The Canadian band, experiencing a moment of second youth thanks to the success of the documentary that tells its story, offers an intense concert full of good humor at the Garage Beat Club
In the summer of 1984, the Super Rock festival took place in the Japanese city of Nagoya. The event brought together some of the biggest bands of the moment on stage: Scorpions, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, The Michael Schenker Group and Anvil. They were all about to reach their commercial peak. All? No. For Anvil, the opposite happened. The Canadians, recognized influence of formations such as Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, experienced a last moment of glory at that festival before they started to slide down without brakes.
Decades later, his case is still a talking point in the heavy gambling dens of the world. They didn’t break up or change their style, they just started playing bad cards and fell under the radar. Under normal circumstances, the story would have ended there, but he is a special case. The group was born out of the friendship and shared love for the music of Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow and Robb Reiner, two inseparable friends since high school who never gave up on their dream of becoming rock stars.
In the music world, there are memorable stories of great triumphs and dismal failures. Anvil’s, on the other hand, is the story of that in-between line along which all those bands walk that spend their lives in rehearsal rooms and only just manage to turn professional. Most eventually give in to the evidence that gets them nowhere, but not these two stubborn Canadians, who continued to make low-profile records for decades and used vacations from low-paying jobs to tour.
Paradoxically, the story of their failure gave them another chance to shine. The dire state of his career led to a documentary released in 2009 that became an instant hit. ‘The Story of Anvil’ is a masterpiece of tragicomedy, in which musicians play in squalid slums, squabble with bad promoters, suffer the incompetence of a manager with questionable English, and sleep in a train station after being thrown out penniless. Their bizarre misadventures contrast with a very tender story about shared friendship and the Peter Pan syndrome.
Since the publication of the documentary, Anvil is experiencing a moment of second youth that allows the protagonists, more than thirty years later, to devote themselves full-time to music. The tour that should have brought them to Murcia in 2020 took place in this context, the year when another twist of fate, this time in the form of a pandemic, disrupted their plans. Of course, if they haven’t thrown in the towel by now, they wouldn’t because of a health emergency that has brought concert halls around the world under control. It took another two years, but the deal finally materialized this Monday in the Garage Beat Club room.
I couldn’t make it in time for Harsh, a young French glam rock band, and it wouldn’t have been good if I hadn’t seen the Italians Genghis Khan, whose old-school heavy metal I found flat and unmemorable. Not their clothes, some hideous Hun costumes that they wore with truly admirable integrity. The four cats that had dropped across the room so far seemed a harbinger of a rather bad entrance, something which, to top it all off, wouldn’t have been too crazy on a Monday if it was raining, but the capacity grew as the scheduled time for the performance approached the evening’s main performance.
True to his crazy and explosive persona, ‘Lips’ surprised by starting the Anvil concert by taking a mass bath to the sound of ‘Take a Lesson’. As long as wirelessly connected guitars have existed it’s not a novelty for performers to get off stage to play for the crowd, but I’ve never seen anyone start a performance like this, something that puts the audience in the pocket of the beginning , first moment. In any case, it wouldn’t have been necessary. The singer and guitarist is a man brimming with personality and throughout the show, bordering on self-parody at times, he showered himself with cucamonas and told some truly hilarious anecdotes with a great sense of humour. As shocking as the contrast between the aggressiveness of whiplashes like “Metal on Metal,” “Forged in Fire,” or “School Love” and a staging of a character from “Scooby-Doo,” Shameless are surprised and delighted.
Comedy aside, the members of Anvil performed well strictly musically, benefiting from a highly successful new lineup. Far from a loss, getting rid of the second guitar has resulted in a more compact and defined sound, allowing us to better appreciate the work of ‘Lips’, a much better guitarist than singer. The new bass player, Chris Robertson, for its part proved to be very well integrated with Robb Reiner’s excellent drummer. By the way, the percussionist was brilliant all night long and earned a well-deserved ovation with a smashing drum solo lasting several minutes. Even the staff in the room applauded.
‘Lips’ entertained like a dwarf in his dual role as captain of the ship and ‘showman’ of the six strings, surprising with some unorthodox techniques such as using the pickups as a microphone, something he didn’t even know was possible, or arm themselves with a metal ‘dildo’ to play the guitar. Aside from the slapstick, the sex toy’s vibration proved to be a surprisingly effective tool for getting some interesting sounds out of the instrument, sort of a tough version of Sigur Rós’ bow. Naturally, the audience celebrated delirium and even became infected at times, experiencing some surreal moments, such as when an assistant with limited mobility slid onto the stage, crutches at the ready.
Aside from their merits as speed metal initiators and thrash forerunners, Anvil’s main value is that their concerts are damn fun. The documentary they star in has appreciated their fascinating human history of perseverance, but the real happy ending to ‘Lips’ and Reiner’s story is to see them enjoying themselves on stage, living each night from their belated but well-earned professional stability as if it were the last.
Source: La Verdad
I am David Jackson, a highly experienced professional in the news industry. I have been working as an author at Today Times Live for over 10 years, and specialize in covering the entertainment section. My expertise lies in writing engaging stories that capture readers’ attention and deliver timely information about the latest developments.
