Scorpion Child at The House of Blues on 3/21

In the wake of the news of the Key Club's closure, The House of Blues still stands strong as the premiere metal and hard rock venue of the Sunset Strip. Last Thursday, they hosted the Scorpion Child, Orange Goblin, Lionize and Clutch tour.

Please don't ever close!!

Scorpion Child started the night off right by summoning all of the powers of the rock gods with a haunting and thunderous homage to their classic rock roots.  The Child quickly awakened the curmudgeonly, early-show audience with a portentous, other-worldly opening, and dominated the stage through a haze of eerie orange and red lights for the remainder of the set. Skillful bass lines commanded all of the songs while guitar players Chris Cowart and Tom Frank churned out dramatic riffs and perfectly composed guitar solos. If you're not familiar with these guys, Scorpion Child is a present-day, psychedelic, hard rock band that pulls influences from Zeppelin and Rainbow. All of their songs are ridiculously well-composed and they put on an incredible live performance. If you've never seen them, I highly suggest you make it out to their next show. This band conveys anything but your average arena-rock concert experience.

Aryn Black wailed on the mike like a psychedelic banshee!

Chris Cowart was relentless on that guitar.

Orange Goblin brought a hell of a show, too! These British dudes played some fast paced, metal-boogie tunes and connected with the crowd in a boisterous, rowdy way. I'll definitely be checking them out again on their next tour.

These guys are British but they sort of seem like they're from Ohio...?

The crowd went absolutely wild for Clutch! These guys had a shit-ton of energy!

Be sure to check out Scorpion Child and all the other great acts on Facebook, Reverb Nation, and most importantly, in concert! The next event on my concert calendar is Paganfest, featuring TYR and Ensiferum, at The House of Blues on April 2nd.