Tony Noyes — From Wicked Season to the Arizona Family Tree

The Arizona Music History Archive · Volume II

Tony Noyes

From Wicked Season to the Arizona Family Tree

Tony Noyes entered the Arizona scene around 1990 and became part of a web of bands, recordings and friendships that stretched across the 1990s and into the next decade. His story is not built around one name on one flyer. It is the story of moving from project to project while remaining tied to the same local music community.

Musician Profile · Historical Preview

The Beginning

Wicked Season Opens the Door

Tony's real entry into the Arizona scene came around 1990, when the network of local clubs, rehearsal rooms, musicians and bands was already deep enough that one project could quickly connect a player to several others. Wicked Season became an important early chapter, giving Tony a place inside that network and leaving behind original material that still helps define the period.

Songs such as Ravaged Waste, Wicked Season, Redeemers of Fate and Marquis De Sade are part of the surviving trail. The archive is preserving those titles because original songs often tell us more about a local band than a simple list of venues ever could. They show that these musicians were trying to create their own identity, not merely reproduce what was already on the radio.

Arizona Scene Entry Around 1990

Early Project Wicked Season

Core Thread Original music, changing bands and lasting scene connections

Archive Focus The relationships between the bands as much as the bands themselves

Outrage

The Story Gets Heavier

By roughly 1992–1993, Tony was part of Outrage, another original project tied directly into the Arizona underground. The band recorded an eight-song session at Living Head Studio with Dave Nichols, preserving a set of songs that included Self Persecution, Deadly Blessing, Immortal, Side By Side, Lesson In Democracy, True Love Always and Funeral In My Soul.

The importance of that material is not simply that a recording exists. It is that the songs connect one phase of Tony's history to the next. Names such as Mark Oloughlin, John Griffor, Clarence “Bug” Long and drummer Chuck Moore are part of the larger network surrounding this period, and that network continues to expand as the archive follows the musicians into later projects.

Archive note: the online profile is intentionally not reproducing the complete Outrage chronology or every story connected to the band. The deeper lineup history, recording details and firsthand memories are being held for the full Volume II feature.

Deadwood

A Longer Chapter in the 1990s

Deadwood became one of the longer chapters in Tony's 1990s history, running roughly from 1993 to 1997. The project produced recordings that included the three-song Against The Grain demo and later Out On A Limb, while songs and titles such as Sutter's Gold became part of the surviving record of the band.

This is where the family-tree nature of Arizona music becomes especially clear. The bands changed, the sounds evolved and the lineups shifted, but the same scene kept pulling people back into one another's orbit. Tony's history makes more sense when viewed as one continuous path rather than a series of unrelated band names.

“I just hope my name is there — that I was part of the scene. We all crossed paths, and we all affected each other’s lives.” Tony Noyes

The Road Keeps Moving

Sin Wicked, KraiseD and Beyond

The end of the 1990s did not end Tony's Arizona story. Sin Wicked followed around 1999, and KraiseD carried the timeline into the 2000s. In 2005, KraiseD won Alice Cooper's Proof Is in the Pudding competition, placing another marker on a musical path that had already been developing for well over a decade.

Later, Noyes Factory brought a family connection into that history through Tony's son, Zach “ZaX.” Tony also worked in tribute projects including Psyko Circus, Motley Two, Civil War and Reckless…, but those later chapters are best understood as part of the larger picture rather than replacements for the original bands that built his Arizona identity.

• Wicked Season — early Arizona chapter around 1990
• Outrage — approximately 1992–1993
• Deadwood — approximately 1993–1997
• Sin Wicked — around 1999
• KraiseD — approximately 2000–2010
• Noyes Factory — later project with Zach “ZaX”

Why It Matters

The Scene Was Built by Crossed Paths

Tony's quote gets to the heart of what this archive is trying to preserve. Local music history is not only about which band became the biggest or which musician came closest to a national break. It is also about the people who kept showing up, writing songs, recording demos, changing bands, sharing stages and becoming part of one another's lives.

