3 Inches of Blood, Legal Tender, and The Hookers at The Whiskey on 2/11

Mad props to everyone who came out last Tuesday and supported one of my very favorite bands ever - 3 Inches of Blood. Those burly Canadians made my night! It was an incredible evening full of incredible music!

I arrived right before Legal Tender started their set. This band gets better and better every time I see them - which is quite often. I think it's really rad that these guys play as many shows as they do. Everyone in the band was working hard to sell it and it really paid off because their performance was full of great energy and super entertaining. I can't wait til these guys get an album out!

                          Legal Tender got the mosh pit going early in the night.

Boy, was I surprised when The Hookers took the stage. Perhaps their name is referencing all of the catchy hooks their songs had, rather than ladies of ill repute. It was a band of rugged roadhouse dudes who looked nothing like hookers. The music was an extremely fast, extremely loud, in your face blend of metal, punk and hard rock. I'll definitely see these guys the next time they come to LA.

I'm sure it seems that I say this about every band I see but 3 Inches of Blood is really one of my favorite bands, up there with Megadeth and Iron Maiden. I'm so happy to see them finally headlining their own tour! I only wish more people had shown up. It's so disappointing to post about how awesome a show was on facebook only to have several people comment, "Oh,  wish I could have made it. I love that band." Get it together, people! Well anyway, this was the best show I've seen them play in a few years. It was really incredible! Cam Pipes sounded so intense and I could actually hear each instrument perfectly. They genuinely sounded better live than on the recordings and that rarely happens (and I love all of their albums). Those guys totally owned that shit!! I cannot WAIT for them to come back to LA as headliners again.  I took lots of photos at the very front. It was worth getting squished against that horrible shelf that the Whiskey has in front of the stage. We even got a surprise special guest for Deadly Sinners! James Luna of Holy Grail jumped on stage and did some guest vocals.

                           I stayed glued to the spot in front of Shane Clark all night.

    Justin Hagberg and Cam Pipes were rocking out together in the middle of the stage.

                                            Byron Stroud is the beast on bass.

I'll have to try harder to get a picture of drummer Ash Pearson next time. The combination of his excellent hiding skills and my lack of photography skills resulted in zero photos of him.  He's one of the best drummers I've ever seen, though, and he was on fire last Tuesday! Can't wait for the next 3IOB tour!

Check them out on facebook where they're streaming some free music!

The next event on my concert calendar is Holy Grail at The Slide Bar in Fullerton tonight. There are lots of great shows this week, including Arsis on 12/20 at The Whiskey, High on Fire and Corrosion of Conformity on 12/20 at The Mayan, Goatwhore on the 21st at The Observatory, and Hirax, Agent Steel and Bonded by Blood on 12/22 at The Key Club. Better check moshking to make sure you're not missing anything!

Eluveitie and Wintersun at The House of Blues on 11/29

The House of Blues was SOLD OUT for Eluveitie and Wintersun last Thursday. I feel sorry for anyone who missed out on this ragin' folk metal party! I waited in line for about 25 minutes and completely missed the first band, Varg (not to be confused with Varg of Burzum). Hope I get a chance to check them out the next time they visit the states.

Apparently Wintersun had never played a U.S. show before so they had a huuuuge turn-out of eager fans. It seems like European folk-inspired metal is the most popular kind of metal in Los Angeles since every time a band from Finland plays, the show sells out. Good for them! It's great to see people support touring bands. I was totally new to Wintersun and they blew me away with their over-the-top sound and amazing performance. Lots of sweeping arpeggios, double bass, and a mix of clean and death growl vocals. If you're into Moonsorrow or Children of Bodom you'll probably also be a Wintersun fan. They played a pretty long set, too, which was very cool since there were as many people there to see them as there were for Eluveitie.

                                 Wintersun! So glad I remembered my camera.

Swiss band Eluveitie finished off the night with a truly epic folk metal set. If you're not familiar with this style of metal, Eluveitie is a great place to start exploring this myth-invoking genre. Since there are eight members in the band there are a lot of different instruments competing for your attention but they manage to pull it off really well, without it sounding like an orchestra or a bunch of noise. Flute and fiddle actually carry most of the melody in their songs but the band is definitely still metal, with the vocals split between a standard male death growl and clean female vocals. The band put on a tremendously high energy show and performed a lot of their new material, which happens to be totally bitchin. Can't wait for them to visit LA again!

 Frontman Chrigal Glazmann was leading the musical charge with some kind of crazy flute.

Be sure to check out Wintersun and Eluveitie on Facebook, Spotify, Pandora, or whatever it is that you use. And if you really like them both, you might also want to check out some other folk metal bands that are playing on the next Paganfest tour.

The next event on my concert calendar is 3 Inches of Blood on December 11th at The Whiskey (they're also playing a free show on the 9th in Fullerton). I'll be missing Megadeth in Pomona on the 7th because of an unavoidable work conflict. Noooooo!! 

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?