Slaughter Brings A Taste Of The Wild Life to Batavia Downs

Concert Review
Slaughter
Batavia Downs
Batavia, NY
Friday July 23, 2021
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto

Friday night’s Rockin’ At The Downs featured the hard rockin’ glam metal band Slaughter. Slaughter was announced as a late fill-in when Skid Row who was originally scheduled, had to bail out due to circumstances beyond their control. Slaughter did not disappoint their fans as they demonstrated during their 70-minute set. The show also marked the band’s first area appearance since a 2013 date out at the now defunct Braun’s Concert Cove.

These days Slaughter features original members vocalist/guitarist Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum. Rounding out the band were guitarist Jeff Blando and Evanescence drummer Will Hunt. Hunt is the most recent member to tour with the band replacing Zoltan Chaney. Blando joined the band in 1998 and has stuck around ever since.

Opening with a trio of cuts from their double-platinum Stick It To Ya release, the band prepared to make up for lost time. “Mad About You” “Burnin’ Bridges” were some of the early highlights. Perhaps the best sounding song of the night was “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” a tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen by the band. “Days Gone By” was for the diehards, done a little differently but went over very well.

The band saved their two biggest songs for last. “Fly To The Angels”, the band’s highest charting song which peaked at #19, was followed up with what is their best known song “Up All Night”. All in all the set featured all the main songs a Slaughter set usually includes. As far as critiquing goes, I would have dropped the Zeppelin and Who covers. The show was a headlining show for the band on a non-festival and squeezing in two more of the bands lesser known gems like “Hold On” or “Reach For The Sky” would have gone over much better. But that Van Halen cover, it was worth the price of admission alone. The band will return to Buffalo in April. Need we say don’t you dare miss it.

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