War can produce miserable results. Just ask Red Fang, whose video for their tuneful stampede of stoner metal, “Prehistoric Dog,” depicts the rockers starting a vicious rivalry culminating in an epic, bitter battle. After confronting a group of seemingly non-threatening nerds dressed in medieval garb who are role-playing in a park, the Portland quartet’s burly members return home to shotgun a ton of beer, creating a massive mess of empty cans. They fashion the resulting scrap-metal into armor. (Clips of Red Fang rocking out in a kitchen are spliced up with the other scenes.) Returning in Tecate and PBR-sponsored battle gear, the metal heads tussle with the geeks, easily overpowering them. Unfortunately, said geeks possess a plethora of legit weaponry in their cars and, after loading up, slice the Red Fang boys into pieces. Arms and heads are severed, B-movie-style, and the role-players leave triumphant.

Filmed in just under three days, the video is a fantastic indicator of the fun that a little ingenuity and imagination can produce. Red Fang earned a fantastic promo piece for their repertoire—and they’re not even responsible for it.

Vocalist/bassist Aaron Beam credits Whitey McConnaughy for 90 percent of the creative insight and physical grunt work that went into the video. McConnaughy, who has done high-end commercial work (including a Nike ad in which Kobe Bryant jumps an Aston Martin), directed, shot and edited the video for his friends in Red Fang, paying for the entire thing. Hell, he even built the impressive beer-can costumes. (The band did aid McConnaughy by cleaning the empties and offering him the raw material.)

And drink they did. The clip contains close to 6,000 empty containers. As both drummer John Sherman and vocalist/guitarist Bryan Giles work in bars, collecting the amount wasn’t impossible—just time-consuming. When the shoot wrapped, Red Fang donated anything salvageable to a homeless man by a grocery store. “He was very happy about it because there were probably three or four hundred dollars worth of cans,” says Beam.

Unfortunately, while the group did finish off a bunch of brews, it wasn’t any significant percentage. “I don’t know too many people who can drink a thousand beers in two days,” says the guitarist, a bit bewildered by the possibility. “We are superhuman but not quite that super.”

RED FANG
V2
865 W. 1000 North, Layton
Thursday, Oct. 8
7 p.m.