High on Fire, Charger, Bastardane
- Bleeding Priest
- Oct 4, 2025
- 5 min read
The Ritz
San Jose, CA
September 30, 2025
San Jose ain’t where I normally spend my Tuesday nights but when High On Fire are in town I’ll make the trek. Especially being that they didn’t have an SF or Oakland date and I hadn’t seen them in a couple of years. It was long overdue.
So Dave and I made the voyage south to The Ritz in downtown San Jose. Not far from where I saw Blue Oyster Cult a few weeks ago. I like this venue. The size of the room is right between a small and large venue. You feel like you’re in a big room but the intimacy factor still remains. Dave and I had the best spot in the house right at the edge of the bar overlooking the dance floor and perfect view of the stage.
We caught the tail end of the opening band Bastardane. They had a unique and interesting sound rooted in Stoner/Sludge type of Metal with moments of weirdness that almost entered into Primus territory.
At this point in the review I think it’s fair to mention that the drummer is James Hetfield’s son. I knew that going in being that I’ve seen them before. In many cases when the son of a famous Rock Star has a band they suck and unfairly get on awesome bills because of the clout their last name carries but that’s not the case with Bastardane. They’re legitimately a good band with well thought out song writing. Castor Hetfield is no slouch on the kit either.
Second up we had Oakland’s Charger. With full on Motörhead worship they hit the stage running and never let up. There were a couple of brief moments where bassist Matt Freeman (Rancid) addressed the crowd but other than that they were going from one song to the next at lightning speed. Their set had a Ramones feel to it with the constant barrage of up tempo rockers. You could tell they’ve been on the road for a minute with how well orchestrated the set was and the confidence level they were playing at.
I’ve always had a liking to power trios. Especially when they all sing. Matt does the lion’s share of the lead vocals but the drummer had a few moments where his voice took center stage and quite honestly they should let him sing more being that he has the best voice in the band. My opinion might be a little biased since I too am a singing drummer as well. They put on a solid, high energy show.
Now we get to the mighty High On Fire. I have a long history with these dudes and I’ve been seeing them live pretty much since day one. I believe I saw their second show (1999 I believe) which ironically enough was also in San Jose. It was at a bar I haven’t been to since and was about half full. Long gone but awesome Stoner Rock band Operator Generator were on the bill as well. And if I remember correctly, original High On Fire drummer Des Kensel almost came to blows with the vocalist of Operator Generator. Those were chemically induced times so I can’t remember any details.
Back to 2025. There’s been a few changes since those early daze with the only remaining original member being guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike. Bassist Jeff Matz has been in the band for a VERY long time though and performs on all but the first 3 High On Fire records so it’s hard to imagine the band without him.
They’ve had a couple of drummers since Des stepped out about 5 years ago. I was somewhat shocked to see yet another new drummer behind the kit for this evening’s gig. I met him briefly before the show but knew nothing about him at the time. Upon further research his name is Ben Koller and has played in a number of bands such as Converge. He did a solid job. Des will always be the drummer for High On Fire to me no matter who they get but again Ben did a fine job.
Their set was a well rounded mix of old and new. The sound was impeccable. Speaking of sound (time to gush here) Jeff Matz’s live bass tone is hands down the greatest I’ve ever heard. It has everything working for it. Incredible low end but with clarity and presence. It doesn’t hurt that he’s an absolute ripper on the “four string motherfucker”. Some of you will get that Hetfield reference.
I mean, during solo breaks I was transfixed on what Jeff was doing. Even if he was just playing the main riff under the solo it sounded so damn good and filled up the space wonderfully. And this is me saying this. You know, the guy who only a few weeks ago said he could live without bass in Metal right here on this very site. In my opinion Jeff is the true star of High On Fire and I can’t say enough on how much of a fan I am of the dude. I believe he has his own line of bass amps if you’re in the market for crushing your feeble bass tone check it out.
Of course Matt was on top of his game as usual. I’ve never seen him have a bad performance. The dude lives for his music and playing guitar and it comes across a thousand fold when you see him perform. They played some of my favorites such as “Rumors Of War”, “Waste Of Tiamat” and “Hung Drawn and Quartered”.
Speaking of “Hung”, this song is an early example of original drummer Des’s single kick work on those early albums. He had the ability to make a single kick, 4 piece drum set sound like a mammoth, full on double bass Metal kit. When most people hear the intro to “Hung” they probably assume he’s doing double bass but no, that’s Des working his off on a single kick and the toms. Honestly I was pretty disappointed when Des graduated to double kick but I get it, having a second kick drum opens up many possibilities and with Des the possibilities were endless. The drummer tonight did the intro to “Hung” with double kick. It sounded fine but that’s just an example of how special of a drummer Des was/is.
In closing High On Fire slayed a near sold out room full of Punk Rockers, Stoner Rockers and Norms. It was an odd mix of people with actually a small amount of visible Metalheads but they all loved it. I’m making sure it’s not a couple of years before I see them again.
–Bleeding Priest
