Power Trip played Paradise Rock Club – 5/11

Dallas rippers Power Trip brought their biggest U.S. tour to date to Boston’s Paradise last Friday, joined by openers Sheer Mag, Fury and Red Death. 

There aren’t many thrash metal bands formed after the mid-1980s filling 1,000-cap venues with massively enthused crowds, but Power Trip make it look easy. The Texas quintet take a distinctly no-nonsense approach to pretty much everything – be it their studio work, their live shows or their Twitter presence – and while their stages keep getting bigger, they keep things simple. They play their frenzied songs like there’s no tomorrow.

On this recent Friday night, Power Trip’s headlining set didn’t approach the hour-mark, and hardly needed to. Led by vocalist Riley Gale, clad in an authentically threadbare Obituary shirt, the band ripped through 11 songs of hammer-down aggression, split between their 2013 debut full length, 2017 highlight Nightmare Logic and some early cuts from their just-released Opening Fire comp, with nary a second wasted. In a blur of whipping hair and dramatically-hoisted mic stands, it was a platonic ideal of a thrash set – a band simply at the top of their game.

Traffic and travel issues had pushed back doors earlier in the night, leading to a slightly frantic turnover between opening acts, but D.C.’s Red Death, California’s Fury and Philly rockers Sheer Mag – the odd band out on an otherwise hardcore and thrash bill – made the best of some abbreviated slots. Check out photos of the whole night below.