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Power Trip live: Reviews of Metallica, Tool, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses

For those about to rock, we salute you. We'll be reporting all the action at Power Trip, Goldenvoice's three-day metal festival in the desert featuring heavy-hitters Guns N' Roses and Iron Maiden on Friday, AC/DC and Judas Priest on Saturday, and culminating with Metallica and Tool on Sunday.

Will this "once-in-a-lifetime" billing live up to the hype? Check back here for the sights, sounds, special guests and music reviews from the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif.

• Review: Metallica closes out festival in electric style
• Review: Tool underwhelms after AC/DC energy
• Power Trip Day 3: The good, the bad and the epic
• Review: AC/DC delivers epic set after seven-year hiatus
• Review: Judas Priest delivers beyond expectations, new album
• Power Trip Day 2: The good, the bad, the sweat
• Review: Guns N' Roses brings crowd pleasing, hit-filled set
• Review: Iron Maiden brings the drama to first Power Trip set
• Power Trip Day 1: The good, the bad, the hot

Tool and Metallica close out the last day of Power Trip in style

Tool and Metallica are two distinctly different bands, so, naturally, they brought two vastly different shows to the same audience Sunday night at Power Trip.

But there was a third band we couldn't help to compare them with: AC/DC.

It's probably unfair to compare the performance of one band to another, particularly when one is as beloved as AC/DC, and is playing its first live show in more than seven years. But while Tool sounded crisp and loud, and thousands appeared to enjoy the band's set at the festival, it inevitably felt like a let down after AC/DC, and as festivalgoers were gearing up for a highly anticipated show from Metallica.

Metallica, on the other hand, understood their assignment. Closing out a once-in-a-lifetime festival such as Power Trip is no easy task, and the California rockers didn't disappoint on Sunday night,

Read our full Tool review here.

Read our full Metallica review here.

—Brian Blueskye and Andrew John

Power Trip proves itself to be an international affair

What’s the furthest someone traveled to Power Trip? It’s hard to say, but Indio resident Leonard Ortiz has something that provides answers. Since Friday, Ortiz has collected signatures from attendees and their origins on a California state flag. Some of the attendees who signed included residents of Australia, Nepal, Austria, and Colombia. Ortiz said there was also “a lot of Mexico on there.”

Ortiz said he got the idea to track signatures at Power Trip from attending Metallica concerts and seeing fans with flags from their home states doing the same.

“I just thought it would be cool to do (at Power Trip),” because I knew that AC/DC and Iron Maiden have a following from all over the world, and I want to put it (the flag) up in my mancave. People are really digging it, and I’ve only had one person tell me no when I’ve asked them to sign for whatever reason,” Ortiz said. 

—Brian Blueskye

The most rockstar-worthy burger at Power Trip comes from Grill 'Em All

There’s one food vendor in the South Lounge area of the festival that gets our unofficial award for Most Clever Play on Words: the metal-inspired and Alhambra-based burger restaurant Grill ‘Em All, which is a take on Metallica’s 1983 debut album “Kill ‘Em All.”

Desert Sun reporter Andrew John tried the AC/DC burger and enthusiastically said “It’s good!” after taking his first bite.

The restaurant is known for showing pro wrestling and a selection of burgers named after metal icons such as Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and more.

Holy Dive Bar provides sports fans and non-sports fans alike a shaded place to kick back, grab a drink

Rob Vollgraf traveled to Power Trip from Northern California with the understanding that he’d be able to watch his Las Vegas Raiders at the Holy Dive Bar. He'd heard about the setup inside Empire Polo Club, but was skeptical about whether it would be anything substantial.

On Sunday, the festivalgoer admitted he was pleasantly surprised.

“They’ve done an outstanding job here,” said Vollgraf, wearing a black Raiders shirt. “This blew away my expectations.”

Read the full story here.

—Andrew John

Tool brings fans from around the world to the polo grounds

When Alejandro Grijalva Duran saw the lineup announcement in March for Power Trip and noticed the band Tool was part of it, he immediately contacted his son, Juan Pablo Grijalva Saenz. The two purchased tickets and made travel arrangements to Indio from Chihuahua, Mexico.

On Sunday, the father and son had just waited in line at Tool’s merchandise booth and was taking pictures with a poster they'd purchased. Power Trip is the first time the two will see the band perform. 

“(Tool) is a unique band,” Grijalva Saenz said. “You see the lineup and all the classic rock bands, having Tool in the lineup at this festival is mind-blowing. Their concept in music is different than other bands like Judas Priest, AC/DC and Iron Maiden, so it’s a unique occasion to see Tool at this festival and venue.”

Grijalva Duran is a longtime fan, and said there are limited opportunities to see Tool in Mexico, who typically perform in cities such as Monterrey or Guadalajara.

