Michigan Bands Open for Pantera on North American Tour

2023-08-03

Michigan bands open for Pantera – Detroit’s S.N.A.F.U. is one of those bands – Story by Anne Erickson, photo by Brian Sheehan

Michigan bands open for Pantera: Two Michigan metal groups are touring with Pantera on select dates

The reincarnated version of Pantera kicked off their first North American headlining tour in 22 years last week. The show took place in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. At the initial shows, the band, which brings together Pantera members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown alongside guitarist Zakk Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, has served up classics such as “Walk,” “Cowboys from Hell” and “Revolution Is My Name,” as well as some deeper cuts. While Lamb of God serve as support on the full tour, Pantera have also tapped some Michigan bands to open for them on select dates.

Anselmo is the owner of Housecore Records, an independent record label featuring a bevy of heavy, indie acts. So, for the Pantera tour, he’s bringing a handful of bands from that label on the road. It’s obviously a huge opportunity for these bands to open for the mighty Pantera.

Detroit, Michigan metal band S.N.A.F.U. opened up for Pantera during the first three nights of their tour. Those dates took place July 28, 29 and 31. Another Detroit, Michigan, metal band, Child Bite, is on the schedule for Aug. 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 12. Other Housecore Records bands will flesh out the tour schedule, including King Parrot, Flesh Hoarder and Spirit in the Room.

S.N.A.F.U.’s Scott Curnow caught up with Audio Ink Radio in a recent interview. He discussed what it’s like to be on two major metal labels: Housecore Records in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast in Europe.

“We would have never guessed in a million years that this record would have landed where it did,” Curnow said. “We spent a lot of time sending it around and submitting it to different labels and just kept coming up empty handed.”

He added, “We were really discouraged that we weren’t getting any bites on it and just decided to go with a low key label out of Ohio that was basically a step above a self release. The day after we did the press release for that small label is when we were approached with the Housecore/Nuclear Blast deal. They came right in the nick of time.”

Pantera’s North American tour picks up on Friday (Aug. 4) in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Find Pantera and Lamb of God’s upcoming tour dates at this location.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based music reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, Loudwire.com and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.