Doyle Crushes Holy Diver

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By Jennifer Black

Only nine months after his last Sacramento appearance, renowned guitarist DoyleWolfgang von Frankenstein, formerly of the legendary Misfits, returned toSacramento to sell out Holy Diver with his band, Doyle, on December—pretty impressive for a Thursday night.

Two openers started off the night, Banger and Twitch Angry.  It was set to be a night full of metal punk and, in reality, it was certainly never dull.  Sacramento’s Banger kicked off the night with a set that amped up the younger attendees in the crowd.  Mid-set, they announced that the liveliest in the pit during the following song would receive a lovely Banger-customized guitar that the singer was actually playing up until that point in the set.  After the next song, along with confirming crowd applause, the pit selected the guitar winner, held him up, and the singer took the guitar off his back and handed it over to the happy youth!  Sacramento punk band Twitch Angry was up next with an energetic performance.  I had never seen them before, and was definitely an interesting set.  The crowd was littered with their fans who knew their songs and represented them well by wearing their merch.  Twitch Angry was definitely a good choice to get the crowd pitting and warmed up for Doyle.

After a lengthy changeover, Doyle hit the stage, and the crowd came to life!  The set was comprised of a great mix of songs from 2013’s Abominator and 2017’s Doyle II: As We Die.  Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein regularly brought his elbow way up into the air to dramatically strike his “Doyle skull”adorned guitars with his famously heavy downstroke, just to whip his arm and elbow back to the start position and turn to the adoring crowd, who never failed to respond.  He made sure to venture back and forth from stage left to center stage facing his right, so all his fans could enjoy the mesmerizing spectacle that is his performance through out his set.  Fans also seemed to enjoy, and actually reach out to grasp, his freshly-painted face and insanely buff, bare-chested physique.  His singer, vocalist and songwriter  Alex Story (a.k.a. Alex “Wolfman” Story), also put on a great show.  I loved photographing his expressive face, and he sounded consistently amazing.  TheDoyle pit was definitely more punk than metal and more young than old.  I am used to metal pits that are less bouncy and fun, and a tad more vicious.  It was a refreshing change.  The youth and courtesy, however, didn’t equate to less front row injury, as I was front center, and I left the show with bruised elbows from being thrown repeatedly into the center monitor, a bruised knee from being pushed into the stage, and two aching ribs (also from monitors), but it was totally worth it to capture Doyle inaction.