HAVOK WREAK HAVOC

Shitty picture that does not do this awesome band justice courtesy of my iPhone

So as I mentioned yesterday, Vince and I went to check out Havok live for the first time last night. It was the inaugural date of their supporting stint for Primal Fear, and apparently lead guitar player Shawn Chavez quit the band the day they had to hit the road, which meant that vocalist/guitarist David Sanchez had to screamble to learn all the solos and make sure the band could still put on a proper show, and not have to cancel this tour.

And while I never saw the band with Chavez, I gotta say, I didn’t miss him.

These dudes killed. They sounded so fucking tight, and they brought so much energy to their set, that I was honestly bummed they only got to play for about thirty minutes.

For one thing, they all deserve major props for musicianship. I don’t know if the recording of Burn really does justice to just how good bassist Jesse De Los Santos is, but FUCK, can that dude play. And in the words of Vince, drummer Pete Webber – the most recent addition to the band – really is the glue that holds it together. Like I said, these guys sounded super-tight, and Webber deserves a lot of the credit for that.

Not hurting things is that Sanchez is clearly a young Frank Mullen in training. About living in New York, he asked the crowd “Ever go for a walk and pop like fifteen boners in one block?” And before ripping into set-closer “Afterburner,” he announced that “This song is about that dude in the pit doing karate chops, and how he needs to go to hell.” AWESOME. Totally awesome.

I think I can speak for both Vince and myself when I tell you that we strongly encourage you to check out Havok live. You can get all their tour dates here. You won’t be disappointed.

-AR