“The show must go on!”

Likely NOT the exact words that popped into Erik “AK” Knutson’s mind when he woke up with…  ahem… a FROG in his throat, but I’ll be damned if that “frog” didn’t negatively impact him too much at the Flots gig in Covington, Kentucky a few weeks ago.  Whether it be allergies, carnal pleasures, a hangover, or something else, Knutson certainly held his own throughout the night, maybe losing a touch off the high end but still retaining that midrange belt that, after a good 30+ years or so of singing, has aged more into hardened, well aged whiskey than a finely crafted wine.  AK’s performance, along with that of his fellow bandmates, was spot on and earned quite a bit of hootin’ and hollerin’ from the crowd of about 100 or so in this small downtown bar.

I’d known about the Flotsam and Jetsam show for months and based on the strengths of their last couple of records (plus the return of founding guitarist Michael Gilbert) I quickly marked this on the calendar as a must see.  Unfortunately, my brother and I missed the Overkill show just a week or so earlier but made the vow that we would not miss this one.   As a long time fan of these guys back to their first album Doomsday For The Deceiver I was itching to catch the band, never having seen them live “back in the day”.  I’ll admit that I was a little bummed that my son did not go with us as he is also a fan and had the cool idea to bring a sign requesting to play bass on the crushing “Hammerhead” from that very first album.  Thought it was a fantastic idea because…  trust me…  he CAN play it!

On to showtime…  opening band Dead By Wednesday was good with their brand of meaty metal, even tossing in a heavy cover of the Van Halen classic “Unchained” amidst a handful of band originals.  As opening bands go they did a fine job, keeping the audience entertained and even impressing my brother enough to drop $25 on their three CDs at their merch booth (haven’t listed to them yet but I’m looking forward to it).  Singer Rob Roy’s throaty growl was decent enough but I thought guitarist Dave Sharpe and drummer Opus (how about that name?) were the highlights, the former throwing out some fiery solos and the latter truly crushing it on the skins during their roughly half hour set.

After Dead By Wednesday’s tear down and a brief break, it was time for the Phoenix, Arizona thrashers.  Starting off with lead track “Prisoner Of Time” from their recent disc The End Of Chaos, Flotsam absolutely nailed it and brought a good dose of fun throughout the night as well.  Short of AK wisecracking about his vocal issues there was even a bit of good natured banter between the singer and his longtime guitarist Gilbert, the latter seeming to enjoy Knutson’s predicament but gently goading in bringing out the best in his fellow bandmate.  This really came to fruition in final song of the night “No Place For Disgrace”, intro’d by AK as an open option in the setlist for the guitarist to make any selection.  However, when the guitarist kicked off the intro chords to this fan favorite you could see AK shake his head, smirk, and mouth “fuck you”, which brought a big smile to the former’s face.  Other moments included a solo tradeoff between Gilbert and guitarist Steve Conley during “Smoked Out”, both guitarists doing a bit of showing off and Gilbert “blindly” playing a solo with a fan’s hand covering his eyes.  During Conley’s solo Gilbert played a bit of titty twister with his fellow guitar slinger, something which did not seem to perturb the other half of the dynamic guitar tag team as he flashed some sweep picking and nimble, fleet fingered runs to counter Gilbert’s solid old school licks.

As for the songs, it was a veritable feast of mostly old school thrash from the bands’ first few discs but man, if these last two releases don’t rank near the top of Flots’ extensive catalog for most fans then I don’t know what to tell you.  For every song played from the 80s and early 90s it was ably countered with a modern day classic- after the aforementioned intro cut the band ripped through a white hot version of “Desecrator”, followed by 2016’s killer “Seventh Seal”, then back to the debut with a truly hammering “Hammerhead” (fill in bassist Bill Bates was fantastic on this one), and then back to the new album once again with a monstrously melodic “Demolition Man”.  There was not one weak moment in the setlist all night and I could not argue with any of the song selection other than missing “N.E. Terror” but considering that the band has put out well over 10+ CDs and their recent material is some of the best stuff they’ve ever done (check out the mighty “Life Is A Mess” from their self titled from 2016) that’s a very, very minor quibble.

As with any great show that my brother and I have seen, I’m always dragging out the back catalog from any band that makes a big impression and the Flotsam and Jetsam show did just that.  My brother and I left mighty impressed with slightly sore necks intact and the urge to throw a Flots’ CD into the deck.  On the ride home it was The End Of Chaos but for the rest of the week it was a serious run through of second disc No Place For Disgrace with maybe a few run throughs of the stronger cuts on that 2016 self titled.  Major thumbs up to the band and a tip o’ the cap to AK for giving it his all without feeling quite 100%-  it was one absolutely killer show!

(Oh yeah, one other thing…  got to give it up to drummer Ken Mary, a really great player that has been around the block and then some.  I was a little worried about how he’d fit in after Jason Bittner moved on from the last album considering how much of a kick in the pants Bittner gave the band on that 2016 self titled but he really nailed it at the show and had a bit of that good natured, stick twirling/tossing flair thrown in to boot.  Solid, solid choice!)