The Covid19 Pandemic has obviously created a lot of problems within the music industry, particularly with live shows and the result of this has turned into a lot of temporary replacements along the way. One such idea of course has been the influx of live streaming events where the live show is beamed to the fans themselves instead of the fans coming to the band. While many have avoided this idea for various reasons, many have also decided to run with it in the hopes of keeping live music alive. No it’s not the same but it’s all we’ve got until things get back to normal and one such band that has delivered the live experience is the legendary Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo with his band The Illegals.
Celebrating the legend that is Pantera in an event dubbed “A Vulgar Display Of Pantera“, covering select tracks from those classic albums, it was really a celebration of just how good Pantera were and how brilliant the songs actually are. It’s been 20 years since Pantera went their seperate ways and of course the tragic loss of Dimebag and Vinnie only accentuates the fact that we all miss Pantera in more ways than one. But here we get relive some of those memories through the performance of Phil Anselmo & The Illegals and while it’s obviously not the same, we gotta take what we can get.
Aussie grind legends King Parrot led the way as opening act for the event but not before we were shown some apparent live footage of farm animals which hilariously confused many of the fans in the opnline chatroom before some pre-recorded interview footage and previously shot live shows from previous years were displayed. It actually set the tone for the event, keeping things relaxed and not so serious, as it should be.
Coming live from an undisclosed studio (our best guess may be Melbourne), the boys in King Parrot pretty much went straight for the throat and belted out a short but frenzied set that was as tight and ferocious as they have ever been. A restricted amount of space meant frontman Matt Young who has now grown a few extra hairs on his head couldn’t go completely ballistic but that also added to the intensity of it in some weird way with the band boxed in like a wild animal in a cage, ripping through song after song. The quality was also on point with audio production definitely crystal clear which only proved that there is far more to this band’s technical chops than some may think. Side note, Slatt’s intro before their set was a highlight!
Things moved over to Phil and the Illegals band right after with a fully decked out stage setup for the show and a small handful of people in the crowd to help give it a bit more of a live show feel. Kicking things off on a more subtle front with an acoustic rendition of “Suicide Note Pt 1”, some sound issues at the beginning marred the performance but otherwise was a heartfelt and fitting start to the show.
Things kicked into overdrive with “A New Level” and while the band had to start over to shake out a bit of rust, things were otherwise sounding solid with Phil himself who has lost of a bit of power with his vocals over the years sounding better than ever. The classics however kept rolling in along with a few surprises including the fantastic “We’ll Grind That Axe for a Long Time”, one of the strongest songs on the final Pantera album.
“War Nerve” was another highlight and described by Phil as one of his and Dime’s favorite Pantera tracks, the aggressive nature of this beast was always one of the biggest songs on “The Great Southern Trendkill” album and the band of Illegals did it justice with their very raw and undiluted sound. A special guest in Calvin Dover who is also in En Minor with Phil joined the show for “This Love” to help with the more melodic parts on vocals before the band continued on with a couple of tracks from the “Far Beyond Driven” album which the band also combined with a few bits and pieces of other songs as part of a medley.
A short intermission followed with some image tributes to the late Dime and Vinnie before the band came back and brought back “Suicide Note Pt 1” to make up for the technical issue earlier on. “Hellbound” made the set which was a nice surprise while the band did another mish-mash of a few tracks which included the breakdown from “Domination”, and “Hollow”. Another guest hit the stage, this time a little kid from the crowd was pulled out to help Phil sing the classic “Walk” before ending the show with the latter half of “Sandblasted Skin”.
It was an eclectic mix of some of Pantera’s back catalogue and Phil and the Illegals were on top of it the whole time, bringing with them a nostalgic feeling that will forever be a memory for those of us that were there during the heyday of Pantera’s reign. We do miss Dime and Vinnie but like what Phil and the Illegals have did here tonight, the music lives on.
