It’s an impossible task trying to guess what kind of audience you will get stepping into an Anvil show. As I neared the Corporation just after the doors had opened. I saw nobody around, I suddenly had flashbacks to some of the more disheartening scenes from the hit documentary about the band Anvil, The Story of Anvil, that put them back in the musical zeitgeist in 2008. My fears of this Schrodinger’s Anvil audience were somewhat alleviated as I stepped into the small, dingy room where the bands that can’t fill the main room of the Corporation get relegated to, but that adds to the charm of the whole affair. A real, underground, D.I.Y. rock sort of show.
The first band to take the stage is local support band Baranovich, who immediately makes it apparent they carry their influences on their well-sleeveless sleeves. The lead singer greets the crowd with a quite respectable high scream, and some solid lead guitar work follows, creating an almost amalgamation of every hair-metal band of the 80s you’ve heard before. That’s not to say this is a bad thing, as the band suitably go through the motions, keeping the crowd bopping along to their, I don’t want to say uninspired, but always predictable beats. The band even offers a lot of levity interacting with the crowd between songs like a band that has clearly been doing this for quite a while, with the lead singer even recognising an old drummer from a band long gone that he fronted, bringing a nice homecoming feeling.
This band are clearly a bunch of old friends having fun, and that feeling is dispersed into the crowd, as the main word I would use to describe these guys would be just that, fun. They’re the type of band that when you’re big, all of the women want you, but when you’re tiny, there isn’t a woman in sight. But in general, there is something admirable about the set, and it sets the tone nicely for what is to follow.
The crowd disperses after Baranovich bellows their final note, with one interesting guy I noted at the very front of the set leaving for the entire rest of the show. I take this moment to manoeuvre my way closer to the stage for the next band, the aptly named Izengard. If the previous bands were an amalgamation of every ’80s hairband you’ve ever heard, then this band is an amalgamation of every band that has smoked too much weed, put on Lord of the Rings and tried to sync it up to their favourite Helloween album.
This might sound like I’m making fun of them, and there could be a little bit of that in there, but these guys are incredibly talented. Soaring through songs such as Dances with Dragons and Loki, it’s easy to see hints of greats such as Avantasia and even some Rush in the performance. Watching the band, I was reminded of something my ex’s dad said to me a long time ago, “Never trust a metal band with a keyboard player,” something that might have flown in the Yorkshire metal scene in the 80s but something I absolutely don’t agree with after witnessing what these guys were able to pull off.
Izengard finishes to decent applause, with the crowd seeming to appreciate them just as much as me, and finally, it’s time for the headliners and reason everyone is in the room tonight, Anvil. First stepping out onto the stage to set up their own gear to thunderous applause, there’s a little sadness in the irony of this, a band who in the late 70s and early 80’s were set to take over the world touring with the likes of Metallica and The Scorpions setting up their own gear. This aside, Anvil finally starts opening with the quite hilariously named but equally heavy March of the Crabs, with the enigmatic frontman Lips starting the set shredding in the middle of the audience before barrelling into the thrashy 666, and it is obvious from the get-go that Anvil are on fire tonight.
This band should be bigger; there are no two ways about it; these guys have been doing this a very, very long time, and the way they move so effortlessly between screaming solo to crushing riff should be studied by any up-and-coming thrash band. Speaking of things that should be studied, Anvil moves on to one of the highlights of their career and of the show Winged Assassin. The bass riff by relative newcomer to the band Chris Robertson is Les Claypool levels of funky and difficult to play. Celebrating his 10th anniversary in the band, Robertson careens through the song like somebody born to play, with the energy of somebody half his age and the skill of a festival headliner band. This could easily be attributed to the rest of the band too, with the intensely likeable frontman Lips interacting with the crowd before each song, dedicating the next song Free as the Wind to the late great Lemmy, telling a long but equally hilarious story about partying with the singer in Birmingham in the 80’s and the instantly of that night.
Another highlight of the night comes in the form of the Japanese-inspired Mothra, extended to a slightly ludicrous 15 minutes from its original 5 to feature multiple guitar solos, drum solos, and acting set pieces with both Lips and Robertson stomping around the stage emulating the titular creature, bowing to each other at points, and finishing the song with a possibly slightly culturally insensitive Arigato, but in the context it’s quite charming.
Now I would be completely amissed if I didn’t talk about the “secret weapon” of the band, as Lips rightly puts it, Robb Reiner. Reiner is one of the best metal drummers, no caveats; he is genuinely one of the best metal drummers, if not drummers in general, thundering through the entire set with the pace and skill of somebody who has been honing their craft for the last 50 years. This all comes to a crescendo when both Lips and Robertson step to either side of the stage and let Reiner really show off his stuff in what I can only describe as one of the best displays of drumming brilliance I have ever seen. Seriously, words can’t quite state how skilled a drummer Reiner is, and one of the real shames of Anvil never reaching the heights they should is that people never got to witness Reiner.
But as they always say, all good things must come to an end, and Lips makes his way into the crowd again, exclaiming, “This is why you all came,” before blasting into their only hit to ever really break the mainstream Metal on Metal. This fires up the crowd one final time, and they move more than they have the entire night, with the echoes of a possible pit even forming close to the singer before diving out to welcome more crowd-friendly head-banging instead. Lips launches into his final solo, and as the guitar lets out its final shriek, the crowd lets out a mighty applause, with many embracing the frontman. While Anvil may have never reached the heights as a band, the truly deserved appreciation between the band and the audience is palpable, and as I make my exit, the apprehension I had going into the venue is completely gone, and in its place lies an appreciation not for what Anvil could have been but for the fact that after all these years they can still put on a truly breathtaking show.