“I like a lot of Tool’s music and have been a fan since the beginning,” said Grijalva Duran.

Real metal fans take their grandkids to Power Trip

Brooklyn Harper and Illy Pirylis of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, both 17, have been enjoying Power Trip this weekend with their grandmother, 59-year-old Kerri Yingst of Hobe Sound, Florida. But it's not the first time they've rocked out at a concert together.

It's the third festival the trio have attended together since the 2022 Welcome to Rockville festival in Daytona Beach.

On Saturday afternoon, all three were excited to see the first performance by AC/DC in seven years and spent over an hour standing in line at the band's merchandise tent after the gates opened. Yingst referred to her granddaughters as her "concert buddies"

“I didn’t know they liked my music,” Yingst said. “I was (in New Jersey) visiting and I heard Black Sabbath coming from the bedroom, and I’m like ‘Wait a minute, maybe they’re just on YouTube.’ I go about my business and go back upstairs, and I asked them, ‘Do you like that?’ and they said ‘Yeah!’ That’s when we found Welcome to Rockville and started going to festivals together.”

To read the full story, click here.

AC/DC starts out strong despite seven-year performance hiatus

Shortly after AC/DC performed “Shoot to Thrill” about an hour into their Saturday set at Power Trip, CNL Executive Transportation owner and operator Craig Blucher was heading towards the exit to give a client a ride.

But as he walked, the San Diego resident who has seen AC/DC seven times described the set as “epic.”

Blucher’s first time seeing AC/DC was during the original lineup era featuring original frontman Bon Scott, who died in 1980. He also caught the band’s comeback tour that same year with current vocalist Brian Johnson.

Since AC/DC released the album “Power Up” in 2020, the band hasn’t played together live, meaning Saturday’s performance was its first show in seven years.

Even though AC/DC is celebrating 50 years, the band hasn't announced a new album or any plans to tour, leaving many to speculate whether Power Trip may be the group's last performance.

When asked if he thinks it will be the last, Blucher said he hopes not.

“They need to stay healthy and they’re getting old. These old timers don’t live forever,” Blucher said. 

Check out AC/DC's setlist here.

Check out our full review of AC/DC's set here.

Judas Priest announces new album, brings out Glenn Tipton

Judas Priest replaced Ozzy Osbourne as the first band on the Power Trip Day 2 schedule, but they didn't act like anyone's second choice.

After five decades, the English heavy metal group proved it still has plenty of gas in the tank, far exceeding expectations. The crowd cheered as Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" played as the intro, but was followed by a few moments of silence before a graphic showed on the video screens announcing Judas Priest's upcoming album, "The Invincible Shield," which is due out March 8.

Perhaps the best moment of the set was the encore, which featured guitarist Glenn Tipton, who retired from the band in 2018 due to Parkinson's disease. Tipton performed with the group during the last three songs of the set: classics "Metal Gods," "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight."

Click here to read the full Judas Priest setlist.

Coachella has 'Spectra,' Power Trip has the rocker cactus

While concertgoers are not allowed inside "Spectra," the popular illuminated installation that features a winding ramp, right next to it is a new piece of art that has many lined up to take a selfie with.

A blue devil-horned-shaped cactus has caught the attention of many here at Power Trip. It has provided a perfect photo-op for this metal festival, with Spectra, the ground’s iconic Ferris wheel and the mountains of La Quinta providing a cool backdrop. 

Power Trip's hottest accessory will cost you $20, and sellers prefer cash

One thing most festivalgoers probably didn't expect at Power Trip, which markets itself very openly as a cashless festival, is a vendor that asks for cash. That's exactly what fans are facing when they go to purchase light-up AC/DC devil horn headbands at one of the various vendor carts scattered across the festival grounds today.

Although these vendors technically take credit cards (because they have to to be part of the festival), the signs on the carts read "$ CASH IS KING !!!"

The night's hottest accessory, which will set you back $20, is a nod to AC/DC co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and only remaining founding member Angus Young, who popularized the devil horn symbol by using his two index fingers to form two horns above his head while he performs.

—Niki Kottmann

Judas Priest proves to be the most punctual band of Power Trip thus far

Judas Priest just took the stage, just a few minutes later than scheduled, unlike the Friday performers who were 20 minutes (Iron Maiden) and 40 minutes (Guns N' Roses) behind schedule. Now let's see if they can make Ozzy proud.

Group of fans decide to push through the Power Trip gates early

Those of us who entered Day 2 of Power Trip through the Red Path/camping area got a surprise Saturday when a group of rowdy festivalgoers decided they didn't want to wait any longer and pushed the gates open. Security nearby let it happen, seemingly because they were going to open the gates themselves a few minutes later, and because those who pushed through were hit by a wall of metal detectors and bag checkers on the other side of the gate.

