With the way 2020 has been, you might be craving any live music at this point even if you’re not a heavy music fanatic like me. After the recent passing of thrash powerhouse Riley Gale, many of us metalheads have been yearning for the opportunity to experience Power Trip live one more time. Lucky for us, Power Trip released ‘Live In Seattle 5.28.18’ in June 2020, an album that can help ease the no concert blues. Metalhead World founder and owner, Brian Hopson, gave us some further insight on what makes Power Trip and their live album stand out. Check out his review below!
Brian Hopson Talks Power Trip Live
Power Trip is one of those bands that need no introduction. In a scene full of gimmicks, angles, and shock, Power Trip was different for one reason. Attitude. Nothing was contrived or too complicated.
From the band members to the music itself, it was real. It was pure thrash at its juvenile stage of the mid to late 80s with an onslaught of brutal riffs, fitting vocals, and that analog sound from that era.
Power Trip is also known for putting in the grind on playing live shows and selling live bootlegs online. It wasn’t long before they went worldwide playing festivals and raising their credit to the point that seeing the band live was a must.
My first taste of Power Trip live was the well known House Of Strombo set. This was a good old fashioned metal show. The grit was there. The riffs were in your face and Riley was a charismatic frontman who had the small crowd in the palm of his hand.
Power Trip Live In Seattle Review
The latest [and let’s hope not the last] formal release from the band was a Seattle show from May of 2018. We’ll never see Power Trip live again in person, but this album, which saw it’s release months before the sudden passing of vocalist Riley Gale, is as close as we will get from this point on. This kind of makes the listening experience a little somber at first, yet when Divine Appreciation kicks in, that somberness goes into that fulfillment you’re left with after watching Strombo’s set.
Throughout this whole Seattle set, the band is very tight. Nothing is being drowned out. You can hear the smaller venue crowd making noise of satisfaction. Most importantly, Riley was a great showman. The man was born to do this and he knew it. The vocals were real and intense without any digital backups. This was a classic metal show that any metalhead young and old should appreciate. This is the tried and true formula that worked 35 years back and works with Power Trip where it’s not a throwback novelty, they’re the real deal.
It’s a sad thing to see such rising stars like Riley Gale and Power Trip fall way ahead of their time. They were basically one album away from being made guys in the scene. What we’re left with now is a decent catalog of studio work and I’m sure whoever owns a bootleg live set is probably clutching it like an elderly Christian lady clutching her pearls at a Power Trip show.
Thing is, Riley would be cool about that lady being there. That’s who he was. That’s who Power Trip was.
Looking For More Power Trip?
Check out the review I wrote for Metalhead World about Power Trip’s 2017 thrash masterpiece ‘Nightmare Logic’.
Want to Collaborate?
Click here more info on collaborations.