That is why Tony Noyes belongs in the Arizona story. Wicked Season, Outrage, Deadwood, Sin Wicked, KraiseD and the projects that followed are not isolated entries. Together they show the movement of one musician through a scene that was constantly changing while still remaining connected.

This Is Only Part of the Story

The complete Tony Noyes feature goes deeper into the Wicked Season material, the Outrage recordings, Deadwood, the people connected to those bands, Sin Wicked, KraiseD, Noyes Factory, the later tribute projects and the firsthand stories that tie all of those chapters together. That full history is being preserved for The Death of Local Music — Volume II: Arizona Legacy Bands.

Return to Volume II Submit a Correction or Memory

Archive note: this profile is based on firsthand and project material being preserved for The Death of Local Music — Volume II. The online version is intentionally a preview, leaving the complete chronology, deeper stories and additional archive material for the book.

Anthony McLain — From Prescott to RUKKUS and Beyond

The Arizona Music History Archive · Volume II

Anthony McLain

From Prescott to RUKKUS and Beyond

Anthony McLain's Arizona story reaches from a Prescott high-school band into the Phoenix hard-rock scene, through RUKKUS and into a much larger family tree of projects that would continue through the 1990s and beyond. His path is one of those stories that shows how Arizona music history was built—not by one band, one room or one moment, but by musicians who kept moving, adapting and carrying pieces of the scene with them.

Musician Profile · Historical Preview

The Beginning

Before Phoenix, There Was Prescott

Anthony's story begins in Prescott, where he played guitar in Spoiled Rotten from roughly 1985 to 1987. The group grew out of the high-school years, mixing covers with original material and taking whatever opportunities were available, from house parties and a skating rink to a senior prom that became memorable for reasons the band probably did not expect when it loaded in.

That early period matters because it shows that Anthony's move into the larger Arizona scene did not begin with a polished Phoenix club band. It began the same way many local music stories begin—with friends, borrowed rooms, original songs, small audiences and the belief that the next band might become something bigger. Spoiled Rotten recorded several originals, and by the time that chapter ended, Anthony already knew he wanted to keep moving forward.

Early Band Spoiled Rotten · Prescott · approximately 1985–1987

Role Guitar

Early Identity Covers, original songs and high-school-era Arizona gigs

Next Step The move into the Phoenix-area hard-rock scene

RUKKUS

The Band That Put Him Into the Valley Scene

By 1989, Anthony had entered the Phoenix and Mesa hard-rock world through RUKKUS. The band carried a melodic heavy-rock and metal identity, with a strong sense of arrangement and musicianship and influences that included Queensrÿche. For Anthony, getting into the band required more than showing up with a guitar. At one point he remembers having to learn roughly twenty-two songs in only two days, the kind of pressure that tells you immediately whether someone can survive in a working band.

RUKKUS became Anthony's real doorway into the Valley network. The band recorded, performed, crossed paths with other musicians and became part of the club culture that made Arizona's late-1980s and early-1990s scene feel connected even when the bands themselves sounded very different. Recordings associated with the group reached places such as Chaton Studios, while musicians including John Aquilino and Danny Wexler became part of the wider story around those sessions and connections.

“Hug them and hit them and hug them again.” Anthony McLain

That line captures something important about Anthony's approach to music: melody mattered, but so did impact. The best material did not have to choose between being heavy and being memorable. It could do both, and the push and pull between those two sides became part of the identity Anthony carried into later projects.

The Arizona Family Tree

One Band Led to Another

RUKKUS did not become the end of Anthony's story. It became a branch point. From there his Arizona history continued through projects that included Phunk Junkeez, Idols of Perversity, PWR and OIL. Each move connected him to another part of the scene and another generation of musicians, which is exactly why his story belongs in a book about Arizona's musical family tree rather than in a simple list of bands.