Guns' N' Roses delivers the hits to close out the first day of Power Trip

Guns N' Roses put on a phenomenal show of heavy rock 'n' roll hits and treated festivalgoers to highlights of the band's career, even paying tribute to Sir Paul McCartney's 50th anniversary of the James Bond anthem "Live And Let Die." The two-hour set was full of stunning video production and lasers, but notably no pyrotechnics.

Even though the band was 40 minutes late for its headlining performance, the crowd was calm and there were no signs of the old days when the band would appear hours late or not at all. When the festival went dark and the band's strange animated psychedelic visuals appeared, the crowd was on its feet, screaming in anticipation.

Starting with "It's So Easy," frontman Axl Rose appeared like a lightning rod and the rest of the band, which also features original members guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan, were precise in every note.

Click here to read the band's complete Power Trip setlist.

Our highs and lows of Power Trip Day 1: Where's the good food hiding?

OK, so festival food is famously never great, but Coachella always includes some trendy (and mouthwatering) Asian food from LA and Stagecoach always has delicious BBQ (when Guy Fieri's involved, you know it's good), so what is Power Trip going to be notable for cuisine-wise? So far, crappy grilled cheese.

That might be on me for ordering something a bit odd, but I thought you couldn't mess up grilled cheese! It's so simple! Tomorrow I'll be going in a totally different direction and heading straight for the booth of a Palm Springs favorite: Sandfish.

Read up on our other highs and lows from the first day of the festival here.

Parking causes headaches on Power Trip Day 1, leads some to leave early

Parking for those who tried to get in after 4:30 p.m. today was reportedly out-of-this-world difficult (our own photographer nearly ran out of gas in the middle of Miles Avenue because traffic controlers forced him to circle the venue so many times), which seems to be the reason why many people were seen leaving the festival after the first hour of Guns N' Roses' set.

I can't blame them for wanting to beat the traffic, and I can't help but wonder how long it's going to take me to get out after Guns N' Roses is done playing ... moral of the story: get here as early as possible tomorrow, festivalgoers.

Iron Maiden delivers theatrical, energetic set to kick off the night

As Iron Maiden kicked off the first set of Power Trip performing "Caught Somewhere In Time," frontman Bruce Dickinson appeared as if he stepped into the present day from a futuristic sci-fi film set.

That post-apocalyptic vibe continued throughout the stellar performance, which included stage visuals showing the flux capacitor from the 1985 time travel comedy film "Back to the Future."

Want to see the complete set list? Click here.

—Niki Kottmann and Brian Blueskye

Metal fans came from all over the world for this event

As the rumors began circulating about Power Trip in March, Rob Myers of Hershey, Pennsylvania created the Facebook community “Power Trip Festival Group,” which has over 10,000 members. On Friday afternoon, Myers met a fraction of the group in front of the Ferris wheel for a group photo. A group member brought a California state flag and is having members sign it as he meets them at the festival.

Myers said he has created similar groups for festivals such as the Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival in Mansfield, Ohio and estimates 5,000 attendees from all around the world and demographics joined the Power Trip group during April.

“People had interest in seeing six powerhouse acts all at once,” Myers said. “These bands have international recognition – Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Metallica – even in Europe, you don’t see all three of those bands at one festival. You may see one, but you’re not going to get all at once.”

The members of the group have posted invites for carpooling to the festival, social gatherings in the area and even shared travel tips for those new to the Coachella Valley. There’s a stronger sense of community among metal fans for this festival than the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach country music festival.

“If you go to any metal festival, especially if you’re in camping, you’re never going to have an empty stomach, an empty cup or go without anything you need,” Myers said. “I have met grandmothers and mothers at metal festivals and they’re the ones helping those who say ‘Hey, I need this’ or ‘I ran out of this.’ Everybody just wants to take care of each other. With metal, there are different emotions, some of these people have been hurt and have a stronger sense of empathy. I’ve noticed people who have been through something, metal is their healing." 

Our first impression of the festival: spacious

Although it was crowded by the entrance, once the gates opened 18 minutes behind schedule, our first impression of the festival was that it's wonderfully spread out. Nobody's on top of each other, and even though the merch tents were Coachella-level busy less than 15 minutes into the start of the festival, the Iron Maiden-specific and Guns N' Roses-specific booths had shockingly small lines.

This is also a little nerdy of us to notice, but the famed Coachella/Stagecoach Ferris wheel (aka Le Grande Wheel) is back with new open-air cars (as opposed to the traditional enclosed cars we're used to at the other two festivals).

Power Trip: Gates are open and crowd has cool cross-generational vibe

The gates are open at Power Trip but the music has yet to start. The crowd so far consists of lots of big groups and families with adult children. "How you holding up mom?" was heard from a man who appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s.

