It’s 2023 and I’ve lost track of how many last Danzig shows I’ve seen. I want to say it was around 2005 following the release of Circle of Snakes where Glenn Danzig first started talking about hanging it up when it came to touring. It wasn’t hard to see why someone who had been in the music business for over 30 years would grow weary of life on the road in a tour bus. Especially since back then Danzig was relegated to playing small venues and had been doing so the last three albums and tours. It’s not that he and the band would hate playing in such venues, it’s just the reality of a tour that when your band is in smaller places you’re probably not dropping a bunch of money on nice hotels. Sleeping on a bus sucks, every day feels the same, and after decades of doing so it’s long since become charming.
Obviously, such notions didn’t stick. While Danzig has gone long stretches without proper tours, there’s been plenty of opportunities to see the act. I know I saw the band on the 20th anniversary tour for the first album, Danzig, as well as in support of albums to follow. When I saw the special Danzig Legacy show in New York, I thought that might be it. And if it was, I was content to let that be my last Danzig experience. It wasn’t, because a few years later more litigation between the two co-founders of The Misfits, Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only, lead to the long awaited (and logical) resolution to just reunite, play a few shows, and cash some checks. The Original Misfits started as a gig at Riotfest in Chicago, and soon expanded from there. While never embarking on a true tour, the reunion group has played several shows at this point and I kind of assumed all parties were content to just do that. By playing shows here and there, the demand remains strong and it probably ends up being a nice pay day for all involved. Danzig did do some one-off Danzig Sings Elvis shows out west which definitely felt like they were being done for Glenn as something he just wanted to do. Another Danzig tour? Aside from the occasional festival gig, I had completely written off the idea, but old Glenn surprised me once again.
I don’t know why it came about, but apparently Danzig got the itch to hit the road one more time. And it being 2023, the easy and logical selling point was to make it a 35th anniversary of Danzig tour and play the entire first album as part of the set. It started as a pair of festival gigs back in June in Finland and Poland, and then turned into a full US tour. The US leg started on September 1st, and on the eleventh it rolled into Boston, Massachusetts. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would even attend. The show was at a venue I had never been to, MGM Music Hall at Fenway, and as the name suggests it’s located in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. The problem with the show arriving on the eleventh was that right across the street at Fenway Park the Boston Red Sox were set to host the New York Yankees. Neither baseball team is really any good in 2023, but the century old rivalry still puts butts in seats so the scene was likely to be a zoo. Did I feel like fighting the Boston traffic, hunting for parking, and likely dealing with public transportation just to see Danzig one more time? After some hemming and hawing on my part, it turns out that I was willing to do that. There are songs on the setlist I’ve always wanted to see the band perform and this is likely the last time I’ll get to do so. I’d hate to have to regret missing out so I grabbed a general admission ticket and made my way into Boston.
Touring in support of Danzig is the trio of Behemoth, Twin Temple, and Midnight. Going into the evening, I was familiar with both Behemoth and Midnight. I think I’ve even seen Behemoth as an opener before, but I’m not a fan of the band or of Midnight. I’ve never actively disliked either act, I’ve just never been compelled to go deeper with them following my limited exposure. Midnight hit the stage at 6:30, or shortly after. I actually missed a sizable chunk of their set getting there and then hitting the merch table (which is loaded with classic t-shirt designs for those who missed out or need to replace a vintage one), but was able to catch the last two songs. Midnight has a bit of an old school slant to them and sounded great live. The venue was nice, spacious, and best of all, comfortable. I’ve seen Danzig (and numerous other metal acts) many times at the Worcester Palladium and that place always has muddy acoustics and atrocious ventilation so this is a major step up. Drink prices were outrageous and there wasn’t any real food to partake, but that stuff is both expected and secondary for me when attending a show as I’d rather just take it all in and not have to visit the restroom between acts.
Twin Temple was the second to take the stage and that is one memorable act. I had checked the band out before heading to the show so I knew what was coming, but it was still pretty damn wild to see. Twin Temple is like if Sun Records had a Satanic act on their label as the music is 50’s inspired and the lead singer is a woman with a giant beehive hairdo. She looks like a sinister Marge Simpson. I can see Twin Temple not being everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you were there for the much heavier Behemoth and Midnight, but I was very much entertained by their schtick. The band sounded good, which included keys and a saxophone, and the theatrics certainly added to the night. I was not at all surprised to see they had opened for the band Ghost in the past.
Behemoth took the stage as the penultimate act. They possess plenty of theatrics as well, but it’s more traditional black metal stuff. They played fast, loud, and heavy for their 40 minutes or so that was allotted to them. There were few pauses for banter with the crowd as the band was clearly more interested in letting the music speak for itself. I ended their set liking the band more than I did going in, though I concede they’re sound is one I would have been far likely to embrace 20 years than ago than I am now. I’m getting softer in my old age.
