Photo by Audrey Leon

Chicago rock staple Local H wrapped up its “Six Angry Records” tour with an electrifying home town show at the Metro on Sunday, May 23.

Before the festivities began, singer Scott Lucas emerged on stage, dressed in a faded black t-shirt with multiple holes and brown corduroy pants, holding a black cowboy hat containing slips with the names of all six full-length Local H albums.

As he dipped into the crowd, he asked a few audience members what they came to see. When one couldn’t answer, Lucas responded with good humor, “You don’t even know who the hell I am, do you? I’ll give you a hint I’m not Nick Jonas.”

The crowd erupted in cheers when one lucky audience member pulled out a slip with the much underrated Pack Up The Cats written on it.

Photo by Audrey Leon

Local H effortlessly whipped through the now 12-year-old album, sounding remarkable tight throughout. Lucas didn’t waste time with stage banter, although he later quipped that the band was selling “pieces of British Petroleum’s ass” at the merch table.

From time to time several members of the opening act, Kinch, accompanied Local H onstage throughout the night, serving as an extra guitar, drummer, or bassist. The extra hands gave Local H a much appreciated fuller sound on songs such as “Lucky Time” and “Manifest Destiny Pt. 2.”

Clearly happy to be back in Chicago, Lucas happily urged the crowd to sing-along with its more well-known tracks such as, “All the Kids Were Right,” “Bound for the Floor,” and “California Songs,” which received the loudest response from fans as they shouted, deafeningly, the line “Fuck New York, too!”

During “Bound for the Floor” the band switched things up by incorporating a portion of Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark” as an unspoken tribute to the legendary heavy metal vocalist.

As the band transitioned from Pack Up The Cats to a more inclusive set, Lucas climbed behind a keyboard to play “Grrrlfriend” from 1995’s Ham Fisted, a real rarity. Local H closed out the night with a cover of TV on the Radio’s “Wolf Like Me.”

Local H performs ‘Grrrlfriend’ at the Metro on May 23, 2010. (Video by Audrey Leon.)

For a man who has been abusing his throat for 20 years now, Lucas can still scream with fierce, guttural intensity.

Drummer Brian St. Clair was even more impressive as he mercilessly assaulted his kit with each blow from his drum sticks. St. Clair sported a t-shirt tribute to the band’s close friend and message board moderator Michael Rosenquist who died earlier this year.

It’s not every day that a band such as Local H plays one of its classic album in its entirety; though, most bands are not as consistent as Local H to have a few good albums let alone an entire catalog of excellent tunes.

For Local H, Sunday’s show at the Metro was a well-deserved victory lap, jam-packed full of die-hard fans who were more than whipped into a frenzy during the 24-song set.

Now if only more bands were willing to celebrate their catalogs with a copy cat tour, the world might be a better place.

Check out more of Audrey Leon’s Local H pictures on Flickr.

Set List:

“Pack up the Cats”
All-Right (Oh, Yeah)
Cha! Said the Kitty
Lucky
Hit the Skids or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rock
500,000 Scovilles
What Can I Tell You
Fine and Good
Lead Pipe Cinch
Cool Magnet
She Hates My Job
Stoney
Laminate Man
All the Kids Are Right
Deep Cut
Lucky Time

Grrrlfriend
Bound for the Floor (with “Rainbow in the Dark”)
White Belt Boys
Hands on the Bible
California Songs
24 Hour Break Up Session
High Fiving MF
Manifest Destiny Pt. 2
Wolf Like Me