(Live Review) THE BEARD'S TOP 40 LIVE SETS OF 2024 (#s30-21)
Welcome friends, fans, and followers to Part Two of our yearly countdown series where we look back at the best live bands of the 2024 metal and classic rock year. Today, we will cover bands ranked 30-21.
Top live sets of 2024
#30: Girlschool 4-2-24 Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL
This was my second time in 2024 seeing this iconic collection of ladies who in the late 1970’s formed one of the very first all-female hard rock bands and have been together for the last forty-six years having toured the world with the likes of Motorhead, Black Sabbath, RUSH, and the Scorpions.
Girlschool’s punk influenced rock n roll set was crazy fun, especially when I realized all these ladies were older than me and still rocking like that. Reality did peek out courtesy of original vocalist Kim McAuliffe asking for her glasses because, “I can’t read the bloody set list.” While Johnny might make fun of it, this was one of many bands from my day that still brought a great show even though it was a dismal crowd.
#29: Tank 3-23-24 Hells Heros White Oak Music Hall Houston, Texas
Piggybacking on the previous theme, early 80’s English NWOBHM band Tank graced southern Texas this year and the Beard was of course on hand to catch the set. Good clean vocals and double guitar action introduced many fans to a band they had only heard of, but never actually heard. Afterwards, I got an opportunity to chat with the band for a minute and left with a full back patch for my efforts. Good guys, good time. Good set.
#28: Exhorder 8-29-24 Blades of Steel the Crucible Madison, WI
Our first entry from the Randy Kastner-led festival Blades of Steel. This three-day outing leaned heavy into the thrash and speed genres of metal music and this old school act brought the goods. To clarify, OG vocalist Kyle Thomas was “old school” while the rest of the current band jumped aboard around 2017. That said, their output was vintage thrash metal in sound both on the classic material from Slaughter in the Vatican (1990), and on the new material from Defectum Omnium (2023). These guys do not waste stage time either. They get to it and play until the final bell. Great set that let people know classic era thrash will never die.
#27: Kamelot 5-17-24 Milwaukee Metalfest Milwaukee, WI
These guys quite likely would have been top ten this year had they not suffered from a total screw job sound wise (in the Eagles Ballroom) at this festival. Kamelot takes a long time to set up and pays great attention to details including sound and lighting. Their color combinations and special effects were the best of the entire three-day festival. Visually they were stunning, but given the importance sound levels play in their layered, almost symphonic, metal stylings, the lousy sound quality they received was like a millstone around their necks. Big grandiose numbers were rendered ordinary and the band never got to truly soar. I am rating them here because they figuratively took chicken shit and made chicken cordon blue out of it, and I applaud and reward them here for it. I would love to see Kamelot again in a proper venue.
#26: Striker 5-3-2024 Legions of Metal Reggie’s Chicago, IL
I told you all that this festival, as much as any, takes great pains to bring all types of metal under one roof over their two-day running time. This was a great example of that, with the metal mind of promoter Bob Byrne digging deep and pulling a diamond out of a coal mine as he brought Edmonton’s Canadian Van Halen in the form of Striker. These guys exemplify the soul of this type of list. Their set was pure energy from the first song to the last one. With solos all around and a true party-on atmosphere Striker had the crowd, the room, (certainly Little Johnny) and your reviewer fully invested and on my feet clapping for the effort. You really seem to know when a band gives you all they have got and on this day Striker did exactly that.
#25: Deicide 5-18-24 Milwaukee Metalfest Milwaukee, WI
At the complete other end of the vibe spectrum was Glen Benton's Deicide. One of the problematic issues with promoter Jasta’s Milwaukee festival was it kept running behind which screwed up scheduling. Deicide was one of the culprits as Benton was a perfectionist and did not start until about twenty minutes past set time. Once he started though, you could tell that even though he had certainly lost some hair, Benton still had not lost that “Lucifer taking roll call” style of deep vocal delivery. Slamming through mostly old school songs, Deicide took me back to those days when I bought whatever bands CD I thought might seem the most offensive to the establishment.
Although, for me, seeing Deicide once a decade is enough, I have to give credit to their set and vibe. Deicide knows how to bring the evil.
#24: Solitude Aeturnus 3-22-24 Hell's Heroes White Oak Music Hall Houston
In yet another totally different style of metal, Robert Lowe's Solitude Aeturnus was sorrowful, yet beautiful, doom metal. Utilizing three guitarists, and a great female backing vocalist to offset Lowes clean ultradeep lead vocals, Solitude Aeturnus took us through a set of layered and deeply soulful songs.
As they played, dusk turned to darkness, and it was an unexpected addition to the ambiance of the set, (as if their sorrow itself had brought down the darkness of heaven itself upon us all.) Sometimes the little extras resonate with me all year. This set was one of those times.
#23: Hirax 5-4-24 Legions of Metal Reggie’s Chicago, IL
And here we are back to praising promoter Bob Byrne once again as he reached deep into the origins of west coast crossover thrash by bringing in Katon De Pena’s band Hirax.
On the streets, De Pena might just seem an older African American metalhead, but once the stage lights hit, he brought the thrash, the crash, the funk, and the junk. The crowd was so into that set, one guy in the front passed De Pena a bag full of weed (which he graciously accepted and promised to smoke later.)
When someone says, “Not only will I pay to see you, but then I will also give you my drugs too", that is a metal crowd you have to love. A great and memorable set. (Ed: Their new album kicks ass too!)
#22: Armored Saint: 4/9 & 11/9 Coronado and Arcada (Illinois)
I make mention of both times I saw Armored Saint this year, (once opening for Queensryche and again seven months later opening for WASP), because even though this band has been in perennial opening act status for over forty years, what I realized is they are a damn solid band in their own right.
Like Cheap Trick for classic rock, Armored Saint is that band for classic metal. Both come to work and lay down a fair and full-out effort for the headliners. Having been together as virtually an entire unit since their creation, Armored Saint just might be one of the absolute best opening bands any tour can get, and that praise is worth their being placed in the top ten percent of my entire year.
#21: Unleash the Archers 5/3/24 Legions of Metal Reggie’s Chicago, IL
For those counting, yes this IS the third entry on today’s list from the same festival. Legions of Metal is a smaller and more affordable metal fest than the majors from Milwaukee or Houston, but the quality of bands this year was stellar, and I have to say it was probably the top festival in terms of bang for buck this year. Night one headliners Unleash the Archers was a band I had barely heard of and had never seen or heard live.
The Beard, (as anyone who has listened to me knows,) is a sucker for chicks with the BIG voices. It sure did not take long for Archer’s vocalist Brittney Slays to show she belonged in THAT category. Operatic range and volume with a good band behind her. That woman was blasting out next level vocals and that is NOT easy at Reggie’s where sound quality is okay, but never as good as at many other Chicago venues. Slays in a place like Thalia Hall would sound stratospheric. This was one of the ten best new (to me anyway) bands I got to hear this year.
So, that wraps up part two of our top forty live sets. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for Little Johnnys next chapter. Take some time and look back through our video archives on TikTok @ thebeard0728 where you can find videos of every band we talk about, and of course friend and follow me (Mark McQueen) on old person social media site Facebook. Until next time, this is the Beard saying Live Life. Stay Heavy and Horns Up.