword fights using armor made out of beer cans and a montage where they blow all their money for a music video on a junk car that they use to smash into things) translated well without coming off as forced or staged. They are also one of those bands that get amazing crowd reaction, which is just plain fun to watch; everyone in the audience was either headbanging, stage diving, or fist-pumping and singing along with all their might. Although the gnarly, grindcore edge of Black Tusk was more up my alley, Red Fang definitely put on the best performance of the night, and the show overall was extremely fun and party-inducing, despite Kingdom’s crazy beer prices!