• Spoiled Rotten — Prescott beginnings, approximately 1985–1987
• RUKKUS — Phoenix/Mesa hard rock and metal, approximately 1989–1992
• Phunk Junkeez — the story expands beyond the traditional hard-rock lane
• Idols of Perversity — another branch in Anthony's Arizona history
• PWR — continued evolution through the local scene
• OIL — part of the later chapter of Anthony's musical path

Archive note: this online profile intentionally does not present the complete chronology, every lineup, every recording session or every story connected to these bands. Those details are being preserved for the longer Anthony McLain feature in The Death of Local Music — Volume II.

Why It Matters

More Than a Single-Band Story

Arizona music history becomes much easier to understand when the musicians are followed from band to band. The same names reappear in different rooms, different lineups and different styles, and those connections are what turn a collection of local groups into a real scene. Anthony McLain's path is a strong example of that. Prescott led to Phoenix, one band opened the door to another, and the music kept changing without breaking the thread that connected it all.

That is also why RUKKUS deserves more than a footnote. The band sits at an important point in Anthony's development, right where the high-school beginnings gave way to a serious Valley hard-rock environment. The recordings, the musicians, the pressure of learning the material, the club circuit and the relationships that came out of that period all became part of what followed.

This Is Only Part of the Story

The complete Anthony McLain feature goes deeper into Spoiled Rotten, the RUKKUS years, recordings, lineup changes, the people connected to those sessions and the later projects that carried his Arizona history forward. That full story is being preserved for The Death of Local Music — Volume II: Arizona Legacy Bands.

Return to Volume II Submit a Correction or Memory

Archive note: this profile is based on firsthand and project material being preserved for The Death of Local Music — Volume II. The online version is intentionally a preview, leaving the deeper chronology, stories and supporting material for the book and archive.

Hector Camacho — From a Mongoose Bicycle to the Arizona Underground

The Arizona Music History Archive · Volume II

Hector Camacho

Phoenix, Arizona · 1970s Roots to the Present

From a kid on a Mongoose bicycle looking for somewhere to play drums, to the hard-rock house-party years, the Phoenix industrial underground and decades of preserving local music on tape and video, Hector Camacho has lived through more than one version of the Arizona scene.

Musician Spotlight · Historical Preview

The Beginning

From New York to Phoenix

Hector came to Arizona from New York in 1976. Music was already part of his life. His stepfather played keyboards and worked lounge and bar gigs after the family arrived, while Hector had been playing drums since he was a little kid. By the time most teenagers were only discovering records, he was already looking for people to play with.

One of the earliest doors opened around 1979, when Hector met Dave Dickey and Ray Bouchard near a North Phoenix park. They needed a drummer. Hector happened to be riding by on a Mongoose bicycle. That chance meeting led to Faded Black, backyard rehearsals and the first real stretch of his Arizona band history.

“It was a match made in heaven.” Hector Camacho, remembering the start of Faded Black

The 1980s

From Drums to the Microphone

A few years later Hector entered another Phoenix chapter with Him's Rage, a band he places around 1983 and through much of his high-school period. This time he was not behind the drum kit. He was singing.

Him's Rage lived in the world of house parties, heavy-metal covers and all-ages opportunities, the kind of scene that rarely left behind a professional archive. Hector remembers Metal Church, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath as part of the musical vocabulary, but the real importance of that period was the network forming around him: musicians, parties, rehearsal rooms and the people who would later populate a much heavier Phoenix underground.

Arizona Underground

When Hector Started Pointing a Camera at the Scene

By the time Phoenix heavy music was changing in the early 1990s, Hector was doing more than playing. He and a friend created Arizona Underground, a cable-access program on Dimension Cable, and began filming local bands at a time when almost nobody carried a camera everywhere they went.

That matters now because some of those bands barely exist online. Flyers disappeared, demo tapes were thrown away, clubs closed and people moved on. Hector says some of his 8mm footage still survives, leaving him with pieces of Arizona music history that may exist nowhere else.

