Concert Review: Danzig redeems himself after the Fun Fun Fun Fest Fiasco with a blistering set of his punk and metal classics.

[rating=5]

Last time Danzig played the TX capital it was a bad scene. His shortened, delayed set at Austin’s FunFunFunFest has now become legendary, where according to promoters he went into diva mode.

So the mood was a little shaky for his 25th Anniversary show at Stubb’s in Austin, TX.

Starting off the show was The Agonist, a Canadian metal group fronted by female vocalist Alissa White-Gluz’s who alternated between guttural bellowing and melodic vocals. Afterwards hardcore legends Corrosion Of Conformity took the stage, but their Pepper Keenan-less set was kind of a bummer (no Albatross or Lick My Wounds.)

But people wanted Danzig, and to his credit they started promptly. They kicked off with more recent material (‘Skincarver‘ and ‘Hammer of The Gods‘), but afterwards he announced the rest of the show would all be old shit. It’s the 25th anniversary of his self-titled début album and he drew heavily from it, featuring live staples Twist of Cain and Not of This World. But he also included lesser-played tracks Soul On Fire and Am I Demon. It was fun getting to hear some tracks I’ve never heard live, and I’ve seen him a bunch.

He drew equally heavily from his bluesy sophomore album Danzig II: Lucifuge.  A nice highlight was hearing the Elvis-ish  Blood and Tears in addition to bigger hits like Her Black Wings.

The surf-inflected Dirty Black Summer welcomely reentered the set, as its been notably absent the past few tours.

Danzig had to get a few digs in though; he complained that Austin was always; hot, no matter what time of the year it is! This drew chuckles given he was complaining about it being too cold the last time.

He’s not the apologetic type, but offered a mea culpa of sorts, saying that they were forced to cut their FFFFest set short. This caused a lot of groans in the crowd. But he finished it by saying: we’re here to finish what we fu–ing started!

That was in reference to the set of Misfits songs that got axed that evening, but not this night. Musclebound guitarist Doyle Von Frankenstein stormed the stage for a barrage of  punk classics including Vampira and  I Turned Into A Martian. The crowd ate it up, exploding in the orgiastic punk doo-wop of Last Caress.

Mid-set, Danzig’s voice was getting a tad hoarse, which he admitted to, asking the audience to help him while belting out Misfits tunes. But keep in mind this is a guy pushing 60. Given his adolescent demeanor that’s easy to forget, but he wasn’t short on energy and bombast.

Sadly there was no inclusion of any material from Danzig 4p, which is a sorely underrated album with some great tracks.

After playing Mother (which was actually the low-point;  it sounded off and shaky), the band exited the stage, but encored shortly afterwards.

Danzig asked if fans would rather hear Long Way Back From Hell or Snakes Of Christ from Danzig II. Then he laughed and said they’d play both. I was stoked given Snakes is my favorite Danzig song. But apparently he got amnesia as they only played Hell and then went into the Misfits classic Skulls (which according to Glenn was;the closest thing to a love song that I’ve ever written.)

His backing band offered ample support. Guitarist Tommy Victor (Prong) nailed pinch harmonics leads in-between power chord riffage, and bassist Steve Zing and drummer Johnny Kelley (Type O Negative) kept the beat swinging heavy.

Click here to read my interview with Tommy Victor!

The show went off without a hitch and the sometimes surly singer seemed jovial and out to make amends.

And judging by the smiles of the audience leaving after the final encore, all seems forgiven.

But seriously, what happened to Snakes of Christ?!

DANZIG STUBB’S SETLIST:

SkinCarver

Hammer of the Gods

Twist of Cain

 Am I demon

Her Black Wings

Devil’s Plaything

Blood and Tears

Dirty Black Summer

How The Gods Kill

Death Comes Ripping(Misfits cover)

Soul On Fire

Not Of This World

Mother

 Encore:

Long Way Back from Hell

Skulls (Misfits cover)

Encore 2:
London Dungeon (Misfits cover)