Walking out to the stage with his arms in the air, Danzig and his three piece backing band soon commended the show with a flurry of fists and fury as the band performed without a breath being taken. The first several songs sped by without even blinking. Johnny Kelly's bare knuckle drumming was urgent while Steve Zing's bass locked in with Kelly in a perfect marriage of concentrated rhythm. Guitarist Tommy Victor gave his all as he harnessed the band's force being the sole guitar player. Certain songs worked better than others with the muddy acoustic of the Congress affecting the performance and yet the dual force of Devils's Plaything and Dirty Black Summer were stinging with the latter finding the band beginning the song in a whispered performance before a primal scream took over. Glen Danzig still works the stage like a pro, singing from his chest like a man haunted. It's Coming Down brought the Danzig portion of the show to a close after a brisk forty-minutes.

The Samhain set was sweltering yet far too short at a mere twenty-five minutes. Horror Biz was remarkable with the crowd singing along to every last word of the death rock classic. After the songs conclusion, an odd series of events occurred as Danzig demanded a knife onstage; a wish no roadies wanted to fulfill. They looked upon one another with eye brows raised and the crowd looked just as baffled. Horrow Biz" houses a lyric I'll stick a knife right in you and I'm not entirely sure if Danzig was playing it up for the crowd or if he witnessed something that set him off. If anything, he threw himself even further into the next few songs. Unholy Passion and �Let the Day Begin were lethal in their delivery. Despite potential reservations of a show dipped in nostalgia, he didn't disappoint during the Samhain segment.

Despite the rather great Samhain set, nothing could have prepared the crowd for when the backdrop became the Misfits Crimson Ghost logo. The volume in the theater heightened, the temperature rose and a swirling and sweaty mosh pit commenced. The Misfits third guitarist, Doyle, joined the band where they proceeded to tear through eight songs in less than twenty minutes. The Misfits made a career of songs lasting less than two-minutes and yet they filled each one with the same power of a ten-minute thrash classic. Opening with Death Comes Ripping pushed the crowd into overdrive. Age did not matter for these twenty minutes as the range of fans stretched from teens to those in their fifties. All flung their fists to the air, spun in circles and reveled in a performance that appeared to come out of a dream it was so surreal.

Vampira and Bullet hark back to the early Ramones but taken to a much more severe and turbocharged level. I Turned Into A Martian and Night of the Living Dead were bolstered by the back-to-back strength and Doyle's raging guitar. If I can throw one criticism out of the set it's that Doyle should have been the sole guitarist on the stage. Whereas some of the Danzig material early in the show would have benefitted from a second guitarist who would have beefed up the band's sound, the Misfits records were ranging and raw and would have improved from a voluble performance. The show kicked up another notch with Halloween, Astro Zombies and the set closing Last Caress. Finding middle ground between punk and metal, the Misfits went on to influence a wide ranging group of artists and it's startling to realize that many in the room that evening most likely were exposed to the Misfits through Metallica's The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited . The song was the highlight of possibly the entire Riot Fest as Danzig found his inner Misfit voice, the crowd raged and the band and their fans were completely in sync with one another. I would suggest going to one of the Danzig Legacy performances just to witness the radiant rage on display for Last Caress.