If you are looking for a great time with some great bands then look no further than Brick by Brick in San Diego. Saturday night was the place to be. This was the night Flotsam and Jetsam hit the stage with supporting acts DVT, Warpath and CAGE. All three bands played hard and heavy. I am familiar with CAGE and if you search the magazine there is a show review I did of one of their shows at Brick by Brick. All I can say was the opening acts were all pretty impressive and though I’ve never heard of DVT or Warpath I would look forward to seeing them again. CAGE is a no brainer; they should be headlining shows.
After CAGE finished their final song of the night (an older Judas Priest song) the floor started clearing as people slowly started gathering for Flotsam and Jetsam. The main floor of Brick by Brick looked relatively empty and I decided to make my way to the side to get my camera ready. As the front of the stage started filling with people I worked my way through to the front of the stage to get a good spot to shoot the show. It took the band and clubs sound man a good twenty minutes to complete its sound check, but once I heard Michael Gilbert’s guitar coming from the monitors in front of me I knew that tonight’s show was going to be pretty special indeed.
They kicked off the show with some of the best riffs ever featured on a Flotsam and Jetsam album and played at a controlled pace with actual melodies that guaranteed the crowds approval. I was quite pleased to see a bunch of guys and girls in their early twenties head bang intensely to the tunes. Eric Knutson’s Vocals were impressive and strong; he demanded your attention and got it with vocals that singers half his age find impossible to do. I was not able to get the set list which is sad because it’s hard to critique the night without the song titles.
Flotsam and Jetsam’s members showed their musical prowess on just about every song. It was hard and Heavy Metal just the way we remember. Since being formed in Phoenix, Arizona in 1981; Flotsam and Jetsam have gone through several lineup changes, they have released Twelve studio albums the latest being “Flotsam and Jetsam” in 2016 which Eric, while on stage, jokingly referred to the best name they could come up with. If you haven’t heard the album yet, do yourself a favor and buy it. On a scale of 1 to 10, the album is a solid 9.
Next time they play in a town near you, do make the effort of attending their show, even if it’s on a Weekday evening – bands as special as these deserve all the support they can get!
Band:
Eric Knutson – Vocals
Michael Gilbert – Guitar
Michael Spencer – Bass
Steve Conley – Guitar
Ken Mary – Drums