Kalispell band launches national tour
After 14 years, a Kalispell metal band is going national.
Vengeance has signed with a booking agency that has set the band up on a tour of all 50 states. The group has also found a sponsor in the Ogden, Utah-based distillery Underground Herbal Spirit.
Vengeance leaves Oct. 25 for a week of playing in Salt Lake City. In November, the band will tour the western United States for a month. Then, after the start of the new year, Vengeance launches its three-month tour of the country.
It’s an exciting time for a band that has paid its dues for more than a decade.
“We’ve built it up so it’s self-sustaining,” guitarist and vocalist Travis Holmquist said of why Vengeance is finally taking its music to a national level.
After failing to find venues to play in the Flathead Valley, the band moved south and now has a devoted fan base in Salt Lake City. Playing music is now “guaranteed money,” Holmquist said, and merchandise sales are enough for Vengeance’s three members to get by.
“Plus, we’re not getting any younger,” Holmquist added. He and bass player Mat Wells are 32, and drummer David Saumenig is 39.
A year of life changes led the band members to pursue their music harder than ever, Holmquist said.
“It was the right timing to happen,” he said. “It’s really all we have, so we’re pushing forward with it.”
The band’s current configuration has been together for about six and a half years. Holmquist is Vengeance’s only original member.
Shortly after he formed the band 14 years ago, Holmquist bought the trademarks to protect the group’s name. “Vengeance” is a popular metal name, and other bands have demanded the Kalispell group stop using it.
Purchasing the name was “a very smart move,” Holmquist said. “We’re the actual Vengeance.”
He wants the name not to be misunderstood.
“‘Vengeance’ can be, at face value, taken in the wrong way,” he said. “To us, the best revenge is success. ‘Vengeance,’ for us, is to rise above negative things and obstacles and continue to push on and make it happen. Music is what we live for.”
The band is out to transform more than just the name, Holmquist added.
“We’re out to push the [metal] stereotype,” he said. “We’re not just idiots with tattoos and leather partying all the time.”
And the music itself is more than just screaming: “Metal is close to classical music, as far as how difficult it is to play, because it’s so dynamic and powerful,” he said.
Holmquist describes Vengeance’s music as reminiscent of ’80s thrash bands. The group’s sound is like old Metallica, Slayer or Megadeth, with some Judas Priest and Black Sabbath thrown in for good measure.
The sound has won the band fans of all ages — old metalheads and young people, Holmquist said. Vengeance hopes to win more fans in the future; the band is judged industry-wide by its social media appeal.
“It shows our draw, our popularity,” Holmquist explained. “The more likes, the better.”
The band also hopes to attract people to its Facebook page who might be willing to donate to its gas fund. While Klamath Falls, Ore.-based JCM Booking will set up tour dates, the band is responsible for its own travel.
“We drive a 1975 Dodge RV. We don’t do too good on gas,” Holmquist said.
More information is available at www.facebook.com/vengeance213 or at the band’s website, www.vengeance-metal.com. Vengeance’s latest CD, “In the Face of Defeat,” is also available on the website, as well as on iTunes, Amazon.com and CDBaby.com.
Kristi Albertson, editor of This Week in the Flathead, may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.