Slaughter February 7, 2020 @ The Rail Club Live in Fort Worth, TX

The Rail Club Live Fort Worth may have hosted their largest show to date since the venue’s re-opening in 2019. The band Slaughter was brought in for a one-off show Friday night.

The main floor and the second level VIP sections were filled to capacity. The easy task of greeting fellow fans was a tad difficult. The fans though didn’t seem to mind as all were there for the same reason, to see Slaughter.

Throughout the night and well into the main support’s set, the line for entry reached into the parking lot. 

Three local DFW bands served as support, Blackout, Texez Mudd and openers Crewl. The show’s opener, Crewl hit the stage earlier than normal.

Blues rockers Texez Mudd brought forth their style of chilled hard rock blues to the stage. Their set caught many of those by surprise and reciprocated cheers and claps of approval. Their style may not seemed like a proper fit but the cool vibe from the band said other wise.

Even the funny and relatable stories of life from front man T. K. Harris garnered laughs and nods of relating making the five-piece blues outfit even more appealing. 

Main support Blackout has become a staple at the Rail Club Live as an opener for larger shows. Blackout brings something different to the stage with each appearance in addition to their billowing smoke highlighted by color lights. 

This time around, the band tossed Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” into their set along with their originals. This allowed a wireless Bobby Michaels to exit the stage and appear in the crowd. Eventually, the guitarist made his way on top of the lengthy bar. Those in the vicinity of immediately brought out their cell phones to record the unexpected appearance in the crowd.  In doing so, the appearance added an extra boost of energy that was already buzzing in the crowd and carried over to Slaughter. 

With more than normal down time between Blackout and Slaughter, the crowd eagerly awaited Slaughter appearance. 

While that stage was prepped for Slaughter, bright white smoke began to saturate the stage on a continuous basis. As the minutes passed and the time neared for Slaughter to hit the stage, anticipation grew.

As an air raid siren wailed, Slaughter took to the stage with “Mad About You.” The stage was saturated with a whiteout of stage smoke. 

With a band career that has been active since the 1990 debut, Mark Slaughter’s voice still remains strong. He’s still able to hit the higher ranges with little effort and that was immediately noticeable during “Mad About You”.

The band continue to fire off familiar tracks like “Burnin’ Bridges,” “Fly to the Angels” and the title track from the band’s second album, The Wild Life. Slaughter threw the crowd a curve launching into Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” and “War Pigs” by Sabbath. As expected, the band concluded their night with “Up All Night”.

At times, bassist Dana Strum and guitarist Jeff Blando would step back only to disappear from view in the smoke. Catching glimpses of drummer Will Hunt through the fog was a rarity. More than likely, this was a production quirk of the band and not the venue.

Slaughter may hit stages in one off appearances across the nation but the band still delivers a powerful set.

For the capacity within the walls and out in front of the stage, the night ran smooth. The magnitude of Slaughter’s show has started a new chapter in the unique comeback story of the Rail Club.