Skull Fist at the Hard Luck Bar

     I attended a concert last night at The Hard Luck Bar in Toronto for Call Of The Wild, Lust Boys and Skull Fist.

     
     I got to the venue around 10:45 (finding parking was a bitch) and Call Of The Wild was just finishing up. I wasn't able to find any information about them by doing a quick search on the internet and I heard maybe a song and a half when I got to the show so I can't comment on how good/bad they were.

     Lust Boys from Victoria BC went on stage around 11:15. I had seen earlier in the day that their tour van broke down outside of Sault Ste. Marie so they had to rent a U-Haul truck to make it to the show. They were a lot more fun and much better sounding than I had anticipated. The guys looked kind of cheesy (somewhat suitable when they name themselves Lust Boys and sing about stuff like Leatherette Boots) but the band was tight and the singer was truly exceptional. The highlights of the set were the two covers the band played. They first covered My Michelle by GnR then later on they played Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row. Both songs made the crowd go nuts. The band played a very solid 45 minute set. For some good cheesy glam metal I give the Lust Boys a 7/10 + 1 bonus point for playing some GnR and some Skid Row: 8/10

                                            
                                              The Lust boys on stage at the Hard Luck Bar

     It seems like everybody in the bar was there for Skull Fist. Skull Fist play shred heavy classic style heavy metal. My mother describes their sound as "the sound you would hear while you were having a nervous break down." The band was setup on stage by 12:30 but they were delayed an extra 10 minutes or so because singer/guitarist Jackie Slaughter was having trouble getting his pedalboard to work. The audience crowded the stage, and when the band started playing the people up front started going nuts (like the guy in the sleeveless Scorpions shirt and bandanna with the stripper girlfriend who was grinding on anything she could see, or the super tall dude in the leather coat who was grabbing random people and throwing them into the mosh pit).

    
     Five or six guys kept jumping up on stage just to leap back into the audience and try to crowd surf. They had very limited sucess. Several songs into the set they had already played some of my favorites including "Head Of The Pack" and "Ride The Beast."

    
     At some point, one of the guys who kept trying to crowd surf jumped into the audience and nobody was there to catch him so he took a dive head first into the floor, knocking him out. The band was asked to stop playing by the bar and the police were brought in to revive the unconscious moron. Once on his feet again, the surfer was escorted to the rear of the bar by the police and the band resumed playing with a cover of Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever".

     Half way through the next song the guy who was knocked was right back to jumping off the stage, also, Jackie's guitar had cut out again. Unfortunately, after a good 5 minutes of the band trying to sort out the technical difficulties I had to leave the show to pick up my girlfriend from a party she was attending across town. I didn't even get to hear "No False Metal" and I was hoping they would play their cover of Angelwitch's "Angelwitch."

     Because Skull Fist sound awesome live and put on such a great show (when jackasses aren't knocking themselves out or equipment isn't messed up) I give the show a 9/10. If you're from Toronto Skull Fist are supposed to be playing again May 10th, 2012 with swedish power metal band Sabaton at The Annex Wreck Room. However, just yesterday Sabaton announced that they will be splitting up but some members (singer and bassist) will continue on. I have no idea how this will affect any future shows.