You could tell that they really cared and wanted to be there. They were constantly moving, tearing it up on their instruments, and exuding more energy than guys even half their age.
It was really something else.įor a group of guys who are by no means in their youth and prime any more, they sure played like they still were. The best thing about their sound is while bombarding your ears with high voltage rock n’ roll, they had three-way vocal harmonies that were incredibly precise and sweet to the ear. Their sound was more along the lines of Iron Maiden meets Kiss and other such bands. Paradoxx, on the other hand, had a more tight and rehearsed sound and stage presence. They definitely exuded a great deal of youthful rock n’ roll energy. Emperors and Elephants had more of a new era metal sound, with big, low crunchy riffs and rough yet melodic vocals.
The Last in Line had two opening bands: a local group by the name of Emperors and Elephants and a more established club band by the name of Paradoxx. That aside, there’s a bar in the back of the room as well as on the second level, where people who pay extra can watch shows from a table. The interior screams underground punk and metal, with brick walls, concrete floors, exposed pipes and metal grates, dim lighting, and posters adorning the space. From there, they recorded and released a brand new album titled Heavy Crown in February of last year and have been touring on it since, even with Bain’s death late last year.įor those of you who’ve never been, Reggie’s is the definition of a dark, dirty rock n’ roll club. They hired a new vocalist, Andrew Freeman, to fill Ronnie’s shoes. A few years later, his original solo band, comprised of Vivian Campbell on guitar, Jimmy Bain on bass, and Vinny Appice on drums, decided to reunite as a group to pay tribute to the man by celebrating the music they made together. Gone was a man whose semi-operatic voice and eloquent, fantasy-themed lyrics changed the face of the genre forever. When Dio passed in 2010 due to stomach cancer, it was a major loss to the heavy metal community. Last Thursday night, hundreds of people from all around the Chicagoland area (and some from further away then that) packed themselves into Reggie’s Rock Club, located at 2109 State Street, to raise their metal horns as The Last in Line took the stage to rock everyone’s socks off, and remember the music and life of the late great heavy metal god Ronnie James Dio.