HalloWolfbat - The HU, with openers Lightning Born and Doomriders Live At House of Vans

Words + Photos by Bobby Talamine

What a better way than to join the fine folks at House of Vans on Halloween night for an extra special art and music takeover, featuring The Hu, Mongolia's finest export in all things Folk Metal?

So you have that, which is awesome, and then you have openers Lightning Born and also Doomriders.

Adding color to the festivities: Dennis McNett and and all things Wolfbat, which promotes shows, events, performances, and new works of art from Dennis McNett and Wolfbat Studios.

So try to take this all in:

Upon entering House of Vans, you encounter the usual trappings of their wonderful events- an open bar, splendid background music fitting for Halloween, gigantic murals emblazoned both stage right and stage left, looking like wicked Indian carpets with a mystical bent, and then of course the gigantic artwork of Dennis Mcnett and Wolbat studios: two eight foot Wolves, two eight foot crows, and two eight foot skulls.

All of these fantastic creatures are on rollers, with movable arms and other features, and they come out in full regalia for each act appearing onstage throughout the show.
Hard to take this all in, since you have a packed main floor obviously set in place to enjoy the show and performances, and your typical trappings of a raucous rock n' roll show.
Have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it worked out, both with sympathetic fans allowing the creatures to get close to the stage and maneuver around, and also security having not much trouble with the audience being unruly, or manhandling the artistic creatures.

None of that happened thank god, and everyone in the audience was respectful, even when losing their ground during the performances.
Most of the audience were brandishing their cell phones to document this one of a kind display of beauty and might, and it worked in conjunction with all three bands throughout the entire night.

From a photographer's perspective, and the massive scale of the creatures in relation to the venue and bands: that posed a challenge, to try to your best to get the full creatures, let alone the profiles of their magnificent and beautifully designed faces, let alone when they were rolled up to the front of the stage, the perspective of them in relation to full band.

Easier said than done, on many levels.
I hope my pictures do some justice to this fantastic display and the event itself.

As far as The Hu is concerned- what a splendid and magnificent performance from the Mongolian brethren, who hail from Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, ready to rock House of Vans Chicago, their second performance in two months to our fine city- the first being back in September at Riot Fest.

They still have that fearsome look of power and might, conveying their brand of dark folk metal that is sung in their native language, and not in english, which works on so many levels.

This band is so special to JBTV Music Television, having taken the time after their Saturday performance at Riot Fest to walk the grounds and come over to our tent for an interview and celebration.

From Jerry Bryant of JBTV, Lauren O' Neil of 101KQX, the JBTV crew, we had a blast documenting the going's on and hanging with The HU along with their devoted fans who showed up to our tent at JBTV.

An unforgettable and bucket list kind of day, that's for sure.

Openers Doomriders brought the "hard and heavy" throughout their performance as well, even with not much of a soundcheck because of plane delays from Boston apparently, but with there take no prisoners approach to crunching metal, it was a fast paced 45 minute set with no weak link in the bunch.
Same holds true with opener Lightning Born, featuring members of Corrosion of Conformity, Demon Eye and Mega Colossus, matching their songs with amped up and crunching blues riffs, and a wall to wall wail of a voice from Brenna Leath.
Again, a mighty fine 45 minute performance from them as well.  

Have to say that Chris Vicente's spirit was evident during The HU's performance- tragically passing away a little over two weeks ago- he adored The HU, and did his best to get them to perform a live taping at JBTV.

it's a shame that this didn't come to fruition, but having said that, he would've been front and center at this show at House of Vans, and when the gigantic wolves rolled out for The HU's performance, with their jaws opened and arms flailing to the beats, Chris was smiling from ear to ear from the heavens.

So yes- this show worked on so many levels, all things onward / upward with House of Vans and JBTV.