Riot V (support: Diamond Dust)
Zagreb / Hard Place / Croatia
Thursday, 10 August 2023
Riot V’s show in the middle of this August at a club gig in Zagreb’s Hard Place definitely belonged in the category of exclusive concerts. A treat of its own kind. Especially for those who appreciate the days when heavy metal was still a ‘young colt’. Deep in the seventies, a band emerged in New York that in many ways set the blueprint for the future development of fast phrasing, always accompanied by an extraordinary sense of musicality and vocal explosiveness that, in this band’s lineup, could reach beyond the fifth octave. That band was Riot.
All that legacy lives on after the death of the band’s leader, founder, and guitarist Mark Reale in 2012, in a formation that extended the name from Riot to Riot V, ensuring that fans have been able to enjoy uninterrupted concerts performing classic Riot material over the past decade as well. Worth keeping in mind too is that Riot V have in this time released two new studio albums with entirely original material that ties in stylistically and meaningfully with the classic days of the Riot legacy.
This visit to Zagreb was special not only because for once there were none of the usual parking headaches — Hard Place has that well sorted out front (and thankfully the club sits outside the city center) — but also because if you drove over from Slovenia, you didn’t feel like you’d left Slovenia at all. The venue was swarming with familiar faces, regulars from the Slovenian heavy metal club scene. Every key supporter of the heavy metal scene from Slovenia had gathered that evening outside Hard Place.
Diamond Dust from Rijeka kicked off the evening. A band with serious mileage under their belts, they finally got their debut studio album »Ten Years In Dust« out in June of last year. A solid forty-minute metal communion presented the quintet in a polished and confident light, radiating experience — and seasoned routine. The band didn’t hesitate — they made full use of the opportunity to present material from the debut and fire up the crowd, which at that point still preferred to hang back a few meters from the stage, even though the band deserved far louder support for the fire, tightness, cohesion, and stage presence they showed. Diamond Dust is a band that definitively convinced with this performance. A band worth keeping an eye on going forward — they seized their moment with flying colors.
Then came an unusually long break. Normally the headliner should take the stage 15 to 20 minutes later, half an hour at the very most. But we kept waiting. Riot V had played a festival in Villena, Spain just the day before, and three days later had a confirmed slot at the Alcatraz festival in Kortrijk, Belgium. So an opportunity arose to squeeze in another show along the way — and this time, conveniently close to Slovenia. But apparently not everything went according to plan. The gear was reportedly delayed. The band had apparently already landed in Vienna and made their way to Zagreb, but was waiting on their guitars and other essential equipment, which was clearly running late. Half past eleven had struck by the time drummer Frank Gilchriest was the last one still checking his gear at Hard Place. That’s when the doors separating the bar from the concert space finally swung open, and a crowd of properly wound-up heads hungry for a heavy metal tornado poured through.
The band launched straight into the concert from the soundcheck, using Gilchriest’s drumming as the intro — and the show ran well over an hour and a half. The Riot V crew has been running at full steam since 2013. The tightness is incredible. Almost filigree-precise. Carried on the wings of exceptional vocalist Todd Michael Hall, who at 54 comes across as at least 15 years younger — not even getting into his extraordinary vocal range and authoritative explosiveness (which the character of the songs from the Riot classics vault demands anyway). Then there are three exceptionally seasoned musicians: Mike Flyntz (guitar), Don Van Stavern (bass guitar), and Frank Gilchriest (drums) — whom some of you may have been lucky enough to catch years ago at one of the European shows of the cult Virgin Steele. This time around, the right guitar slot (as seen from the stage) wasn’t filled by Nick Lee but by Jonathan Reinhammer, guitarist of the New York melodic death metal outfit Necropia, who stepped in to help the quintet out. He slotted in brilliantly and looked right at home on stage as a full member. Riot V are kings of small club venues. They simply love playing them. Playing and sharing all that energy with fired-up fans. No one can take their crown as the band that delivers, in venues like these, an experience like a typhoon tearing through the club.
When you go to a Riot — well, these days a Riot V — show, disappointment is basically impossible. Even after Mark Reale’s death we never stopped following the band. We’ve caught them at various European venues over the past decade. But usually at festivals or as special guests on tours, supporting a headliner — like in 2018 before Primal Fear in Ljubljana. The band has always stunned with the perfection of their live repertoire delivery. This time was no different. Except the show was significantly longer, and by virtue of the smaller space, all the more intense. Once again the band pleasantly surprised with the inclusion of some tracks they hadn’t played live in a long time — like the treat that is Overdrive, pulled from their debut »Rock City« (1977), or Magic Maker from the album »Nightbreaker« (1993), as well as the title-track classic from »Restless Breed« (1982). And they pull this kind of surprise on every tour. Zagreb was no exception. From the first to the last song they dished out one punch after another, in salvos of energy, and the show never let up for a single moment. If anything, the opposite. The boiling point was hit fast, and the closer the show got to its inevitable end, the more the club was seething. When every single throat becomes one and every hand shoots up in the air! Insane feeling.
When Don’s traditional toast with a bottle of Tequila actually summoned a performance of Swords And Tequila on stage, it was clear the show was tipping into its final stretch. The band coaxed even more out of the crowd, ramped them up and lifted them to the rafters through the venomous Warrior and the all-night-demanded Thundersteel, before bidding farewell in the obligatory encore with the rock ‘n’ roll-soaked Road Racin’, taken from the band’s second album »Narita« (1979).
After the show too, the band members did what they always do — came out among their fans and hung out with them well into the night. That’s what it’s all about. These are the shows that buckle under the weight of their own authenticity and sincerity. Riot V remain a band that absolutely fills you with energy. Lifts you up. Casts a spell. Takes you away. Masters of it they remain — and the club atmosphere itself, the vibes through this fresh (and unique) encounter with the band, kept stringing together nostalgic memories of catching Riot at the end of January 2000 at Ljubljana’s club K4. Priceless, then.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Riot V setlist:
1. Fight or Fall
2. On Your Knees
3. Victory
4. Fire Down Under
5. Flight of the Warrior
6. Bring the Hammer Down
7. Johnny’s Back
8. Bloodstreets
9. Take Me Back
10. Angel’s Thunder, Devil’s Reign
11. Overdrive
12. Restless Breed
13. Black Leather and Glittering Steel
14. Magic Maker
15. Swords and Tequila
16. Warrior
17. Thundersteel
—encore—
18. Road Racin’