With the opening acts concluded, it was time for Danzig to take the stage. The band did so around 10 PM and it seems like things had fallen behind schedule at some point during the night. It was a long wait for the main event, but the crowd was ready when “Overture of the Rebel Angels” ended and Glenn and the boys ripped into “Twist of Cain.” The band was here to celebrate the release of the first album 35 years ago and the intent was to play the entire album in order, with one notable alteration. The script was flipped a bit when for the third song Glenn called for “Am I Demon” instead of “She Rides.” There appeared to be some confusion among the bandmates, and a couple of songs later a stagehand could be seen running out with setlists to tape down on the stage. I don’t know for sure, but I think they forgot to put them out to start and Glenn forgot the proper song order. No matter, it meant those of us in attendance got to experience a re-arranged version of the first album and I think it actually suited the live vibe quite well to not go into the slower “She Rides” quite so early in the set.
Joining Glenn on stage for this tour are the two mainstays of the band since 2010 – Tommy Victor on guitar and Steve Zing on bass. Karl Rosqvist is the drummer for this tour and he performed great. He easily had the tiniest kit of the four bands this evening, but you wouldn’t know it by how he sounded. He also got to play atop the classic skull-riser which will likely return to retirement following this tour. Victor is plenty capable of handling the axe and his tones were more matched for the first album than the more recent ones this time around. Zing continues to be up to the task of bass duties and always brings great energy to the stage. I remain happy that Glenn brought the ex-Samhain drummer back into the fold. A humorous moment occurred later in the set when Glenn started announcing the other members of the band. He introduced Karl, and then went on to introduce the next song and Tommy chimed in to remind him he forgot to introduce him and Zing which Glenn could only laugh at himself over. He and the band were in great spirits all night and appeared to be having fun on stage.
The set for the first album concluded with “Mother” as it made sense to bump the band’s most popular song to the end. They weren’t done though as Glenn reminded us early they missed Boston when they were touring in support of Lucifuge a couple of years ago so they planned to hit on that album tonight. I was kind of hoping they’d dust off a song or two they hadn’t been playing from that album this tour, but I’m guessing having a relatively new drummer in the fold may have limited what they could do. They did do “Tired of Being Alive” and followed it up with “Her Black Wings,” but after that Glenn gave the audience a choice between Danzig II or III and, a bit to my surprise, the crowd enthusiastically chose III which took us into “Dirty Black Summer.” At this point, the band was running up against the venue’s 11:30 curfew so there was only time left for “How the Gods Kill” and “Long Way Back from Hell” before a quick break lead to an encore of “Do You Wear the Mark?” A quick glance at other shows on the tour suggest we may have missed out on “Snakes of Christ” or “Bringer of Death” or both, but it was hard to feel cheated after this one.
The bands all sounded great, and it was especially true for Danzig. This may have been the best I’ve ever heard Glenn sound and I’ve been seeing him in action for over 20 years. His voice was strong and he didn’t hold back at all. The band sounded great too with the only hiccup being “Possession” which sounded a little off. That was another moment where the set list confusion seeped in as everyone was waiting for Karl to count them off while he seemed to think whatever was next was one for Tommy or Steve to begin. Seeing this show reenforced my belief that the recording for the first Danzig album was a bit restrained and I’ve always attributed that to Rick Rubin’s influence. Live, these songs take on a new dimension and serve the atmosphere so well. A song like “Not of This World” always felt like filler to me on the album, but live it’s a true banger and the type of song I never want to see removed from the set list. “End of Time” is a song Glenn acknowledged on stage they basically never play, and like “Not of This World,” it’s so much more engaging live than it is on the record. And the song I was most excited to hear live, “Soul on Fire,” was fantastic. That one had been briefly added to the set some 15 years or so ago, but it was on the tour where Glenn fell off a stage in Maryland (I want to say) and broke his arm forcing them to cancel the Massachusetts show the next night. I still remember getting ready to leave work early for that one, only to get the unfortunate text from the venue that the show was off. Finally, I got to see and experience one of my favorite cuts and it lived up to the hype and then some.
With Glenn Danzig being 68 now, it should go without saying that if you’ve been holding off on catching Danzig live you might want to rethink that. I still see a lot of people asking on social media if more tours will happen and it would be foolish to assume so. Despite his age, Glenn still bounces around that stage like a man possessed with the only difference these days is maybe he takes an extra breather or two between songs. I was getting tired just watching him so there’s no doubt in my mind that he can keep on performing as long as he wants to, and I think he does, he just doesn’t want to deal with all of the other stuff that a tour brings. At the end of the night, I left that venue feeling really happy about what I just saw and if it’s the last time I see Danzig then it was a fitting end. On the other hand, if they want to celebrate 30 years of Danzig IV you can bet your ass I’ll be there!
There’s plenty more Danzig coverage where that came from:
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