Gig turned out to be a 4 band affair. Did not arrive in time for the 1st band Killfate. Arrived during the 2nd band (local) Infrared... who I'd seen back in approx. '87 - '88 or so before they broke up. They seem to have regrouped a few years back and are doing shows again. They were enjoyable back in the 80's and are still very good now. Picture Metallica around the Creeping Death era and you got Infrared. 3rd band, Metalfier from NYC, and touring band with Venom inc. took a little while to get the crowd into it but finally got some folks rockin' a few tunes into their set. From what I can tell, most of their notoriety comes from doing a heavy version of Breaking The Law. Good set but wasn't blown away. Venom inc were on not too long after and put on an excellent show considering the stage is probably a bit smaller than they're use to. They blasted through 19 tracks of mostly classic Venom! While it's not the original Venom, Demolition Man does a good job at the lead vocals and bass duties. No one could replace Cronos and his unique vocal inflections, but the tunes come across with that Venom heaviness. Closest comparison I can think of is picture Lemmy doing Venom vocals. I didn't walk away thinking the songs had been ruined because of a different singer. Big thing I did notice is how much better musicians they were since the last time I'd seen them. Abbaddon and Mantis are a very tight unit...as many years of playing together shows. Mantis is also 12 weeks removed from a double bypass due to suffering from a massive heart attack and being dead for 5 minutes while paramedics worked at reviving him. Nice chest scar!!
Final verdict