{"id":16195,"date":"2016-07-27T01:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=16195"},"modified":"2016-07-27T14:35:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T18:35:58","slug":"metal-legends-jag-panzer-bring-pure-power-to-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=16195","title":{"rendered":"Metal Legends Jag Panzer Bring Pure Power to Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jag Panzer<\/strong>
\n St. Vitus Bar<\/strong>
\n Brooklyn, NY<\/strong>
\n Saturday July 9th, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Review by Kevin Emerson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sitting at the gate at New York\u2019s La Guardia airport on a Sunday afternoon, awaiting his return flight to Colorado, Jag Panzer\u2019s introspective and understated guitarist Mark Briody paused for a moment to contemplate his response. \u201cWell\u2026.I think<\/em> it was a good show. I mean, the crowd seemed to be into it. But you know, it\u2019s really always hard to tell with these things\u2026.\u201d \u00a0The night before, drummer Rikard Stjernquist had been less circumspect while sitting at the bar after coming offstage. \u201cThat show was amazing. Really incredible. So glad we came out for this.\u201d Was the enthusiasm a function of the shot of J\u00e4germeister Rikard had just taken down? NO. Truth be told, it was indeed an amazing show. And a long time in coming.<\/p>\n

St. Vitus Bar is located on the far northern end of Manhattan Avenue in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, just south of the toxic waters of Newtown Creek. Greenpoint, an industrial, traditionally Polish area of Brooklyn, is rapidly turning into a working class, still rough-around-the-edges alternative to the increasingly over-hipsterized Williamsburg, and St. Vitus has become one of the primary the go-to joints for metal shows in the city.<\/p>\n

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Master of Metal Ceremonies Harry Conklin about to take the stage…<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was Panzer\u2019s 4th time playing New York City, but it’s first time headlining a mult-band line-up (the band’s last NYC gig was serving as the opening act for Germany’s Helloween at BB King’s on West 42nd Street). The show came on the heels of playing February’s 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise and May’s Ragnar\u00f6kk festival in Chicago, and was the band\u2019s sole East coast gig prior to returning to the studio to complete its soon-to-be-released new LP “The Deviant Chord,” the band\u2019s 10th full-length studio album to date.<\/p>\n

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Jag Panzer\u2019s music, let me describe things as simply and accurately as possible. Jag Panzer plays heavy metal (period, full stop). Pure, unadulterated heavy metal from the old school, which should be no surprise, given they are one of the old school\u2019s founding members, albeit probably also the least well known, and by far most underappreciated. Think classic Judas Priest. Think early Maiden. Think Armored Saint. Think a whole host of now-forgotten \u201cNWOBHM-era\u201d bands. Perhaps most of all, think Accept. In an age that\u2019s addicted to hyper-segmenting its music genres, Panzer\u2019s style of metal has been retroactively labeled \u201cPower Metal,\u201d and that\u2019s probably about as accurate a moniker as one could come up with, but at the end of the day it\u2019s just that hard-edged, up-tempo metal that prevailed on the scene before the split into its two extremes in the mid-1980s (glam\/pop metal vs thrash and its various derivatives). No frills, no silly lifestyle image cultivation, just excellent songwriting and expert craftsmanship.<\/p>\n

To understand Jag Panzer, you need to go back to the beginning. Jag Panzer traces its origins to the unlikeliest of places: Colorado Springs, Colorado\u2026a mid-sized, typically \u201cmiddle-American\u201d city nestled in the foothills of the front range of the Rockies. In addition to its middle class mundanity, the city also contains an odd blend of Christian evangelicals, non-conformist biker types, and a heavy active duty and retiree military presence fueled by the no less than six separate U.S. military installations in a city of less than 500,000, this latter aspect always providing a steady supply of rowdy Army brawlers from Ft. Carson to the city\u2019s various clubs and music venues. It was here that Jag Panzer first came together in the early 1980s as a four-piece, featuring founding and current band members Mark Briody on guitar, Harry Conklin on vocals, and John Tetley on bass.
\nThe band made its vinyl debut in 1983 with the five-track EP \u201cTyrants.\u201d The sensation one experiences when dropping the needle on the EP\u2019s opening track \u201cBattlezones\u201d is best described as the overwhelming urge to jump off your couch, charge out into the street, grab the first complete stranger you meet, and pummel them mercilessly (\u201dOops! Sorry about that dude\u2026no offense\u2026I was listening to PANZER\u201d). I mean this stuff is pure power, and foundational to the entire 9-album catalog the band would go on to release over the following two and a half decades. The talents of vocalist Harry Conklin, both then and now, are particularly worth noting. Harry is basically the specification list one would draft up when trying to design the perfect metal singer. He has a vocal range equal to or greater than the most renowned multi-octave range singers of the classic era, but without the operatic softness that often mars that style of singing. He\u2019s got edge, and a sense of danger, and still hits his notes with the same power and conviction as he did in the 80s.<\/p>\n