Those who attended the original "Trip" ... Desert Trip in 2016 that featured the kings of classic rock ... will understand.

Also notable about the first hour on scene: It's hot. Overheard waiting to get through the gate: “I’m sweating so much I’m losing my buzz, it’s terrible!”

—Niki Kottmann and Kate Franco

Headed to Power Trip but don't want to miss the game? You can experience both

Goldevoice is typically all about the music. But this weekend at Power Trip, the promoter is offering a rare opportunity to watch live sports at one of its bar areas within the festival.

All weekend long, festivalgoers can head to the Holy Dive Bar to watch the following televised sports:

• Thursday: NFL Chicago @ Washington
• Friday: MLB Playoffs
• Saturday: MLB Playoffs
• Saturday: NCAA Football
• Sunday: NFL Football

—Niki Kottmann and Andrew John

Power Trip pre-game: Free tattoos at AC/DC-themed pop-up bar in Indio

AC/DC will hit the stage for the first time in seven years during the second day of Power Trip, but you don't have to wait until Saturday to get in on the fun.

Club 5 Bar in downtown Indio has officially opened as a pop-up fan experience called the AC/DC High Voltage Dive Bar , featuring collectible rock relics, unique Easter eggs, a beer garden food trucks and, perhaps most notably, free tattoos of the many different AC/DC logos over the band's 50-year history.

If you're looking for a place outside the festival grounds to honor the gods of rock, this is your spot.

Power Trip special guests: Who we think might make a stage cameo

Would it even be a Goldenvoice festival without surprise special guests? Here's a few we're hoping to see (and yes, some are far-fetched, but we can dream):

With Guns N' Roses:

• Misfits frontman Glenn Danzig (to sing "Attitude")
• Bob Dylan (to sing that cover of "Knockin' On Heavens Door")

With AC/DC:

• AC/DC could quite possibly bring out any rockers, but ... wouldn't it be amazing if they brought out actor/singer Jack Black for the cover of "It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" from the movie "School of Rock"?

With Metallica:

• King Diamond (to sing "Mercyful Fate")
• St. Vincent, Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor, or another artist who performed on the "The Metallica Blacklist"

Power Trip set times: When will Tool, Guns 'N Roses, Metallica take the stage?

Need some help planning your Power Trip? Here are the set times :

• Friday, Oct. 6:  Iron Maiden at 6:45 p.m., Guns N' Roses at 9:25 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 7:  Judas Priest at 6:45 p.m., AC/DC at 9:25 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 8:  Tool at 6:55 p.m., Metallica at 9:35 p.m.

Where is Power Trip festival 2023?

Power Trip, which features six heavy metal bands from Friday, Oct. 6 to Sunday, Oct. 8, is being held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Music-lovers likely know (or know of) the venue as the home to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach country music festival, which are held on the lush grounds at 81-800 51st Ave. over three weekends in April.

But this isn't the first October "Trip" staged by Goldenvoice. Desert Trip, featuring Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Neil Young and Promise of the Real, Roger Waters and Paul McCartney , was held at the polo grounds over two October weekends in 2016. It was heralded as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see some of the biggest names in classic rock on one stage.

—Kate Franco

From the archive: When Desert Trip rocked the music world in 2016

The 10 best moments from the Power Trip festival

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“The question I got for you right now: Do you want heavy?”

That was James Hetfield about halfway through Metallica’s closing set Sunday night at this past weekend’s Power Trip festival — and indeed heavy was what the tens of thousands of fans before him got in the form of a bludgeoning rendition of “Sad But True” that seemed to shake the desert ground.

Held at the Empire Polo Club (where its promoter, Goldenvoice, also puts on the annual Coachella and Stagecoach fests), Power Trip brought together Metallica, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Tool for a kind of harder-and-faster follow-up to 2016’s Desert Trip mega-concert featuring the legends of 1960s rock.

Here are 10 of the show’s most memorable moments:

1. Metallica was in Southern California just weeks ago for a pair of sold-out dates on its M72 tour, whose ring-shaped stage the band adapted to a semicircle at Power Trip. (As a result, Lars Ulrich utilized only two drum kits as opposed to the four he played at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium.) But the presence of so many peers and predecessors — “I got to see my heroes this weekend,” Hetfield told the crowd — appeared to draw out the group’s competitive streak: Its 1-2-3 opening punch of “Whiplash” into “Creeping Death” into “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was as tight and furious as Metallica has sounded in ages.

2. Hetfield tapped into a richly emotional vein in the haunting “Fade to Black,” which he described as a song about suicide — “something we’re not supposed to talk about,” he noted — and which he used as an opportunity to address anyone in the audience who might’ve needed it. “If you’re feeling the darkness, talk to your friends, please,” he said. “Please do it. We need you here.”

