Prong and Powerflo
Founded by singer/guitarist Tommy Victor, Prong exploded out of the gate in the late ’80s with a crunchy debut EP that sent them on tour around the world and landed them a major label deal with Epic Records, which immediately made bank on their investment with the 1990 Beg to Differ album. By the mid ’90s, the lineup had shifted to include Paul Raven and John Bechdel (both also of Killing Joke and Ministry, the latter a band Tommy Victor also played with briefly), for what turned out to be their most successful album, 1994’s Cleansing. Two tracks from that disc, “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” and “Broken Peace,” were staples on MTV for years, but a follow-up two years later failed to impress Epic, which dropped the band three weeks after its release.
That was pretty much it for Prong until around 2002, when Victor began assembling a rotating array of musicians to assist him in playing Prong’s old music, as well as recording new albums like last year’s Zero Days. The lineup scheduled to play Brick by Brick on April 8 features Victor backed by bassist Mike Longworth (who played with the band in the early 2000s and rejoined in 2016) and drummer (since 2014) Art Cruz. The bill includes L.A. heavy-metal group Powerflo, whose self-titled debut last year was promoted over lengthy tour slots with P.O.D. and Brujeria.