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My Four Days with Thor, the Heavy Metal God of Thunder

[ This was originally posted on several newsgroups around October 8, 1998. ]

Introduction

I had the pleasure of witnessing all three Canadian dates of StarUSA's 13-date West Coast Canada/USA tour, with headlining act and heavy metal legend Thor. The first show was October 2 at the Opera House, followed by a second Toronto date at the Rio the following Saturday, both in East Toronto. On October 5, he played Call the Office in London, Ontario. This was a special reunion for Thor, as it was his first tour since 1987, and that he was back in home territory. Thor was born in Vancouver, a former Toronto resident, and former Mr. Teen Canada. He currently resides in North Carolina.

What follows is mainly a description of the Opera House show, but also includes moments of the other shows as well.

Opening Acts

Thor's first touring guitarist, who hails from Guelph, was the opening act that night. He recently put out a CD under the banner "Johnny 6-String and the Jalapeno's". He and his musician friends put on a great show, all composed of hard-rocking instrumentals. Johnny Six-String was also at the London show. These were their first two live shows ever for this act, and I hope they continue to do so.

Johnny was followed by a band called Seeing Red, a female-fronted band from Brampton. My chief criticism is that the lead guitar were very low in the mix, almost inaudible. Seeing Red also performed at the Rio show on Saturday.

They were followed by fellow StarUSA recording artists, Dukes Nitesmare, a surprisingly heavy Southern rock outfit from South Carolina. Over the space of their three Canadian shows, their catalog of material grew on me. Personal highlights include a cover of the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride", and the long guitar-laden climax to their ballad "Do I Love You" (two leads, acoustic, and bass, all working in tandem).

The God of Thunder

The highlight of the show, of course, was the God of Thunder himself, Thor. He was accompanied by wife, backing vocalist, former Penthouse cover girl, and business partner, Rusty Hamilton, aka "Cherry Bomb". Along with the tour was original drummer Michael Favale. The touring bassist is an affable English chap whose name I've forgotten. His touring guitarist is North Carolina native, Donnie Christianson. Donnie was pulling double-duties at these shows, as one of the leads of Dukes Nitemare. He also fronts his own band, Silverwing (in the progressive metal vein), off the StarUSA label.

For the space of 45 minutes, Thor went through his catalog of hits. Classics such as "Thundra on the Tundra". "We Will Rock the City", "Let The Blood Run Red", "Keep The Dogs Away", "Thunderhawk" and "Ragnarok". He didn't play "Anger" until the Rio show the next night. Both the second Toronto show, and the London show, were around an hour.

My favorite part of the show was a segment entitled "Iron Man". Thor tells instructs the audience he got a hunk of metal from the local scrapyard, and then presents the metal bar to the fans - to get them to try and bend it. "It's a hell of a way to make a living. I bet the Backstreet Boys could never do this." He placed the bar in his mouth, wrapped in his touring T-shirt. Using his molars as a fulcrum, Thor spent about a minute a minute bending the bar in half, to the great acclaim of the audience. The segment ends as Donnie plays the opening notes of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man".

The props were all part of the fun, including his two rubber hammers, his sword, and an electric shield which glowed in the dark. Sometimes he would run around the stage, and the audience, sword and shield in hand. My favorite prop is the rubber snake which at one point in the show, he pulls out of a basket, which he then battles and slays with his sword. What great fun! All of those who attended the shows had a great time, and Thor spared nothing to keep us entertained.

Each show had its own special moments. At the Opera House show on Friday, his original guitarist came up on stage and did "Keep the Dogs Away". At the Rio show, another Toronto guitarist, who had once auditioned for Thor, also did the same song. At the Rio show on Saturday, he did two covers in his encore, Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever", and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll". He also did "Cat Scratch Fever" the following Monday in London. The London show had an added bonus - as he wrapped a microphone stand around the neck of a willing audience particpant.

Meeting the Boys

After the Opera House show, I got to meet with Thor and the band, and discussed some of the Canadian bands he toured with so long ago, including Ottawa's Exciter, and the legendary Kraken. My brother brought along with him some heavy metal discographies, published in Germany by Iron Pages, and showed Rusty the section on Thor (which delighted her). They also spoke of the years they spent in the New York area. Rusty thanked us for coming along, and was real happy we came by for the secong gig, and also the London gig (which I attended alone). We also chatted about Thor's interesting movie career in B-flicks such as "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare", "Zombie Nightmare", and "The Recruits".

We also met up with one Michael Pilmer, an assistant on the Thor tour, who's been recording the entire 13-date tour on both audio and video. Even though the Opera House show was sparsely attended, I've been told the video footage was excellent. it may be included in an upcoming video package, combined with other live moments from the 13-day tour, and special behind-the-scenes moments with the band. Hope to catch it one of these days.

We also met Michael again at the Rio gig, and on Sunday, my brother and I took him on a short tour of downtown Toronto's record shops. After returning him back to the motel, we drew a short map of the main downtown London streets, including the used record shops, and the location of the Monday venue. We also got a couple of nice snapshots of ourselves with Michael and Thor. That day, my brother gave Michael a very special gift - an original Piledriver "Metal Inquisition" LP. His eyes lit up he was told that Piledriver singer Gord Kirchen lives only about 20 blocks apart from my brother!

Before Thor's Rio gig, we also chatted briefly with Donnie. When I told him one of my favorite artists is Yngwie Malmsteen, he gave me a high five, and an "all right man", and showed off a very special Fender guitar which he as toting with him on the tour ("It's a duplicate of his Play Loud guitar"). We chatted about 80's metal favorites, such as Dokken, Dio, and early Iron Maiden ("B.D - Before Dickinson"), and several Shrapnel recording artists (Vinnie Moore, James Byrd). Very talented lad.

Final Thoughts

All in all, it was a great four days. I got to see Thor three times, along with supporting act Dukes Nitemare, and Johnny Six-String. It was a real treat to see this 80's legend up and close, both during and after the show, and the supporting acts were great as well. All in all, I'm glad I went. To purchase Thor CD's, including the new "AnTHORlogy", visit the StarUSA website at http://www.bizplus.com/starusa/. They have other fine acts on the label, including the aforementioned Dukes Nitemare, Silverwing, and Rattlebone (which sat out the Canadian leg of this tour).