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Lead guitarist Joey Tafolla shredding it up<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a fantastic debut, but it was missing one thing\u2026a second guitarist to compliment Mark\u2019s heavy riffing with some world-class shredding. Enter southern California\u2019s Joey Tafolla, Panzer\u2019s original fifth member and current lead guitarist. With Joey on board, the band returned to the studio and unleashed what is widely regarded as one of the greatest \u201cunderground\u201d metal albums of the 1980s, Jag Panzer\u2019s 1984 inaugural LP \u201cAmple Destruction.\u201d Joey\u2019s guitar wizardry on Ample became a defining characteristic of Panzer\u2019s sound and set the standard for an entire stable of truly excellent guitarists that would assume lead guitar duties for the band\u2019s subsequent recordings when Joey was otherwise not in the lineup, including former Megadeth and current Act of Defiance guitar phenom Chris Broderick.<\/p>\n

Jag Panzer took the stage at St. Vitus at 11:00PM, following a three-band undercard line up featuring October 31, Power Theory and Midnight Hellion. The performance area (a fully-enclosed, claustrophobia-inducing, all-black stage room in the back of the bar) was packed with eager supporters, an informal survey of whom revealing that many had driven from as far as three hours away for a chance to see the band live. The band strode out on stage, and within moments the chamber was being assaulted with the band\u2019s opening number \u201cLicense to Kill\u201d from Ample Destruction. Rikard\u2019s pounding double bass providing the backbone for furious tremlo picking on the guitars and accenting every word of the chorus \u2026 \u201cUnleash this demon rage, a tiger in the cage, I\u2019m on the prowl again\u201d\u2026 Mark and Joey slinging their black and white Les Paul style LTDs while giant-sized John Tetley on bass loomed the stage in a very nifty Evil Dead throwback t-shirt. Panzer then upped the tempo even further and plowed immediately into its second number, \u201cLet it Out,\u201d from their most recent studio release, 2011\u2019s The Scourge of the Light. This is an excellent song\u2026.like early-80s era Accept on steroids but with Harry\u2019s vocal talents and Joey\u2019s guitar work taking it to a whole other level.<\/p>\n

Panzer would go on to deliver an astonishing 17-song set covering almost every era of their prolific, three-decade career. The set was firmly anchored, as it should be, on selections from Ample Destruction and Tyrants, but included multiple numbers from the best albums of the band\u2019s 1990s\/2000s-era work, including Age of Mastery (Iron Eagle), The 4th Judgement (Call of The Wild, Black, Future Shock), and Casting the Stones (The Mission).<\/p>\n

Is there really a place for the Old School these days, when we are decades into this whole thing, and practically drowning in options for every possible taste preference, not to mention the segmentio ab absurdum within every genre category? I think so\u2026the audience that night was hugely appreciative, and its age seemed to span from the barely 21 category to well into the 50s. Indeed, while doing the obligatory Brooklyn pizza shop tour the following night, Rikard and Joey were taken aback as they were approached by a just-out-of-college looking guy who apparently had been at Saturday night\u2019s show: \u201cHey, are you guys with Jag Panzer? GREAT show last night. When are you coming back?\u201d<\/p>\n

Epilogue\u2026
\nThe following evening, Rikard and Joey, joined by Aric Avina (Panzer\u2019s occasional backup \u201ctouring\u201d bassist) and a full bench of local area singers, again took the stage at St. Vitus with their special side project, the Randy Rhodes Experience. As the name implies, this is a \u201ctribute\u201d set of Rhodes-era Ozzy tunes, including Rhodes guitar versions of the various Black Sabbath songs that Ozzy included in his live sets during that era. If you are a fan of absolutely magnificent guitar playing, both its original composition, as wells as Tafolla\u2019s flawless execution of it, go see this show if it comes to your town<\/p>\n

Kevin Emerson, a resident of New York City, is a former musician, part-time mountaineer, occasional banker, and Colorado Springs native.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jag Panzer St. Vitus Bar Brooklyn, NY Saturday July 9th, 2016 Review by Kevin Emerson Sitting at the gate at New York\u2019s La Guardia airport on a Sunday afternoon, awaiting his return flight to Colorado, Jag Panzer\u2019s introspective and understated guitarist Mark Briody paused for a moment to contemplate his response. \u201cWell\u2026.I think it was a good show. I mean, the crowd seemed to be into it. But you know, it\u2019s really always hard to tell with these things\u2026.\u201d \u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[277],"tags":[1612,1613],"class_list":["post-16195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news","tag-jag-panzer","tag-st-vitus-bar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}