3. Among the heroes Hetfield beheld was Judas Priest, which capped its set on Saturday with an unannounced appearance by longtime guitarist Glenn Tipton, who stopped touring with the hugely influential British group in 2018 due to Parkinson’s disease. Here he rejoined his bandmates for “Metal Gods,” “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight.”

4. Always a snazzy dresser, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford was one of two gentlemen at Power Trip, along with Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose, to don a sparkly silver jacket that happily played up the theatrical side of heavy metal and hard rock. (Halford took his off after a few minutes to reveal an equally fetching sequined leather number.) Yet as style icons both men were actually outdone by AC/DC’s Angus Young, who came onstage in his signature schoolboy uniform but eventually lost the jacket and tie and unbuttoned his shirt to let it billow in the desert wind.

Review: After seven-year absence, AC/DC proves the eternal joy of a riff and a screech

AC/DC’s two-hour Power Trip set stacked classic after classic, each delivered at deafening volume and with precisely the right blend of rawness and finesse.

Oct. 8, 2023

5. AC/DC’s performance was its first since 2016, when singer Brian Johnson was forced off the road as a result of hearing loss and was replaced for a stretch of gigs by GNR’s Rose. With Johnson back in the fold — and Young’s nephew Stevie filling in for founding riffmeister Malcolm Young, who died in 2017 — the band’s whole set here was a rowdy delight. But it peaked with a merry run through “Highway to Hell” that made you wonder whether there’s any bad trip AC/DC couldn’t rebrand as a good time.

6. Playing mostly in shadows, Tool did the opposite in a nightmarish set of dense prog-metal that likely terrified anyone who’d taken the wrong drugs before showtime.

7. By far the festival’s chattiest performer, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson introduced “Death of the Celts” with an impromptu history lesson on how “human beings have a streak of being the biggest f—ing a—holes on the planet.”

At Power Trip, Guns N’ Roses ditches spectacle as it polishes the messy past

Guns N’ Roses headlined the first night of this weekend’s Power Trip hard rock festival with a show that lacked spectacle and mayhem.

Oct. 7, 2023

8. Guns N’ Roses played the longest set of the weekend, finishing at 1 a.m. early Saturday morning, yet somehow couldn’t find time to do “Don’t Cry,” its second-best power ballad after “November Rain,” which Rose did sing while seated on a piano bench designed to look like a motorcycle. What made the omission even crazier (in a fun way) was that GNR dedicated four minutes or so to a very sincere cover of “Wichita Lineman,” Jimmy Webb’s classic country-pop tune that was a hit for Glen Campbell in the late ’60s.

9. Rose also reached back to the classic-rock past for the band’s hit renditions of songs by two Desert Tripsters: Wings’ “Live and Let Die,” which he dedicated to Paul McCartney on the occasion of the song’s turning 50, and Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” which had a kind of sanctified reggae vibe.

10. Heavy metal and hard rock thrive on instrumental prowess, as Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo demonstrated in a performance of a song they said they’d composed earlier Sunday. (Somewhat sheepishly, Trujillo reported that the song was titled “Funk in the Desert.”) Yet the festival’s most endearing moment arrived maybe 20 minutes later when Hammett flubbed the intricate fingerpicked intro of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” “Sorry, guys,” he told the crowd with a laugh before starting again. “You know, it’s really hot in this f—ing desert.”

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Music Features

Power trip returns, reshaped by loss, the thrash metal band finds catharsis in a familiar place.

Evan Minsker

Four years after the death of frontman Riley Gale, Power Trip surprised fans onstage at Mohawk in Austin, featuring a new vocalist. Samantha Tellez/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Four years after the death of frontman Riley Gale, Power Trip surprised fans onstage at Mohawk in Austin, featuring a new vocalist.

The open-air venue Mohawk in Austin, Texas, has an upper deck perch that's perfect for observing the churning cyclone of bodies below. Emotions were high on Dec. 1, 2023: Texas band Fugitive was the headliner, but many in the crowd had a hunch about the promised "special guests." When Power Trip , the crossover thrash metal giants who had been missing in action for four years, finally appeared, there were tears in the pit. Bodies flew from the stage into the torrent of thrashing heads screaming every word of "Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe)" in blunt, ecstatic unison. It was a moment of catharsis for a scene that had been in mourning since the shocking 2020 death of the band's lead singer, Riley Gale .

Blake Ibanez, guitarist in both Fugitive and Power Trip, called the decision to bring the band back that night "testing the waters" to see how fans would react. "It was a safe way to do it, because on one hand it's, like, 'Hey, it's just a Fugitive show, and I'm having the guys come up here. We're gonna just celebrate and play the songs,' " he tells NPR on a video call. "I mean, at some point it's gotta happen." This year, Power Trip will play full-length sets at the Pomona, Calif., festival No Values (June 8), in its hometown of Dallas (July 6) and in New York City (Aug. 24).