“It's never just about you.” Hector Camacho

The 1990s

When the Machines Got Loud

Hector's road eventually carried him into the industrial side of Phoenix heavy music. Black House Twins became tied to the Mason Jar, while Godless became associated with the Nile and another part of the Valley's growing industrial scene. The sound had changed dramatically from the Zeppelin and Sabbath-influenced music of his youth, and Hector changed with it.

That transition is one of the reasons his story matters. He did not experience Arizona music from a single decade or genre. He watched the scene move from seventies-style rock into eighties metal, then into industrial music, electronics and a much darker 1990s underground.

Arizona Arrival 1976, from New York

Early Arizona Bands Faded Black and Him's Rage

1990s Industrial Years Black House Twins and Godless

Archive Work Arizona Underground and surviving 8mm local-band footage

The Long View

More Than a List of Band Names

Hector's larger Arizona family tree runs well beyond the bands named here. Later chapters include a hiatus, a return to writing, Latency, ADDICT3D and 24 Thorns, but putting every date, lineup, recording, show and transition on this page would defeat the purpose of the book.

What belongs here is the reason to keep reading: Hector has lived long enough inside this scene to remember several different Phoenix music worlds, and unlike many people who were there, he also kept things — tapes, photographs, recordings, video and memories that can still help reconstruct what happened.

“Keep adding to the legacy.” Hector Camacho

The Rest Belongs in the Book

This website profile is only the doorway. The complete Hector Camacho feature in The Death of Local Music — Volume II: Arizona Legacy Bands goes deeper into the bands, the clubs, the industrial years, the people he filmed, the stories behind the surviving archive, the musicians who vanished from the public record and the later chapters that carried him into another generation of Arizona heavy music.

Return to Volume II Submit a Correction or Memory

Archive note: This profile is based primarily on Hector Camacho's firsthand interview. Approximate dates and incomplete lineups remain open where the surviving evidence has not yet fully locked them down.

Him’s Rage — House Parties, Heavy Metal and Phoenix in the Early 1980s

The Arizona Music History Archive · Volume II

Him's Rage

Phoenix, Arizona · Early 1980s

House parties, heavy metal covers, an all-ages room and one of the strangest auditions in Hector Camacho's Arizona history. Him's Rage belonged to the years when Phoenix bands could build a following long before anybody had a website, a social-media page or a digital trail.

Band Profile · Historical Preview

Around 1983

A Completely Different Chapter

Hector Camacho places Him's Rage around 1983 and roughly through the remainder of his high-school years. It was not a continuation of Faded Black. This was another circle of musicians, another part of town and another role for Hector. In Faded Black he had been behind the drums. In Him's Rage, he became the singer.

The full lineup is still being reconstructed, and the archive will not guess at names that Hector or surviving evidence has not firmly locked down. What is clear is that this band became one of the important steps between Hector's seventies-influenced beginnings and the heavier Arizona scene he would later move through.

Archive status: exact dates, complete lineup and surviving recordings remain open until photographs, flyers, tapes or additional firsthand accounts can confirm them.

The Audition That Wasn't an Audition

A Party, a Puppy and an Empty Microphone

Hector did not answer an ad or walk into a formal audition. He went to a party with a puppy because he had nowhere else to leave the dog, met a girl, and somehow ended up spending the night at a house where a band was hanging out. By the next day the musicians wanted to play, but their singer was missing.

“I sing a little bit.” Hector Camacho

Hector knew far more of the band's material than they expected. He remembers singing several songs before the existing singer finally arrived. What happened next is exactly the kind of Arizona band-history moment that never makes it into a record-company biography.

“We got a new singer.” Hector Camacho's recollection of the band's decision

That is where this website version stops the story. The complete version belongs in the book.

