The surviving members of Power Trip reunited last night (Dec. 1) for a surprise four-song set at Austin’s Mohawk, marking one of the first times guitarists Nick Stewart and Blake Ibanez, drummer Chris Ulsh, and bassist Chris Whetzel have performed together since the Aug. 2020 death of lead singer Riley Gale.
The performance came after a headlining set from Ibanez’s new band Fugitive, and found Seth Gillmore handling Gale’s vocal parts on “Soul Sacrifice,” “Executioner’s Tax,” “Hornet’s Nest,” and “Manifest Decimation.”
Stewart, Ibanez, Ulsh, and Whetzel previously teamed with Obituary’s John and Donald Tardy to record a new version of Power Trip’s “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe)” in tribute to Gale in 2021. The Riley Gale Memorial Library was also established within the Dallas Hope Center, which is “the city’s only LGBTQ-focused Homeless Youth Transitional Living Center and extension program.”