It's an opportunity for a passionate fan base of hardcore kids and metalheads to celebrate — people who loved the band's boundless energy, how it could wield scream-along pop hooks using the heaviest, scuzziest, most abrasive metal soundscapes. Some at the Mohawk show spoke of it with near-religious reverence. "This is so cliché, but it was the most electric feeling I've felt at a show," said Erica Hotchkiss, a fan from Irving, Texas. She and some friends drove three hours south to Austin to catch the show based on a clue in the flyer: an illustration of an executioner, which is a key piece of iconography from arguably Power Trip's most beloved song . "We didn't know if they were just going to come out and make an announcement. But we knew that we had to be there."

It was fans like this who compelled Power Trip to come back. "They can see we're in it for the right reasons," Ibanez says. "We didn't make any money off Power Trip at that show. We didn't do it for that. We did it for ourselves because we miss playing these songs together, and we did it to celebrate Riley." The full shape of what's next isn't yet defined beyond this handful of shows. Here's what's certain: The band wants to perform the music they put out, across two albums and scattered singles. Gale's family wants them to play. It took years for everyone to get to this point.

The loss of a lyricist and a leader

"It was one of the worst things that happened to me in my life, because Riley was my best friend," says Brandon Gale, Riley's father.

Riley Gale died in his sleep on Aug. 24, 2020, from the toxic effects of fentanyl. He was 34. The band lost its voice and lyricist; the scene lost a leader. Power Trip built its reputation on gleefully chaotic live shows, and those shows wouldn't have been half as powerful without the longhaired figure in a camo hat barking out front about systemic injustice, corporate greed and oppression. Every word was shouted with an authoritative grizzle; he could galvanize a crowd with a single-syllable grunt. "He had very strong messages in there," Brandon Gale emphasizes. "It wasn't just yelling for the sake of yelling on stage. He wanted people to genuinely get engaged in the message."

"Riley, dude, he was just such a force on stage," says Gray Muncy, a photographer from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who estimates he captured over 40 of the band's shows (and somehow never broke a camera in the process). "I've shot so many photos of him, and it was so easy because of his emotion." Whenever Muncy gets a compliment on photos of Power Trip, he credits the chemistry between the band and its audience. "If you go to a really good hardcore show, the crowd is in the band," he said. "There's that symbiotic relationship where they feed off of each other."

Riley Gale, pictured here in 2018 at the Saturn in Birmingham, Ala., could galvanize a crowd with a single-syllable grunt. David A. Smith/Getty Images hide caption

Riley Gale, pictured here in 2018 at the Saturn in Birmingham, Ala., could galvanize a crowd with a single-syllable grunt.

In the wake of his passing, the Gales set up a 501(c)(3) charity called the Riley Gale Foundation in an effort to honor Riley's strong convictions. Brandon Gale says his son was the small guy in school who would stand up to bullies, and that he volunteered in soup kitchens as a young man. The foundation aims to be a continuation of his passions in life: It puts funds toward helping unhoused LGBTQ+ youth in the Dallas area (Riley was a committed supporter of the queer-focused outreach group Dallas Hope Charities), has named a library in his honor (he was a voracious reader) and also donates to a local dog rescue (loved animals).

Gale's friends affirm that on and off the stage, he led with empathy: He was the guy who let touring bands crash at his place, who made himself available to anyone who needed an ear. "With the fans, he wanted to be someone anybody could reach out to and talk to if they were dealing with something in their lives," says Power Trip guitarist Nick Stewart. "He was just such a comforting person when people didn't know where they stood. He felt like he could try to help everybody."

Before Power Trip began, Ibanez described Riley's previous band Balls Out as "the kings of Dallas hardcore." Gale was without a band when Ibanez, Stewart and bassist Chris Whetzel's band Reality Check was beginning to fizzle in the late 2000s. Mutual friends suggested they talk, and soon enough, Gale and Ibanez — then 21 and 16 — started bonding over hardcore bands like Cro-Mags, Breakdown and Leeway over messages on MySpace.

Power Trip's sound was a meeting point between hardcore punk and thrash metal, and in the process of creating it, the band connected with a wide swath of listeners interested in the greater sphere of heavy music. "We know we play a very subversive style of music, but we also want this to be for everyone," says drummer Chris Ulsh. "We want people to feel comfortable at our shows and have a good time. We're the type of band that can play with anyone regardless of if we're playing with indie bands, death metal bands, punk bands, whatever."

Steadily, a community of passionate fans formed around the band. Hotchkiss, who has an executioner tattoo with the caption "swing of the axe," saw the band around 10 times before attending the surprise show in Austin last year. "I'm married to my husband because we ran into each other at a Power Trip show," she said. Hotchkiss was a fan from the Dallas hardcore scene; her husband Kris was a metalhead. Previously acquaintances, they bonded instantly after she saw him in the pit: "Power Trip was our common ground." The date of that show appears on a decorative pillow in their home.