The Sound

Heavy Metal Before the Valley Changed Again

Him's Rage was largely a cover band. Hector remembers material from Metal Church, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath as part of the set, music that fit the heavier direction young Phoenix musicians were moving toward as the 1980s took shape.

The band worked the world that existed outside the better-documented club circuit: house parties, neighborhood gatherings and all-ages opportunities where younger musicians could actually play in front of people. Hector remembers doing a lot of parties with the group, meeting people through the band and becoming more deeply connected to the local scene.

Approximate Era Around 1983 through Hector's high-school years

Hector's Role Lead vocals

Known Repertoire Metal Church, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath and other heavy material

Known Setting House parties, an all-ages venue and the early Phoenix heavy-music circuit

One of the Last Shows

An All-Ages Room and a Desert Party

Hector remembers an all-ages, non-alcoholic venue around Seventh Avenue and Camelback as one of the band's later steps toward playing outside the house-party world. He also remembers a large desert-party event connected with that venue's closing.

Those details matter because the Arizona scene was not built only in famous clubs. It was built in houses, makeshift rooms, all-ages spaces and desert gatherings, places that often disappeared without leaving behind much more than the memories of the people who were there.

Why It Matters

A Band That Could Have Vanished Completely

Him's Rage never left behind the kind of public archive that makes historical research easy. Hector remembers the group eventually fading as the members' lives moved in different directions, and he says he did not see most of those musicians in the scene again.

That is exactly why the band belongs here. The Arizona story is not only the groups that signed contracts or pressed records. It is also the bands that filled living rooms, rehearsed across town, played all-ages rooms, changed somebody's direction as a musician and then nearly disappeared from the record.

This Is Only the Trailer

The website preserves the outline. The book keeps the complete story: the fuller party sequence, what happened when the original singer arrived, the people surrounding the band, the house-party culture, how Him's Rage eventually came apart and where this chapter fits inside Hector Camacho's much larger Arizona history. That material is being preserved in The Death of Local Music — Volume II: Arizona Legacy Bands.

Return to Volume II Submit a Correction or Memory

Archive note: This profile is based on Hector Camacho's firsthand interview. Dates, complete lineup, exact venue identification and surviving recordings remain open where the available evidence is incomplete.

Faded Black — Before the Phoenix Metal Explosion

The Arizona Music History Archive · Volume II

Faded Black

Phoenix, Arizona · Circa 1979

Before the Phoenix metal explosion of the 1980s, before industrial music entered Hector Camacho's story and long before the internet preserved local bands, there was Faded Black: a handful of young Arizona musicians playing seventies hard rock in a backyard shed and at neighborhood parties.

Early Arizona Rock · Historical Preview

The Beginning

A Mongoose Bicycle and a Band Looking for a Drummer

Hector Camacho remembers Faded Black as one of his earliest Arizona bands, possibly beginning around 1979, when he was only thirteen or fourteen years old. The exact dates remain approximate, but the way he found the band has stayed with him.

Hector was riding his Mongoose bicycle around the neighborhood when he met two older musicians, Dave Dickey and Ray Bouchard, near a local park around the 12th Street and Dunlap area. They were putting a band together and needed a drummer. Hector had already been playing drums since early childhood, so when the opportunity appeared, he followed them back toward a house near 14th Street and Dunlap.

“It was a match made in heaven.” Hector Camacho

The Rehearsal Room

A Shed, a Swamp Cooler and Seventies Rock

The rehearsal space was not a professional studio. Hector remembers a backyard shed with a swamp cooler and a drum kit already set up inside. What mattered was that the musicians liked the same music. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith and the heavier rock of the 1970s shaped the sound they were chasing.

Dave Dickey handled the vocals, Ray Bouchard played guitar and Hector played drums. Hector remembers Dickey as heavily influenced by Robert Plant, not only in the way he sang, but in the hair, clothing and entire rock-frontman presentation.

