Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Inquisition, Melechesh, and others at The Key Club on 10/28 - The Hater Recap

The past seven days have been nothing but non-stop concerts for me and there is more on the horizon! I visited The Key Club Sunday night to see Septic Flesh and various other acts I anticipated as being boring and uninteresting (the lineup was mostly black metal - not my thing). I hate to be a negative Nancy but this night had more downs than ups. 

The Key Club is fast becoming my least favorite venue. They opened the doors an hour and a half late, the bar was cash only, they were out of sweet potato fries and Jack Daniels, and security moved the line so slowly I thought I might lose my shit and kill someone. Seriously, the last thing I want to do is discourage people from going out to see metal shows but The Key Club SUCKS so prepare accordingly. Oh, and one of my buddies who played there recently said they treated his band like shit backstage. Well, enough ranting about that.

The opening act was surprisingly really good! I don't like much black metal but Inquisition pulled me in with a stunning performance, especially considering that there were only two guys in the band. Front man Dagon's guitar and vocal styles were similar to Abbath's (of Immortal). He made a thunderously impressive amount of noise for one person and got most of the cranky, defeated crowd to forget the one and a half hour line saga they had just endured. He also had the epic power stance! The drummer also had serious chops and laid down some wickedly fast double bass. Major props to these dudes.

I also really enjoyed Melechesh, a Mesopotamian metal band that played after Ex Deo. These guys were a crunchy, energetic blend of thrash and black metal with a middle eastern sound. They had a local guy named Caleb filling in on rhythm guitars but I think everyone else was from overseas. It was a multicultural kind of night.

The rest of the night was sadly a bit of a let down. There was entirely too much backing track being relied upon by the other bands and not nearly enough soloing or creative guitar playing. You can't win 'em all. But really, most of the concerts I attend are consistently awesome.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Party Weekend Recap! Delta Rose, Future Villains, The Glory Stompers

My quest for hard rock continued over the weekend as I revisited one of my regular haunts and sought out new adventures in the Valley. Last weekend was so non-stop I had to cram two concerts into a single blog post. More cramming is soon to follow.

The adventure started on Friday night at The Viper Room Halloween party with Delta Rose and the Future Villains. I heard the other bands scheduled for that night were really awesome but I missed them because I had another party to hit up before the night was over. Delta Rose is a blues/hard rock band from Rosemead and they know how to rock!  Guitar slinger Forrest is obviously versed in metal phrasing because he was laying down a lot of speedy, chugging rhythms and grinding, metal solos as well as sleazy blues licks. I dug it. The whole band was dressed like the droogs from A Clockwork Orange (it was a costume event). Very cool!

Next up was Future Villains. I've seen these guys plenty of times on the Sunset Strip. They're a hard rock band but they also have a party rock vibe - in a good way. Vocalist Dusty has a killer screech! At times it sounds like he's shredding his vocal chords much like lead guitarist Clay is shredding on his Gibson. These guys tore it up on stage and got the crowd really worked up with two of their best songs - Hell Angel and Down the Drain. They also did a pretty sweet cover of Cowboys from Hell. 

Saturday night I had the pleasure of seeing The Glory Stompers play at a house party in the Valley. I don't make it out to house parties much but there was no way I could pass up a Glory Stompers show. They played a short but sweet set in the garage of former band mate Trevor Howard's house and blew everyone's minds as usual. These guys are on the fast track to becoming local legends and I strongly advise you to check out their live show if you have not done so already (see previous blog post about The Glory Stompers)! They were followed briefly by a Misfits cover band before the cops came and rained on the party, making us dial down the noise. Booooo! It was only 11:00!

Check out all the bands on facebook, like their pages, improve your life.

www.facebook.com/DeltaRose

www.facebook.com/futurevillains

www.facebook.com/theglorystompers

The next event on my concert calendar is Skeletonwitch tonight at The Whiskey.

Monday, October 29, 2012

The Darkness at Club Nokia on 10/24

Last Wednesday, I took off my heavy metal blinders and ventured to Club Nokia to see The Darkness perform. I really like their music, especially Justin Hawkin's screeching vocals, but I wasn't sure what to expect from a live show. Fortunately, the show was hellaciously awesome and blew away all of my expectations!

Maybe you don't like The Darkness because you think they don't take themselves seriously enough as musicians, but my response to that would be that you take yourself too seriously. Like a lot of glam bands and hair metal, The Darkness' musicianship gets over looked because of the band's silly, over the top glam style and the fact that they're not really "heavy". But that doesn't mean that these guys don't know how to shred! Everything I saw Wednesday night demonstrated that they can and do play guitar (and bass and drums) very well. If I had to make a comparison, I'd say that the Hawkins brothers' guitar style is little reminiscent of AC/DC's Angus Young. Maybe it's not full of sweep picking but it's original, competent, and respectable. And when Justin Hawkins plays a solo, it's still an impressive guitar solo.

Even if you're a super serious metalhead, you have to admit that it would be nice to see mainstream rock go more in this direction than the horrendous path it's taken towards DJ point 'n click music that's composed on a Mac or PC. I hope that more bands like The Darkness, Gypsyhawk, and Scorpion Child can start to gain momentum in the popular and alternative music realms because a hard rock and glam revival is just what this world needs. It's more palatable to the generic masses than thrash metal and it's genuinely good music. Who knows? Maybe The Darkness fans of today will become the Accept and 3 Inches of Blood fans of tomorrow?

