Sharp as ever

Wax Fang
Follow the Train
The Features
Saturday, Feb. 24
Headliners Music Hall
Louisville, Ky.

There were no suits this time. No spinning lights slicing through the air. Not even a pair of angel wings.
Except for a few careening beach balls, Wax Fang stripped most of its spectacle to bare its spectacular rock repertoire with a blistering live set at Headliners Music Hall.
The night’s bill was tailor-made to deliver. For starters, the Fang hasn’t played at home since November, when it opened for you-know-who at Louisville Gardens. Match that with a reconstituted, supercharged Follow the Train and the romp-and-stomp acumen of The Features, and …
Damn.
Those who hadn’t yet heard The Features’ Matt Pelham in action can now consider themselves informed. The man stands two feet back from the microphone, toting a guitar big enough to beat him in a fair fight, and you can still hear him switch between sweet crooner and primeval rock god with astonishing ease. Drummer Rollum Haas lobbed a wad of spit as a sign of his enthusiasm as he bashed away, but I didn’t hear anyone complain as the group tore through a menu of new and old before the stage went dark. The group has a new EP out, Contrast, and a full-length, Exhibit A, released in 2004 on Universal.
The Academy Award for Stage Presence went to Follow the Train. Kicking off the set with clips from 1984 Cold War propaganda flick Red Dawn, the Train’s conductors donned pseudo-military face paint and headbands to go with their renewed sense of purpose. Leading off with “The Original Disconnect,” off A Breath of Sigh, ringleader Dennis Sheridan wasted no time in letting himself go while second guitarist and beard master Mike Sabo and percussion player Brandon Jones kept the party rolling.
And then there was the song: Jones announced that the Train was going to take the crowd “Swayz-deep” before launching into Patrick Swayze’s “She’s Like the Wind,” made famous by Dirty Dancing. Sheridan handled the vocals ably, but the star of this rendition was Brian Schreck, nailing the “Wind’s” sax solo note-for-note. It was truly special, and not even in an ironic, humorous way.
To borrow a phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross, Wax Fang knows how to close.
Backed by an evocative pastiche of short films, guitarist Scott Carney wasted little time elevating listeners with the bombshell instrumental, “Avant Guardian Angel Dust.” Most of the set was new-ish material that the band has played live for more than a year, yet never fails to mesmerize.
No stranger to covers either, the Fang invited D.W. Box and One Long Song up to sing a ball-rocking rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” but the original stuff was more fun to chew off of.
Where “Oh, Recklessness,” showed the band’s tender side, “Black and Endless Night Revisited” bubbled over with dramatic crescendos and eerie vocals. The surf-rock force of “Bi-Polar Bear” brings the house down every time, as does the carousel breakdown of “The Doctor Will See You Now.”
The sweetest moment of the evening belonged to “Majestic.” As the song died out, Carney broke into a high lonesome whistle, adding a tuneful ending to the show’s drunken revelry. With chops like this, world domination could be just around the corner.

Contact the writer at mherron@leoweekly.com