KING DIAMOND + Overkill & Night Demon at Virgin Theater

I was quite excited about seeing this lineup at the Virgin Theater. Night Demon may have been a new name to me but Overkill is a known commodity in our household as a great-fucking-time and King Diamond showed Courtney and I he could still go when we saw Mercyful Fate at Psycho. This show was easily one of my most anticipated of this year. 

Now luckily my lovely wife double checked for when the doors would open. Plenty of people didn’t and showed up expecting the doors to be opening only to find out Night Demon were finishing up their set. Even if you weren’t there for Night Demon vocalist Jarvis Leatherby to share with everyone attending they had only found out about the change once they had arrived to the venue, you’ll see evidence how irregular the evening went for yourself. 

The staff did the best they could of course – they certainly put their best foot forward in trying to assist the attendees. That said someone messed up in not communicating the change to people who bought tickets and the bands set to perform that evening. 

There is however one other gross oversight I have to mention in hopes it gets fixed for future events at the Theater. If you had a ticket for one of the rows of seats you might have seen the too small lamented placards zip tied to the first seat of each row. These cards were too small for even the ushers assisting guests as I witnessed several times one person having to squint at them to read the letter designated for each row. What’s worse is the interior aisle didn’t even have these placards and one gentleman had his smartphone set on the ledge next to his seat with a letter L in a font larger then the placards at the other end of the row as a courtesy for other people trying to find their seat. 

I’m not going to continue to harp on these sorts of things much longer. There are in fact much better things to be doing than complaining when the show itself went off without that much of a hitch and as I said the staff of the Virgin Theater stepped up to make the most out of a bad situation. Now onto the night’s more obvious heroes… 

I’ve briefly touched on Night Demon from Ventura, California – which as an aside was a cool little town from what I remember as a wee lad visiting some twenty years ago. Night Demon is a heavy metal power trio with the pedigree of a supergroup. I mean – check out some of the bands these guys have played in to see what I mean. The old school sensibilities and speed remind me much of Motörhead stylistically – obviously without the gruff vocals of Lemmy. I’m new to Night Demon but I’m more drawn to the scant parts of their catalog I’ve listened to then I’ve ever been to the decades of Motörhead records I’ve heard before. Reminds me of the days when I was praying for new Spiritual Beggers music. 

You might have noticed I don’t call Night Demon thrash. How can I not when thrash metal can include bands from the Big 4 as well as bands like Revocation, Kreator, Municipal Waste and Vektor. It can seem like splitting hairs to some but let’s all agree at least for now that thrash is a different beast separate from heavy metal or speed metal. 

One interesting flavor of thrash is the New York thrash scene epitomized by the likes of Overkill as well as Anthrax. There’s something about the use of gang vocals that’s unique to New York’s underground not just in thrash but it’s slightly older cousin hardcore. Sure Metallica used gang vocals but you aren’t going to convince me that the example in “Creeping Death” isn’t at least mostly James and more James’. 

Overkill might not be my favorite thrash band – but I find them to be more impressive performers than most thrash bands I’ve seen. In the past I’ve praised Bobby’s intensity and willingness to give the audience everything of himself he can. This time I’m in awe that these guys seemingly went from driving to the venue to getting their shit on stage and performing. Why? From the pictures it should be obvious – they didn’t even have any time to change into their stage gear. Have you ever seen Bobby fucking “Blitz” even wear blue jeans before? I hadn’t!

As I write this I immediately find a band promo photo and he’s literally right up front in goddamn blue jeans… They’re wearing hats though! Hats and shorts! Did their set seem short? Maybe it was always the same length  – but they were professional badasses.  Overkill and their crew deserve to be recognized as ‘Big Goddamn Heroes’.

Fuck you. 

As soon as the show was announced I felt there was plenty to be excited about. Coming off seeing King’s first legendary band Mercyful Fate headlining Psycho Fest. I can thank the Metallica release ‘Garage Inc’ for introducing me to a lot of bands that captured my middle schooler attention. Chief amongst them being Diamond Head, The Misfits and of course Mercyful Fate. To think with how obsessive I could be, it’s no wonder I tried so hard to get my friends to listen to Mercyful Fate or King Diamond after watching ‘Clerks II’. This did not go as I expected. To be fair I practically never got people to enjoy whatever band I was obsessing about at the time. Shit now that I think about it  that hardly works now. 

One thing I love about metal (and there are plenty) is how often people can show up and you know they did the extra credit assignment of showing up ‘in character’ so to speak. Some showed up with their King Diamond face on but one particular woman arrived dressed as one of Satan’s Nurses. I don’t know who you are but you won the unofficial costume contest. This award doesn’t come with any prizes aside from bragging rights and mention in this write up. 

One other reason to be excited was the addition of fellow Dane Myrkur to the King Diamond line up on this tour. I couldn’t imagine how that would play out at the time – I mean it’s obvious in hindsight she’d have a backup role and fill out King’s vocals to sound closer to the records. Seriously cool since I hadn’t known she could sing quite like that since I mostly listen to her music when I want to genuinely relax rather than how I relax with a black metal record. 

The last thing I want to talk about how cool it is to see a stage set up like the one King Diamond brought with them in a theater. Growing up plenty of bands would dress up the stage to fit their vibe on the current record or how Megadeth’s drum riser and rack is pretty much a signature of that band. 

Kreator brought with them the inflatable heads when we saw them at House of Blues and I got the feeling of seeing Eddie in a smaller venue. It makes perfect sense to me why many bands didn’t do this sort of thing for most of the time I would go to shows regularly starting in high school. You gotta ship all this shit somehow after all and Satan help you if you’re a European band touring the states. 

Yeah this is where I remembered that King lives in Texas… All this to say I appreciate that artists of all walks are doing more to embrace their live performance in such a way to include a Satanic hospital set. Something had to come with guitarists downsizing their live rigs, yeah? 

PHOTO CREDIT: Live photos by Courtney Ware for ZrockR Magazine – (c) 2024 – All Rights Reserved.