PRONG

If you’re a Prong fan, this show is not to be missed! 17 song setlist!

New York City metal veterans Prong are back to Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom on a co-headlining tour with Voivod.  They now have 13 albums to the catalog of music with a fresh new album called State of Emergency, which was released in the fall of 2023.

Since their last visit (which was 2017) , Tommy Victor has added a new drummer with Tyler Bogliole on drums in 2023.  Jason Christopher remains on bass on this 3 piece band that play a blend of thrash and groove metal.

As I look to see if I can find the setlist for a picture, I am confused with all the writing on it.  17 songs?   Boy are we in for an incredible show tonight but at 15 minutes before the curtain rises at 8:15pm , there is hardly anyone here.   However, rather than seeing 4 or 5 bands, tonight its just Prong and Voivod so maybe people thought the other 2 bands initially on the bill were are on, not sure.  Hard to say but I am more than happy with this line-up tonight of only 2 main acts.

The start the evening off with a thrashy new one called “The Descent”, off the new album that gets that mosh pit warmed up.  But song 2 is an interesting choice, with a Killing Joke cover song “Seeing Red” off their 2015 covers album called Songs From the Black Hole.

Song 3 they dug deep with “Irrelevant Thoughts” from 1991’s Prove you Wrong album.  That is a rarely played song which is a treat for anyone that has been with Prong like myself since 1990 with Beg to Differ which they played 2 off that album. Firstly, “For Dear Life”, then after the song they first broke out with in 1990 called “Beg to Differ”.

The sound mix was quite good, and with 3 players it should be right?   No fancy lights or drama on stage, just 3 guys belting out classics like “Unconditional”, “Cut-Rate”, and “Broken Peace” at song 9.  Speaking of “Cut”, Tommy has his hair cut shorter nowadays, no long hair for this close to 62 year old.   He could be on the stage for awhile yet, because he has never known for doing any high pitched screaming in these songs.

“Breaking Point” was another new song off State of Emergency at song 10, which cleverly twerks harmonic pinches on his Schecter Devil Tribal guitar, which comes off really good live.

Most Prong shows are over that I have seen by this point, but lots to come yet, as that memorable riff from “Revenge…Best Served Cold” starts song 11.  The hits just keep coming, with “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?”, the raw riffage of “Dark Signs”, and “Another Worldly Device”.   Phew! So awesome.

Arguably the best song of the night, and one of their best, is at song 16 with “Snap Your Fingers, Snap your Neck”.  One thing about these guys, they won’t stop a song halfway and to do some sort of wack crowd participation play, thus ruin the song.  Thank-you!

They end the night with 2 more covers, one which is “Third From the Sun” (Chrome) and a really solid version of “Working Man” (Rush) where Prong adds their touch and make it their own.   No high pitch Geddy style, but Tommy does a great job of putting that particular cover with respect, and I think it was the best of all 3 covers played tonight.   Not a huge fan of that many covers in a show, as this band has more than enough big songs that they could’ve done instead.  But “Working Man” (off the State of Emergency album) was the best of them.

You could not help being rejoiced when listening to most if not all of their best songs in a 17 song set, if you’re a Prong fan.  While they only hit on songs from 8 albums, I think they pushed all the right buttons with the fanbase, including myself.    Best deal of the year thus far with a band that puts out that many songs and delivered at solid performance on each of them.