Down In Heaven Tour: Twin Peaks, White Reaper & Modern Vices

“We are your dudes and you are ours” reads the band’s bio on Facebook. This sums up a lot about Chicago’s pedal to the dang metal rock and rollers Twin Peaks. This band’s energy and good spirited nature on and off stage is infectious. Three albums in with ZERO sight of slowing down anytime soon.

Twin Peak’s latest Down In Heaven just feels great.

It’s got that Rolling Stones’ strutting and attitude, but with a sense of humor. Their live set plays super well in a festival setting (which I caught during Free Press Summer Fest 2015), but HOLY GOSH it rips in a small club setting.

Raven Tower is a covered open-air pavilion with a stage at one end about the size of a basketball court. On this particular night it was typical balmy as the pit of heck Houston weather. Stepping out of my car, my glasses fogged up and didn’t unfog until the first band Modern Vices tore into their set.

Modern Vices really turned up and ripped hard for the thirty minutes they were given.

If saying that Modern Vices has a Strokes influence helps you to check them out, then great…if not, ignore that I said anything and check them out anyway. Alex Rebek’s vocals (and hair) are great and the band is super tight. The left hook of Modern Vices was nearly immediately followed by the raucous head-bobbing fun of White Reaper.

By the time White Reaper warmed up with a few Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar riffs the crowd was READY to get moving.

All ages kids in Vans and braces swirled around in a circle while White Reaper slashed through “I Don’t Think She Cares” off their excellent 2015 album White Reaper Does It Again. By the end of their set, everyone was totally soaked with sweat but grinning from ear to ear. Simply put, White Reaper is a great band.

The line for the water cooler was at least twenty deep by the time Twin Peaks took the stage.

Fans that’d been up front all night waved to the band as they smiled and raised a beer. Nothing else seemed to matter as the hands, hats, shoes and phones flew through the air and seemingly levitated in the humid Houston heat. The band only let up for a few seconds to say something like “This is the encore. We aren’t leaving if you’re not leaving.” I love seeing a band working hard to make dang sure everyone leaves a show feeling like they are a part of something. This is how it felt to walk away from Raven Tower. There’s something going on in Chicago and I’m glad they’ve decided to share Twin Peaks with us.

It’s totally obvious that all three of these bands are digging touring together.

Members of Twin Peaks standing side stage the whole time to watch. White Reaper’s keyboard player leaping out to crowd surf during Twin Peaks set. The energy is incredible and positive. Highly recommend catching them right flipping now while they’re playing in smaller clubs because that won’t be the case for long.