Live review: Queensrÿche / Trauma live at The Intersection

Grand Rapids, MI – 01 Apr 2023

An eclectic metal lineup had a bunch of aging headbangers reliving their glory years.

I’ve been mentally collecting seeing Metallica-adjacent bands live, like charms on some kind of a heavy metal bracelet. Some were much easier to come by than others. I’ve seen Megadeth, the wildly successful band formed by sacked Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine, at least 10 times. (As I have the other two bands in the Big 4 of thrash, Anthrax and Slayer.) I’ve seen Suicidal Tendencies, where current bassist Robert Trujillo got his start, about that many times too. He eventually made his way to Ozzy Osbourne’s band, before jumping ship. Metallica famously opened for the Wizard of Ozz on part of their Damage Inc. tour. Ozzy‘s solo stuff is generally pretty lousy, but I’ve seen him a few times over the years.

I’ve managed to catch Exodus, the band Metallica swiped guitarist Kirk Hammett from, a handful of times. Flotsam and Jetsam, the Arizona band that Jason Newsome jilted to join Metallica were a little harder to track down, so I’ve only seen them once or twice. Last year I saw Raven, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal band that took a young Metallica on their first US tour. One piece of the puzzle I thought I’d always have to live without was Trauma, the infamous bay area band co-founded by legendary Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. 

Trauma started out in 1981, and Burton abandoned them for Metallica the following year. He would play on the first three Metallica albums before dying in a tragic bus accident while on tour in Sweden in 1986. He was only 24 years old, but his legacy still casts a huge shadow. Trauma forged on without Burton and released one album, the 1984 cult classic Scratch and Scream, before splitting up in 1985. Singer Donny Hillier reformed Trauma 28 years later, in 2013. He was accompanied by returning drummer Kris Gustofson, who had joined in 1982. They made two more records before Hillier died in 2020. 

Trauma continued with a new singer and no original members, and even released their 4th LP, Awakening, in 2022. Authentic or not, Trauma was really good. I would describe their sound as a slightly thrashier Iron Maiden. Pretty heavy, but with high pitched vocals and tons of melody. They only got 30 minutes, but made the most of the opportunity. You could tell these geezers were really enjoying themselves. The highlight of their set was actually a new song, “Death of the Angel”. Check these guys out if you’re looking for some new old school metal. 

Marty Friedman has two degrees of separation from Metallica. He played lead guitar for Megadeth from 1990 to 2000, during the most commercially successful era of the band. He was with the band from the brilliant Rust in Peace to the dire Risk. He’s both the most beloved and reviled guitarist in Megadeth’s twisted history. His technical prowess is unquestionable, but his influence on the band has been endlessly debated. I knew that he had moved to Japan after Megadeth, and that he was a pretty big deal over there, but hadn’t kept up with his career. I had no idea what to expect from Friedman, who doesn’t look like he’s aged a bit. Even at 60, he’s trim and still has that luscious head of long, dark curls.

He brought his young, Tokyo based band to back him up. They had a female bassist who played a five string that was almost as big as she was. The second guitarist could hold his own against Friedman’s shredding. The drummer had wild blond hair, snow white skin, and played like a maniac. Both guitarists were animated, but the drummer was consistently the most entertaining person on stage. There were no vocal mics on stage, and a roadie would run one out when Friedman wanted to address the crowd. They played heavy music with lots of poppiness and generally extraordinary musicianship. It’s in a similar vein to Joe Satriani or Steve Vai’s solo stuff. Even without lyrics, it was a surprisingly engaging 40 minutes.

Queensrÿche have only one degree of separation from Metallica. They opened a ton of shows on the massive ‘88-’89 Damaged Justice tour. (The other openers were The Cult and Danzig, another pair of bands I’ve been fortunate enough to see a bunch of times.) Queensrÿche were born at a weird intersection of prog rock and hair metal. With the swift but painful death of later, they were able to maintain a career with the headier crowd. I was in my mid teens when they released their breakthrough album, Operation:Mindcrime. I’ll probably always have a soft spot for the well executed concept album. I was less crazy about the pop metal follow up Empire, but it was a huge hit. 

I’d seen Mindcrime performed in its entirety a couple of times, but hadn’t payed much attention to the band in years. They’ve gone through a lot of member changes over the last three decades, and the only OGs left are the bassist and one guitarist. They never quit recording and have made something like 16 studio albums. This tour was in support of their most recent release, Digital Noise Alliance. The turnout was strong on a Saturday night. I don’t think that it sold out, but the 1500 capacity room was pretty full. Much to the chagrin of the older audience, they were focused on newer material for a good chunk of their 85 minute set.

Most of the newer material could hold its own against the older stuff, and was fairly well received. The exception was the drab, Pink Floyd-ish ballad “Forest”, which had folks racing for the bathrooms and beer lines. They also played four songs from their 1984 debut full length, The Warning, which was a bit of a surprise. “Spreading the DIsease”, “My Lonely Room” and “Eyes of a Stranger” from Mindcrime brought the biggest roars. “Jet City Woman” and “Empire” weren’t far behind. “Deliverance” and “Roads to Madness” made for a proggy but satisfying encore. At the very least, it had a bunch of 50 year old guys reminiscing about hanging out in hockey rinks 30 years ago. 

Confessions of a merch: I’m rarely tempted to buy a T-shirt these days, but the Trauma shirts were too cool and too obscure for me to pass up.