Anvil with Tanguy and Midnite Hellion – Metal on Metal at the Tuscany Copa Room!

Anvil played the Copa Room at the Tuscany Hotel and Casino on Sunday, June 14, 2026, with support acts Midnite Hellion and Tanguy.

Canada’s Anvil was a heavy metal band with many admirers among fans and their peers alike, with classic albums like METAL ON METAL remaining massively beloved and influential. But mainstream success eluded the band, with them sadly being left in the dust as their peers ascended, relegating them to day jobs but an undying ambition of pursuing their dreams despite hardships. The documentary ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL, released two decades ago, gave the band long overdue attention and recognition. To date, the band has recorded 20 studio albums, with more on the way. The band has always featured vocalist/guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb “Robbo” Reiner, and since 2014, bassist Chris Robertson.

It had been many years since Anvil last rocked Sin City; this was their first gig in Las Vegas since before the pandemic! My last time seeing the group was at Count’s Vamp’d way back in 2016, so this headbanger was long overdue for a dose of the Canadian metal only Mr. Kudlow and Mr. Reiner can provide (the band did play a show at the Rio’s now-defunct 172 club back in 2019, though I unfortunately missed that one due to the work schedule at my former job).

The Tuscany’s Copa Room has truly risen over the past year to be one of the top spots in Las Vegas to catch rock shows. Though it’s clear this room was constructed with the town’s long running Rat Pack tribute in mind, it’s become a surprisingly good spot for all things hard and heavy. Hearing Anvil would be playing the Tuscany’s Copa Room was great news; it’s an accessible venue and a nice intimate room (this definitely beats having to go downtown or to the Strip and paying to park/struggling to find a space, especially with all the sporting events that have been going on in town this past weekend). My extended thanks as always to Mitch, Grayson, Mike, Brian, and all the staff at the venue for continuing to keep rock alive in Vegas, and making it accessible.

Even prior to the show, the Anvil guys were hanging out around the Tuscany and outside the venue entrance, chatting with fans, taking pictures, signing autographs, and just being all-around approachable. These are guys who’ve seen their hardships over the years and who truly appreciate the people who come to their shows, whether they’re the “old guard” of Anvil fans who followed them since the old days, or the “new guard” of fans who discovered them through the documentary. The venue brought in a good crowd for a Sunday night; one of the fans I’d chatted with was in town from Argentina! Being someone who makes and wears battle jackets to concerts, I made sure to visit their merch table and pick up a few Anvil patches for my collection.

As was previously stated, Anvil’s Tuscany gig featured two support acts. Kicking off the festivities was French-born musician Tanguy, who now calls Las Vegas home. This is a guy who I’d regularly run into at concerts at Vamp’d before that venue closed, but this was my first time seeing him and his band on a stage doing a show. Tanguy bills himself as creating a “Rock Revival,” and his sound hearkens back to the Decade of Decadence, albeit with some modern flair thrown in as well. This was a short set that featured several original tunes, as well as a surprise cover of one of my favorite Def Leppard deep cuts, “Tear it Down.” Tanguy’s music video for the original tune “Goin’ For a Ride” is available for viewing online (go watch it after you finish reading this review; I guarantee you won’t stop smiling), and the tune has been getting some circulation on KOMP 92.3’s Home Grown Show. The only issue I had with Tanguy’s set was the brevity; I look forward to seeing this guy playing a headline set soon though!

We then come to the most unusual moment of the night (and that’s a pretty tall claim for any concert where Anvil is the headliner), that being the arrival of second support act Midnite Hellion. Well… not exactly all of Midnite Hellion. This was a band with which I was unfamiliar prior to this night, but I was surprised to see only two men take the stage; a drummer and a bassist/vocalist. You heard that right. No guitarist! In something right out of Spinal Tap lore, the band explained that their guitarist had dropped off the tour, leaving them minus a musician. And yet, that didn’t stop these guys from delivering what was one of the hardest and heaviest sets of the evening, with in your face bass and loud vocals. The energy and ferocity these guys displayed was almost more reminiscent of punk than metal, but I certainly don’t see that as a bad thing. One of the most interesting parts of this night of rock was that the three bands present sounded absolutely nothing alike. I want to take in a “proper” Midnite Hellion with a guitarist at some point in the future; even reduced to a two piece, these guys rocked my world!

And last but not least, were the Canadian metal titans that everyone came to see. The mighty Anvil! It’s incredible that Lips and Robbo are still going strong all these years later despite hardships and a level of commercial success below many of their peers. But even in their late 60s/early 70s, these guys are still going strong, and their sound is as hard and heavy as ever. Since 2014, the band has featured bassist Chris Robertson, and they continue to tour regularly. The release of the film ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL has given the band far more opportunities to tour the world, both in headlining and supporting capacities. Short of Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, this is probably the “biggest” artist I’ve seen headline Tuscany’s Copa Room. The “dance floor” area of the venue was mostly empty and deserted for the first two bands, but the second Anvil took the stage, it was filled with fans. Needless to say, I rushed up there as well.

Once the show began, the trio didn’t waste any time getting down to business! Lips even spent the first song with his guitar playing and walking through the crowd; something he’d also reprise near the end of the performance. Moments like this have become staples of Anvil concerts. And yes, of course, we even got the infamous moments where he would yell into his guitar like a makeshift microphone, and pull out a vibrator to use as a guitar slide (you can’t make this stuff up). He may be 70, but Lips is still one of the most animated frontmen and axemen in rock. Mr. Reiner even got more than a few chances to shine behind the drum kit; it’s not hard to see why this guy garners respect and admiration even in bands that made it bigger back in the day; one need only see the scenes of Lars Ulrich in the Anvil doc to see what I mean.

When a band has 20 records, and nearly all of them packed with superb headbanging anthems, choosing a setlist can be a difficult task. For this tour, Anvil chose to highlight tracks from their first four records: HARD N HEAVY, METAL ON METAL, FORGED IN FIRE, and STRENGTH OF STEEL (to this day they still retain their love of alliterative album titles). The only song not played from this 1981-1987 period was “Swing Thing” from 2011’s JUGGERNAUT OF JUSTICE, which was a welcomed addition to the evening’s festivities. Tunes like “Mothra,” “March of the Crabs,” “666,” “Winged Assassins,” “Bedroom Game,” and “School Love” rock as hard as ever, and the band is up to the task and then some, often musically outclassing many of their still-active peers and even younger bands. Unsurprisingly, the closing song of the night was the title cut from METAL ON METAL, the band’s best-known song, and the crowd was enthused, singing along to every word. Every person in the audience was headbanging and had an amazing time with one of the metal world’s greatest bands, getting the recognition they deserve.

If I have one minor complaint with an otherwise stellar night, it was that the show ran quite long and late for a Sunday night (even in a 24-hour town like Las Vegas, some people still work more conventional jobs and need to be awake on Monday morning). Personally, I feel the show should’ve started two hours earlier so it could’ve been over by 10:00 PM (as is, the show ran until about half an hour before midnight).

Anvil is Anvil, and bless them for that. These Canadian rockers can still deliver on a live stage as few others can, and the opening sets from Tanguy and a two-member Midnite Hellion were fantastic as well. If you’re a heavy metal fan and Anvil comes to your town, you owe it to yourself to go. Support a band who deserves it, and perhaps most importantly, still rocks hard and is worth seeing. One of my favorite rock shows of 2026 so far; I have no doubt this will be in the Top Five when I put out my “Best of the Year” list.