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Dreaming Dead, Isolation in Infamy at The Stardust Club

I was chased by zombies for about three miles last Saturday but it wasn't enough to stop me from going out to see a metal show later that night. It was a close call which show I went to, though. I had already committed to seeing Dreaming Dead play and then my buddies from Gypsyhawk surprised me with a last minute show in Pasadena that was taking place at the exact same time as the Dreaming Dead show. Damn. I ended up sticking to the Dreaming Dead show with promises that I would see the next two upcoming Gypsyhawk shows. I still felt a little cheated at the end of the weekend.
Regardless of that, the show at The Stardust Club was totally killer! A band I had never seen before, Isolation in Infamy, played right before Dreaming Dead, and they put on a great show. It was technical -extremely technical- death metal, and a bit progressive. Isn't most technical death metal also progressive death metal? Well maybe not, but I think that's the only kind of death metal I listen to and enjoy. This band showed a lot of scorn for the luke warm audience response, which I suppose was understandable. They really killed it on stage but most of the crowd was sitting down, half-asleep. I tried to make up for everyone else's lack of spirit by screaming and clapping loudly. I still got scorned. That's death metal for you. Of course, I bought a CD later and talked to the band in between sets and they were actually really nice guys!
Next up was Dreaming Dead. I'm a big fan of front woman Liz Schall's shredding and screaming skills and I think anyone who likes death metal even a little bit will LOVE Dreaming Dead. Everyone in this band has chops. Their music reminds me of some sort of primordial horror rising from the swamps to devour humanity in the middle of the night. Really, it's amazing! The sound was a little weak for the first part of the set but Liz turned up halfway through and all was well. I took off pretty soon after Dreaming Dead finished their set since I was utterly exhausted from the zombie race, but I did make a quick stop at El Taco next door for some amazing Mexican food. Apparently, it was the heavy metal taco shop that night.

The next events on my concert calendar are The Darkness tonight at Club Nokia, then Future Villains at The Viper Room on Friday, October 26th...but I also heard that Gypsyhawk might be playing that same night at an undisclosed location in Rosemead! Too much good shit goin' on!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Scorpion Child, Gypsyhawk at The Viper Room on 10/5

Holy crap, what an awesome night! 70's hard rock commandeered  the Viper Room last Friday with awesome performances by Scorpion Child and Gypsyhawk. It was a rock 'n roll double whammy!

Seeing Scorpion Child play was one of those concert moments when you say to yourself "I can't believe I'm really here now and my life is so hellaciously rad!" When they took the stage, I felt like I had been pulled through a time portal to the early 1970's - except that I was loving it instead of hating it! 
I like some classic rock but I am definitely 100% hesher and 0% flowerchild. Somehow, Scorpion Child has taken classic 70's rock and completely reinvigorated it without really changing the essence of it.  I think it's partly due to the amazing, melodic bass lines that drive most of the songs and the overall incredible, dynamic song composition.  Everyone is pulling their own weight in this band. Sure, there is a Led Zeppelin influence but nothing I heard sounded derivative or unoriginal (did you get that joke?). In fact, I'll go so far as to say I like Scorpion Child better than Zeppelin because they don't remind me of dirty free-love hippies, even though they did have a dude doing psychedelic visuals on an overhead projector, but you know what? He was rad, too.  

The only band that could follow a set like that is Gypsyhawk, and fortunately, that's who played next. These guys also have a 70's rock feel but their style is a little more metal, with muscular guitar riffs and shredding solos. Their set was totally killer and full of songs off of their new album, Revelry and Resilience, which I highly recommend you buy. These guys balanced out their 70's rock vibe with some 80's cock-rock, synchronized, guitar moves and got the crowd really going! People were dancing, head-banging and rockin' out for the entire set! They finished their set with Commander of the High Forest, an awesome song off of their first album, and then we all migrated over to The Rainbow to keep the party going. What a great night! 

Be sure to check out both bands on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Gypsyhawkusa

https://www.facebook.com/scorpionchild

The next event on my concert calendar is Dreaming Dead on October 20th at The Stardust Club.



Monday, October 1, 2012

Accept, Kreator at The Avalon on 9/26

German metal invaded Hollywood and blew the top off of The Avalon last Wednesday!
I had never seen Accept before and I'm not very familiar with the material they've put out in the post-Udo years so I wasn't sure what to expect. Oh man, it was so awesome! These guys had such camaraderie on stage - you could tell they really love performing and they've been doing it for a long time. The crowd was stoked and gave back tons of good energy to the band. I was thrilled when they played Losers and Winners and Fast as a Shark, and I really enjoyed the songs they played off of their new album, Stalingrad. I was standing right behind the sound booth so I could hear them really well. The sound was killer - that's a concert experience I rarely have. After their set the band was walking around and talking to fans, even hanging out at the merch booth for a bit. What an awesome bunch of dudes!

The night got even better when Kreator took to the stage and began to lay waste to everyone's ear drums with some blood thirsty, relentless thrash metal! Same as the Accept set, I really enjoyed the songs they played off of their newest album, Phantom Anti-Christ, and I totally rocked out to Pleasure to Kill and Raise the Flag of Hate.  The only thing I did not enjoy was the lack-luster crowd enthusiasm. Seriously, these guys came all the way from Germany, played an awesome show, and then no one was able to muster more than a golf-clap? Lame. Anyway, if you've never heard Kreator before, you should check them out. You'll definitely like them if you're a Slayer fan. They have a similar angry guitar tone and they're super fast shredders. A lot of their brutal sound also comes from their amazing drummer, Jurgen "Ventor" Reil, who knows exactly how to compose and execute a pounding thrash metal drum fill.

https://www.facebook.com/KreatorOfficial?fref=ts

The next event on my concert calendar is Gypsyhawk at The Viper Room on Oct. 5th.