May 19, 2018

Helmet + Prong.  St. Andrews Hall – Detroit, Mi.

Two great bands.  Two full sets.  Jammed packed venue on a Saturday night in Detroit.  Doesn’t get much better than that.

Helmet and Prong are in the midst of their North American tour.  Many fans of both bands are packing in concert halls to watch these guy rock out.  The atmosphere is full on rock show and the crowd is ready to get in the pit.

First up was Prong.  They opened their energetic set with ‘For Dear Life’ followed by ‘Beg To Differ’.  Singer and guitarist, Tommy Victor, already had the crowd fired up but there was a definite pop when former bassist, Troy Gregory (1991-1993) came out on stage to perform ‘Prove You Wrong’ with the band.

After a quick pop of the fuse snafu the band got back down to business and continued on with the show.  After drummer Art Cruz and bassist Mike Longworth did a little passing back and forth of a drumstick the band ended their powerful set with ‘Whose Fist Is This Anyway?’ and crowd favorite ‘Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck.  Great set from this tight as can be trio.

Helmet came out sort of inconspicuously but as soon as ‘Milquetoast’ started the energy once again filled the room.  At one point during the song ‘Ironhead’ I could feel the balcony bounce from where I was standing on the main floor.

After playing ‘Red Scare’ from their latest album, ‘Dead To The World’, the band went back into their catalog and pulled out ‘Rollo’ and ‘Repetition’.

Singer/guitarist Page Hamilton, a day after his birthday, proved rock has no age.  He even gave us a bit of a jazz treat on his guitar on ‘Beautiful Love’ after they rocked out ‘Vaccination’.  Keeping on with a lot of material from ‘In The Meantime’ and ‘Betty’ the place was electric during ‘Give It’.  Drummer Kyle Stevenson nailed the distinct drum pattern on this song.  A lesser man would’ve need a long break, but not Kyle.  He just kept on, playing each song with power and energy, sometimes one right after another.

The band maintained their thick sound on ‘Renovation’ but bassist Dave Case and guitarist Dan Beeman took the thickness to another level during ‘She’s Lost’.  MY GOODNESS.  They ended the set with ‘Wilma’s Rainbow’.

Not done yet, the band came out for an extended encore starting with ‘Sam Hell’ and ‘Sinatra’.  The biggest lift of the entire evening, as you might imagine, was when the band went into ‘Unsung’.  The bands performance was spot on as nearly everyone in the audience sang along.  The show was technically over but the Page asked the crowd if anyone wanted to hear anything else.  Hearing something that someone shouted out that he wanted to play, Page changed guitars and pulled out ‘Just Another Victim’.  The set came to a conclusion with the song ‘In The Meantime’.

People exited the building feeling satisfied from a great night of rock music from two great bands.

Here’s the entire tour schedule:

May 09 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Studio
May 10 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
May 11 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
May 12 – Tulsa, OK @ The Shrine
May 13 – Kansas City, MO @ Truman
May 15 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
May 16 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity
May 17 – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
May 18 – Madison, WI @ The Majestic
May 19 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews
May 20 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
May 22 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
May 23 – New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
May 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
May 26 – Baltimore, MD @ Maryland Deathfest