• Dave Dickey — vocals
• Ray Bouchard — guitar
• Hector Camacho — drums

The surviving firsthand account does not yet establish a complete lineup beyond these three names. The archive will leave any additional positions open until Hector, another member, a photograph, flyer or other period evidence confirms them.

Before the Club Years

House Parties and an Earlier Phoenix Scene

Faded Black belongs to a part of Arizona music history that is especially easy to lose because so little of it was formally documented. Hector remembers playing only a small number of shows with the band, including house-party performances in the Sunnyslope area. One of those houses, near 12th Street and Hatcher, was still standing decades later when he recalled the story.

This was before the Phoenix scene Hector would later know through clubs, industrial bands and the Mason Jar. The musicians were young, the scene was neighborhood-based, and the music still carried the sound and look of the 1970s. There were no smartphones, no social-media pages and no digital archive waiting to preserve the band after the fact.

Approximate Era Around 1979, based on Hector Camacho's firsthand recollection

Area North Phoenix / Sunnyslope, around 12th–14th Street and Dunlap

Sound Seventies-style hard rock influenced by Zeppelin, Sabbath, Hendrix and Aerosmith

Known Activity Neighborhood rehearsals and a small number of house-party performances

What the Band Was — and Wasn't

Before Hector Became a Songwriter

Faded Black was not yet the original-music chapter of Hector's career. He remembers the band playing the heavy rock they loved rather than developing a surviving catalog of original songs, and he says his own serious songwriting came years later.

That does not make Faded Black unimportant. It makes the band an earlier piece of the Arizona family tree: the point where a young drummer who had recently come to Phoenix found other players, learned how bands worked outside a school setting and became part of a local scene that would eventually lead him through very different sounds and generations of Arizona music.

This Is Only Part of the Story

This online profile preserves the early Faded Black history without pretending that every date, member and show has already been proven. Hector Camacho's larger story continues through Him's Rage, Black House Twins, Godless and beyond, with the deeper chronology and firsthand memories being preserved in The Death of Local Music — Volume II: Arizona Legacy Bands.

Return to Volume II Submit a Correction or Memory

Archive note: This profile is based on Hector Camacho's firsthand interview. The band name “Faded Black,” the exact start/end dates and any additional lineup details remain open where the surviving evidence is incomplete.

Lightning Fury — Ten Years of Arizona Hard Rock Evolution

The Arizona Music History Archive · Volume II

Lightning Fury

Phoenix, Arizona · 1986–1996

Lightning Fury began with three young musicians learning hard rock in a garage and spent the next decade refusing to stay in one musical box. Metal, funk, groove, keyboards, layered vocals and ambitious original songs all became part of a band that grew up in public on Arizona stages.

Band Profile · Historical Preview

The Beginning

Three Kids, a Garage and a Band That Kept Changing

Lightning Fury's original core was Lance Grant on bass and vocals, Jay Macchione on guitar and Trevor Hammer on drums. They began playing together as young teenagers, learning how to become a band before any of them had much reason to know where the road would lead. What followed was not a straight line. Singers changed, additional musicians entered, the arrangements became more adventurous and the band's definition of hard rock kept expanding.

• Lance Grant — bass, vocals
• Jay Macchione — guitar
• Trevor Hammer — drums

Lightning Fury had additional vocalists, guitarists and keyboard players during its ten-year history. The full member-by-member chronology is being preserved for Volume II rather than compressed into a single website lineup.

The Sound Changed

Hard Rock Met Funk, Groove and Harmony

Lightning Fury did not spend ten years making the same record over and over. As the musicians listened more widely, the band's sound changed with them. Hard rock and metal remained part of the foundation, but funkier grooves moved into the rhythm section, keyboards opened new possibilities and vocal harmonies became increasingly important.

“If Chili Peppers was on the plate for dinner, we all ate it.” Lance Grant

Early Years Young hard-rock musicians building the foundation in garages and local rooms.

Middle Period Funkier rhythms, expanded lineups and a willingness to experiment beyond one genre.

