(Live Review) THE BEARD'S TOP 40 LIVE SETS OF 2024 (#s20-11)
Good day friends, fans, and followers and welcome to part three of the Beard's top forty live sets of 2024 countdown. Today we will be covering numbers 20-11 and to make this year’s top twenty, these sets needed to be among the best five percent of everything I listened to this year. Something about each set needed to really stand out. So, let us get to it.
Top live sets of 2024
#20: Ancient Vvisdom 3-21-24 Hell’s Heros White Oaks Music Hall Houston
This band is probably one of the least known acts in my top twenty this year. A Cleveland based doom/black metal band, Ancient Vvisdom presented as a cross between Brimstone Coven and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. (a short pause while you now check out both of those lesser-known references.)
This was a no-frills act. Four guys cowled and robed under red lights singing slow clean lyrics about Satan and the left-hand path. Normally black metal is fast aggressive and indecipherable lyrically. These guys were different, and although probably not popular compared with other acts at this fest, I found them quietly effective and worth inclusion as one of the better sets I saw this year.
#19: OwlBear 5-3-24 Legions of Metal Reggie’s Chicago, IL
Here was another virtual unknown band playing one of their first live sets on a tour in 2024. Boston based OwlBear had a kind of D&D type feel to their music, but also clean powerful singing and great guitar work. For a new band, they also drew a great early afternoon crowd at this festival which was a definite sign that the underground already looked at them as a potential next big thing. That status is yet to be determined, but I found them one of my top five bands that I was seeing for the very first time and if you have never heard of them, you should start streaming some of their material.
#18: Dexter Ward 8-30-24 Blades of Steel Madison, WI
Although not a brand-new band to me, this was my first opportunity to see a live set from these Greek artists who played NWOBHM style music. Smooth with clean vocals that had range as well as power. The guitar and rhythm work were also professional and solid with excellent showmanship. Dexter Ward was the surprise hit of the Blades of Steel festival this year. I will certainly be watching for another opportunity to catch a set by these guys.
#17: Demolition Hammer 3-23-24 Hells Heros White Oak Music Hall Houston
This New York metal band was traditional 80’s-90’s era thrash and may have been the crowd favorite of the fest up to that point. This was a set where I was incredibly happy to be back in the VIP section because the area at the front of stage was insane. Singer Steve Reynolds was the metal embodiment of the announcer at the original Woodstock event with that thick east coast accent. I kept waiting for him to tell us not to eat the brown acid. This guy also used the work #$%@ in virtually every sentence. Between him and the guy from Hatriot this year I don’t think there were any #$%#’s left for the rest of the world. Good thing Ozzy is virtually retired. It was a great set of music though.
#16: Alcatrazz 4-2-24 Thalia Hall Chicago, IL
In the 1980’s Alcatrazz was a lightning strike band. Featuring Rainbow's Graham Bonnet on vocals and a young Yngwie Malmsteen (guitar), Alcatrazz was there and then they weren’t. By the time a high school age Beard realized he wanted to see them, that version of Alcatrazz was not there to see anymore.
So, even though their current line-up featured neither Bonnet nor Malmsteen any longer, just original bassist Gary Shea & keyboardist Jimmy Waldo, “this” was my opportunity. Big credit to Joe Stump, (who played a particularly good imitation of Yngwie), as he tore through the difficult guitar solos from their “No Parole” and “Live from Japan” albums of the 1980’s.
Singer Giles Lavery had “just” joined the band less than a month before this show, so kudos that he was able to sound anything like Bonnet at all. Honestly, this one made the list this high because, (thanks to Stump's solos), it made me feel like I was seeing the real Alcatrazz and anything that gives me that back-in-high school feeling usually ranks high with me.
#15: Overkill 5-17-24 & 11-7-24 Milwaukee Metalfest & Chicago Theater
I was lucky enough to see Overkill and their west coast thrash stylings twice this year. The first time was at Milwaukee Metalfest in the notoriously bad sounding Eagles Ballroom. Overkill was one of the few bands that still sounded good there and they ranked as one of the five best bands of that festival.
Almost six months later I got to see them again in a far superior acoustic venue in Chicago where they sounded even better. Although singer Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth is showing his age after over four decades, Overkill still brings it on the stage. Hearing and seeing songs like “Elimination” was just something you needed to experience live to really get the full effect. Both of Overkill’s sets were super enjoyable and they are one of the most consistent thrash bands going today.
#14: Geoff Tate 4-6-24 Thalia Hall St. Charles, IL
The voice of Queensryche, Geoff Tate may be pretentious, arrogant, and condescending, but man that dude can sing. Vocally one of the five best voices in metal music, Tate took what I considered a subpar band, with subpar sound and lights on a small stage and still produced a giant set of music.
Older, a bit fatter, and certainly balder, Geoff Tate donned his dark glasses and his (odd for metal) cowboy hat and took a sold-out audience through many of his greatest vocal hits, both from his solo career and from his Queensryche catalog. He may not hit “every” high note anymore, but there is simply no one who can sing the “Empire” or “Mindcrime” material any better than this guy and that alone is worth plunking down the coin to hear it.
#13: Alice Cooper 8-7-24 BMO Arena Rockford, IL
Here is a man who ranks high on this list each and every year. Seventy-five years old and still playing every set like it is the best one ever, Alice Cooper is the perfect mix of song and show that never gets old. Whether a brand-new young fan seeing him for the first time, or a grizzled veteran watching him for the dozenth time, the Coop always delivers a good time. He is an icon of music, metal, and theatrical presentation.
Additionally, Alice Cooper has Nita Strauss on guitar and when you have the best female guitarist in the business, your show is always going to be THAT much better. And despite what Little Johnny might claim, Nita Strauss absolutely did toss me one of her guitar picks at this show. Suck it Johnny!
#12: Deep Purple 8-23-24 Credit One Arena Tinley Park, IL
Easily the oldest band the Beard saw this year, Ian Gillan and his dinosaurs of classic rock/early metal still bought a great live show some fifty-seven years after they first started playing them. Deep Purple are the Rolling Stones of hard rock, and they took us through iconic hits like "Highway Star" & "Smoke on the Water" (along with many others.)
Deep Purple members may all be a decade past social security eligibility, but they still send you home happy you came to see them do their thing. One of the best old-timer sets the Beard got to watch all year.
#11: Sodom 3-23-24 Hells Heros White Oak Music Hall, Houston
Headliners at the biggest and best festival of 2024, (the monstrous Hell’s Heroes), were German thrash metal legends Sodom. With the biggest lights and sound of the festival, Sodom took us through a nineteen-song set that had over ten thousand metal fans going crazy in a sea of thrashing bodies and banging heads. This was a fitting closer to this festival because they left it all out there on the stage and the fans left it all out there on the lawn. It is rare when the Beard lets out an audible “Holy Shit!” but Sodom got one and a well-deserved one at that.
So that ends part three of this countdown and leaves us just ten bands to go. Be sure to tune in next week to see who the best of the best in 2024 were, as we finish this odyssey with the top ten live sets of 2024 right here on the Mighty Decibel.
If you have enjoyed reading these recaps, be sure to check out my TikTok site at thebeard0728 and of course friend or follow Mark McQueen on Facebook. Until we finish this off, this is the Beard reminding you Live Life. Stay Heavy & as always Horns Up!