Who could step into Riley's role?

In the months after Gale passed, Ulsh said the band didn't consider or discuss the prospect of keeping the band going "for a really long time." It was 2020, and playing shows wasn't an option due to COVID-19, anyway. But as live music started to return, the band's members were talking on one of their regular FaceTime calls, and Ulsh broached the subject. "I'd never really mentioned it to anyone else and it kind of seemed like no one else had talked about it, but everyone was just like, yeah, we should," he says. "I like being a band with these guys, and we all seemed to feel the same way."

Some of the band's members had been busy with different projects, Ibanez with Fugitive and Ulsh with Quarantine. Still, the idea of these four starting a different band together didn't feel right — like it wouldn't be honest or respectful to their past together. "We put so much into this band and it just kind of seemed like it would be compounding tragedies: losing a close friend and then losing this thing that we dedicated our adult lives to," Ulsh says.

Power Trip in 2024 now includes vocalist Seth Gilmore (far left). He plans to give it his all "to honor the spirit of Riley's memory." Adam Cedillo/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Power Trip in 2024 now includes vocalist Seth Gilmore (far left). He plans to give it his all "to honor the spirit of Riley's memory."

"If anybody's going to step into this role and sing these songs, it'd be someone from our world who has history with us and gets this whole thing and knew Riley," Ibanez says. "The pool for that? I mean, I think it's [not] overstating it to say it's incredibly small. Beyond that, who's actually willing and is capable of doing it?"

Seth Gilmore was the guy, a friend embedded in the Texas hardcore scene for as long as Power Trip existed. As the frontman of Fugitive, he had established chemistry with Ibanez. Initially, he was hesitant. "A year or so after Riley passed, before we even started Fugitive, I may have thrown it his way: 'Hey, would you want to mess around with some of these songs I've been working on, that were actually songs for the Power Trip album that never happened?' " Ibanez recalls. The implication that he'd be standing in for Gale gave him pause, so he dropped it until well after Fugitive had earned the respect of fans. "By the time I brought it up to him again in the past year, at that point he didn't really think twice about it." Gilmore confirmed Ibanez's assessment in a statement, saying he plans to give it his all "to honor the spirit of Riley's memory."

So it was Gilmore barking "Manifest Decimation" and "Hornet's Nest" to the crowd at Mohawk. Gale could never be replaced, but for fans who had just watched a Fugitive set, the consensus was that it was an organic fit. "I personally don't think there's any other person better to fit the bill than Seth," Hotchkiss said. Of course, fans had a hunch he would be the guy. "Even before everybody knew Power Trip was playing that night in Austin, I said, 'Seth, your life's about to change,' and he just smiled," Muncy says.

There was some fallout from that night, too. Brandon Gale issued a statement saying the family was not told in advance about the show and was caught by surprise. He later issued an apology, saying that while he wishes he'd gotten a heads-up from the band, he still regrets the statement. "While it came as a surprise, it was a very visceral reaction and I would certainly undo it," he says.

That one show wasn't the extent of the issues between the band and Brandon Gale, as the statements brought to light a civil lawsuit he'd filed on behalf of Riley's estate on Feb. 10, 2021, against the members of Power Trip. The suit alleged breach of fiduciary duty and claimed the band owed the Gale estate money from merchandise sales, tour revenue and royalties. On Dec. 8, one week after the surprise set in Austin, the case was settled.

"There was an unfortunate need for the litigation," Brandon Gale says. "It was critically important that the foundation received all of the money that Riley was entitled to because that's the primary source, with contributions, of how we build and grow the foundation. It's settled, and what I want to do is focus on the good stuff going forward."

"We probably don't want to comment on that," Ulsh says of the lawsuit. "That was a very difficult and s****y thing that happened that we had to go through. It's behind us now, and we just want to leave it behind us." Ibanez adds: "When something really tragic happens like that, there's a lot of emotions involved. It happens this way with a lot of similar situations, when you have the family of someone who wasn't really involved and is trying to figure everything out and get things together. Yeah, it's behind us. And as everything stands, everything's all right."

Asked about the future of the band, Brandon Gale offered his blessing: "If Power Trip goes out and they start touring again, people are going to buy their music and Riley's going to get his royalties and the foundation's going to grow. So how could we not be in favor of that?"

'We're just taking it one step at a time'

Power Trip is currently resuming rehearsals in Dallas. Ulsh says he's excited to get back to playing for wild crowds instead of repeating the same songs over and over to each other in a practice space. Ibanez is excited to feel the rush again, too: "We were gone from it for so long, and then you get up there and it's like, wow, I forgot we're part of something really special."