Later Years Layered harmonies, keyboards, stronger songwriting and the 1995 album Hand of Reality.

The First Big Win

Battle of the Bands and “Faithful Deception”

One of Lightning Fury's important early turning points came at the 1990 Glendale Unified Battle of the Bands. According to Lance, the band's planned singer did not appear, forcing the musicians to perform without him. Instead of collapsing, Lightning Fury won the Hard Rock category and, in Lance's recollection, the overall grand prize as well.

The win produced something even more valuable than a trophy: studio time. Lightning Fury used that opportunity at Vintage Recording Studio to record “Faithful Deception,” a song written by Lance Grant. For musicians who had started in a garage, hearing an original song coming back through professional studio monitors marked a different stage in the band's development.

Another Victory

Pantheon, “Norman” and “Jeffrey”

Lightning Fury later entered another Battle of the Bands at Paradise Valley Community College during the Andy Watts period and won again. The prize brought the band into Pantheon Studio, where the instrumental pieces “Norman” and “Jeffrey” were recorded.

By then the group had moved far beyond the sound of three teenagers learning hard-rock songs. Heavy passages could sit next to funkier grooves, instrumental sections and layered background vocals, and that mixture became one of the things that separated Lightning Fury from bands interested in staying inside a single lane.

The Arizona Rooms

A Band That Could Draw

Lightning Fury worked the Valley circuit through rooms and events including the Mason Jar, Mr. Lucky's downstairs room, Rockers, Desperados, Boston's, the Arizona State Fair, Arizona's Best Kept Secret events and Alive and Kickin' shows. Lance also remembers the band opening for Missing Persons several times at the Mason Jar.

Those opportunities came because the band had developed a real local audience. A support slot meant more when a local group could actually put people in the room, and Lightning Fury became one of the bands promoters could use because its following showed up.

Active Years 1986–1996

Recording Milestones Vintage Recording Studio, Pantheon Studio and In Your Face Studios

Major Local Rooms Mason Jar, Mr. Lucky's, Rockers, Desperados and Boston's

National Support Missing Persons at the Mason Jar, remembered by Lance as several appearances

1995

Hand of Reality

Lightning Fury's later period produced Hand of Reality, officially released in 1995 and recorded at In Your Face Studios. The record represented a band that had spent years expanding its vocabulary, with strong lead vocals, multiple capable singers inside the group and arrangements built around three- and four-part harmony.

Among the songs Lance discussed from the broader Lightning Fury catalog were “The Stand,” “I'm On the Way,” “Every Change,” “Friend,” “Book of Spells,” “We're Not Alone,” “Faithful Deception,” “Norman” and “Jeffrey.” The archive is still waiting on the original Hand of Reality artwork and complete album credits before locking a final discography.

“I'm On the Way.” The song Lance Grant believes had the potential to break Lightning Fury nationally

The Long View

What Lightning Fury Left Behind

Lightning Fury did not become a national household name, but that is not the only measure of what a local band accomplished. For ten years they filled rooms, won competitions, recorded original music, changed with the times and became part of the Phoenix network that younger musicians watched from the floor.

One of the most important parts of Lance Grant's recollection is not about a particular club, singer or recording session. It is the lesson that competition did not have to become hostility. Another local band could succeed without taking anything away from yours.

“We can all coexist and have fun together.” Lance Grant

This Is Only Part of the Story

This online profile is a historical preview. The full Lightning Fury story includes the changing lineups, the personalities who reshaped the music, the two Battle of the Bands victories, the recordings, packed Arizona shows, the later reunion, the transition into Soul Funktion and the archive preserved by Lance's family for The Death of Local Music — Volume II: Arizona Legacy Bands.

Return to Volume II Submit a Correction or Memory

Archive note: This profile is based on Lance Grant's firsthand interview and the working Lightning Fury archive for The Death of Local Music — Volume II. Open chronology and album-credit questions remain intentionally open until stronger archival material is in hand.