Dark Angel at Reggie’s – Show Review

Dark Angel headlined, with Sacred Reich, Hirax, and Interceptor as openers

Photos and Review by Noelle Matonis

I went to the Dark Angel show at Reggie’s in Chicago on October 9th, and it was filled with thrashy riffs and headbanging…as every show should be, let’s be honest.

It was my first time seeing any of these bands live, and I had only listened to Dark Angel before. So I wasn’t completely sure what to expect from the other bands, but I figured they’d be similar to Dark Angel in some way. I’m happy to say I was pleasantly surprised with all the openers, as they were all very passionate and fun.

Interceptor

I think my favorite new discovery was the first band– Interceptor. I’m kind of on an 80’s metal kick right now; so I was very much vibing with them.

Interceptor was a seemingly young band, yet they made me feel like I had time-traveled back to the 80’s, both with their look and their sound. They really put the “hair” in hair metal as they headbanged (as seen in the photos). Jokes aside, I really liked the glam metal feel of their music, and they were all very talented musicians. They really brought the energy and successfully did their job to hype up the crowd for the rest of the show.

Hirax

The next band that played was Hirax. We only caught the end of their set because we had grabbed something to eat in the restaurant on Reggie’s top floor as soon as Interceptor’s set ended. (The food was very good by the way).

As we were eating, we could hear (and feel) the rumble of Hirax starting to play below us. Of the part of their set that we did see, the lead singer was very energetic and expressive. The other members were playing passionately as well. They had kind of a goofy vibe to them but in a good way, as a lot of other 80’s thrash and glam metal bands have. Their energy was contagious and they were fun to watch.

Sacred Reich

The third band to play was Sacred Reich. They were more thrashy and heavy sounding than the first two bands, which I also enjoyed. I think that brought a good balance to the show overall, as Dark Angel is also on the very heavy side.

The lead singer, who’s shirt said “F*ck ICE” had a well-worded speech that I very much agreed with, overall about how the government is doing horrible things. I could feel that the crowd was avidly agreeing and getting very hyped up, almost to the point where I thought people might run outside and start inciting chaos. But he calmed them down before they got carried away by saying that’s what the government wants–they want us to riot so they can blame everything on us and arrest us. We have to protest what’s going on but we should do it in a civil way so that they can’t blame us.

On top of the speech, their performance was awesome too. They played with precision, and you could tell that all the members were having a good time on stage, which I always appreciate.

Their newest member who joined in 2019 and the drummer’s son, Joey, had his birthday that day. They brought him a cake on stage and we sang happy birthday to him. They had the cake at their merch table after the show too if anyone else wanted some, which I thought was kind of funny. After the show, a guy walked by us with a slice of it and he said it was pretty good!

Dark Angel

Then it was time for Dark Angel to play, and I was very excited. Gene Hoglan’s kit looked huge and epic, which is customary for him. They played a lot of newer songs that I wasn’t as familiar with, but towards the end they played a few songs from Darkness Descends, which is my favorite album of theirs. So I enjoyed that very much.

Every member had good stage presence. The singer came out into the crowd a couple times, which I thought as cool, however the audience didn’t seem as excited about it as expected. I feel like there should’ve been a lot more moshing at the show. It might’ve been that people just weren’t as familiar with new new songs, because I noticed their energy picked up when they played older songs.

Overall, it was a very fun show and it makes me want to see more thrash or heavy metal bands soon!

By Noelle Matonis

Host & Producer

Pop-Punk & Pizza Podcast