Though Ibanez let it slip that Power Trip had been working on a new album before Gale's death, he refused to engage further on the possibility of new music in the future. "The main focus is to play the catalog — that's what people want to hear. I don't think we're really particularly interested in moving on from where we were," Ibanez says. "We really want to honor Riley and want to honor what we've done before just moving forward. That's the main thing, to treat the whole situation with as much respect as possible. ... We're just taking it one step at a time."

While Ulsh, Ibanez and Whetzel all stayed busy in recent years with other bands, Nick Stewart hadn't been back on a stage since Power Trip's last show with Gale. "I'm a civilian — I just book shows and don't have a side project right now. So it's even more reason why I'm excited to do this," Stewart says. "It's been our lives since I graduated high school, so to be able to do it again is really special. I love performing, man; I love getting up there and giving everything I got." As he spoke, his dog began barking in the background. "Sorry, my dog's going crazy. But yeah, excited as my dog right now to get up there and play some shows."

That December night in Austin, Muncy looked around in the pit and saw how many people around him were crying. "When I first thought about them playing, I was, like, 'My friends need this; Texas needs this show, our scene needs this,' " he says. "But then once it happened, I was like, 'You know what? My friends in the band needed that show more than anybody.' Those four dudes, they sacrificed a lot to get where they are. They can't just quit."

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Kamala Harris hammers Trump on abortion in Arizona visit

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday went after former President Donald Trump in a visit to Arizona highlighting reproductive rights just days after the state's Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 near-total abortion ban is enforceable.

Harris slammed Trump over his record and rhetoric on abortion, calling him the “architect of this healthcare crisis,” as the court ruling brings the vital swing state to the forefront of abortion politics .

“President Donald Trump hand-picked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe, and as he intended they did,” she said in Tucson.

Harris also pointed to Trump's previous comments about how women who seek abortions should be punished .

"Joe Biden and I trust women to know what is in their own best interest," the vice president said. "And women trust all of us, to fight to protect their most fundamental freedoms. So Arizona, this November, up and down the ballot, reproductive freedom is at stake and you have the power to protect it with your vote."

Harris previously blamed Trump for the court’s ruling.

“This even more extreme and dangerous ban criminalizes almost all abortion care in the state and puts women’s lives at risk. It provides no exceptions for rape, incest, or health,” Harris said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s a reality because of Donald Trump, who brags about being ‘proudly the person responsible’ for overturning  Roe v. Wade , and made it possible for states to enforce cruel bans.”

On Friday, she spoke alongside state and local officials, including Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is running for the Senate .

Harris has taken a lead role in the administration’s approach to reproductive rights, traveling across the country during her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour, which had stops in Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and other critical swing states. In March, she became, it is believed, the first president or vice president to visit a clinic that provides abortion services.

Harris and President Joe Biden frequently highlight protecting abortion access as a centerpiece of their re-election campaign, pointing to Trump's bragging about being able to "kill" Roe v. Wade through his Supreme Court nominations.

During a visit to Phoenix last month, Harris discussed abortion, which has proven to be a particularly mobilizing issue for Democrats.

Since the Arizona Supreme Court decision, the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee have highlighted Trump’s abortion politics in a series of new advertisements. On Thursday, the Biden campaign launched a seven-figure ad buy in Arizona about reproductive rights. The DNC also announced a new Arizona billboard campaign slamming Trump’s abortion position.

“Abortion is banned in Arizona thanks to Donald Trump,” the billboard design says. “He won’t stop until it’s banned nationwide. #TrumpsAbortionBan.”

Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020 with just over 10,000 more votes than Trump, flipping the state blue.

And Arizonans appear to be widely in favor of abortion rights. An NBC News 2022 midterm exit poll found that 62% of Arizona voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

But Trump has indicated he may be taking a softer stance on abortion bans ahead of the 2024 election, when the question of abortion access will be on the ballot in several states. He said Wednesday that the Arizona Supreme Court went too far in its ruling, and he said Monday that abortion decisions should be left to the states.

Abortion access has become a potent political issue after the U.S. Supreme C ourt's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization allowed abortion laws to be implemented at the state level. Even in red-leaning states like Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky, voters backed the pro-abortion-rights position when it was put to votes.

Florida, Maryland and New York will have abortion-related measures on the ballot in November, and proposed measures in eight more states, including Arizona, are seeking ballot status. The Biden campaign has said it now sees Florida as "winnable" in November, pointing to how previous elections have shown that "protecting abortion rights is mobilizing a diverse and growing segment of voters to help buoy Democrats up and down the ballot."

Biden has repeatedly said he aims to make the abortion protections afforded by Roe the law of the land. However, he would face a slew of challenges to usher national legislation through Congress.

Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Zoë Richards is the evening politics reporter for NBC News.