Portland metal badasses Red Fang stopped through The Funhouse Sunday and rocked the faces off of a crowd full of more than willing fans. It’s no secret that the group’s bone-and-tall-boy-crushing aesthetic is ideal for a show in the delightful crust of Seattle’s oldest surviving punk bar, and the abundance of Olympia and Schmidt cans in the audience supported that notion. While familiar with Red Fang’s self-titled album (their only release under that moniker) I had yet to catch a live set from them despite their frequent appearances around town and within moments of the linear, pull-off intro riff of the savage opener “Bird on Fire” it was evident why these guys have risen to Northwest rock prominence.
There’s nothing too complex about their formula – just straight up, no frills, punch-you-in-the-face kinda throwback metal that echoes Sabbath’s chugging rhythms and The Melvins’ detuned sludge – but they do it in the best possible way. Tearing through just about every song from their album, the band’s two guitarists traded angular, power-chord-anchored low ends with righteous, tasteful lead melodies while lead vocalist/bassist Aaron Beam bellowed into the mic from his power-stance pose. Drummer John Sherman was all crashing cymbals and tom-heavy ’70s-style fills, banging the crap out of his kit to match the wall of sound being emitted from the huge, worn-looking Sunn amps behind him. The crowd’s collective head banging only stopped for a few short moments when the band unveiled a new song that began with a sprawling, off-time instrumental intro before kicking back into driving traditional metal goodness.
As expected, Red Fang ended the evening with their viral video monster jam “Prehistoric Dog,” at which point the crowd burst into a textbook, beer-soaked, elbow-throwing all-out mosh pit. The song is a true gem of a metal track, with the sheer heaviness of the two-chord verse riff rendering the listener helpless to do anything but rock the fuck out. The song’s crushing outro was the perfect end to the set, with the crowd screaming along with the lyrics the whole way through.
After removing all the melted faces, the Red Fang dudes posted up at the bar and chopped it up with their fans, making something even more evident. These dudes are hard not to like. The guitarist talked about his weathered, semi-hollow ’72 Telecaster like it was his child. The drummer confessed to actually getting drunk enough to puke during the “Prehistoric Dog” video, there was no camera tricks involved. And they all attested to how they loved playing The Funhouse. After all was said and done and I mentally prepared myself for the Monday hangover that no doubt awaited me, the conclusion was clear. Red Fang is one badass band of four hard-working and very down-to-Earth Northwest dudes that write righteous metal joints and know how to rock a live set. Make sure you catch them during their next three-hour trip north, and seriously, watch this video.
