Showing posts with label Sunset Strip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunset Strip. Show all posts
Monday, November 25, 2013
Delta Rose at The Viper Room on 5/03
Delta Rose played a jaw dropping show at The Viper Room! As usual. They're one of the best hard rock/blues rock bands in Southern California!
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Paganfest Recap! TYR and Ensiferum at The House of Blues on 4/02
The LA metal scene loves European metal and I am no exception to the rule! Paganfest has become one of my favorite annual concert series because they always book a solid lineup and it's always so fun. This year's lineup was Helsott, Trollfest, Heidevolk, TYR and Ensiferum! The House of Blues was jam-packed with excited fans and I was right in the thick of it.
At long last I finally got to see TYR play some songs off of the Eric the Red album! Now I know that when I die, my ghost won't angrily haunt the Faroe Islands, demanding to hear a live performance of Regin Smidur. No one else does viking metal like TYR! This is the band to go see if you like Norse mythology told through artfully composed riffs and archaic Scandinavian chants. They have a completely original (and amazing) sound! I swear this band's guitar tone resounds with the blessings of Valhalla.
Somehow, the moshpit was raging during the entire TYR set, even during the slower songs. It's just proof that LA loves TYR and they need to headline their own serious North American tour!
Ensiferum was the headliner on the Paganfest tour, and they played a bitchin' set, too! They're one of those incredible folk metal bands that's come out of the spectacular Helsinki, Finland music scene.
Be sure to check out TYR and Ensiferum on Facebook, Reverb Nation, and most importantly, on their next tour!
The next event on my concert calendar is Ascendancy, tonight, at the Smoke and Metal event.
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| Please tell me you didn't miss this! |
At long last I finally got to see TYR play some songs off of the Eric the Red album! Now I know that when I die, my ghost won't angrily haunt the Faroe Islands, demanding to hear a live performance of Regin Smidur. No one else does viking metal like TYR! This is the band to go see if you like Norse mythology told through artfully composed riffs and archaic Scandinavian chants. They have a completely original (and amazing) sound! I swear this band's guitar tone resounds with the blessings of Valhalla.
 |
Somehow, the moshpit was raging during the entire TYR set, even during the slower songs. It's just proof that LA loves TYR and they need to headline their own serious North American tour!
Ensiferum was the headliner on the Paganfest tour, and they played a bitchin' set, too! They're one of those incredible folk metal bands that's come out of the spectacular Helsinki, Finland music scene.
Be sure to check out TYR and Ensiferum on Facebook, Reverb Nation, and most importantly, on their next tour!
The next event on my concert calendar is Ascendancy, tonight, at the Smoke and Metal event.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| Aryn Black wailed on the mike like a psychedelic banshee! |
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| 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.
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| 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.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The Whisky and The Rainbow - Two Venues in One Night on 1/24!
Apparently Thursday is the new Friday because there is way too much good shit happening on Thursdays lately!
I started off my Thursday evening metal adventure at The Whisky (yes, I'm there pretty often) to see Ascendancy play. If you haven't seen them before, I highly suggest you check them out. They're a local five piece that lays down some seriously heavy groove metal. It was a high energy show and I was stoked to see that there was a decent crowd there to support the band on a weeknight. Of course Ascendancy played a consistently bitchin' set but something hard to describe happened towards the end of the show that unleashed a mysterious untapped reservoir of thunderous energy on stage, giving the band a freakishly powerful finish! All of my hair stood on end! That was some good (but weird) shit, man!
Next, I wandered over to The Rainbow to check out Rattlehead and Desecrate for their pre-NAMM show. Both bands are well known on the Sunset Strip for being excellent shredders and great performers. This night was no different, even though everyone was crammed into the claustrophobically tiny upstairs space that The Rainbow has converted into a concert venue. I imagine that's what it must feel like to be stuck in a tugboat's boiler room. Desecrate hammed it up by running circles around the smushed audience with their wireless rigs and Rattlehead had to do battle with a drunk girl who kept insisting on providing backup vocals. Somehow, it all worked out!
Be sure to look for Ascendancy, Desecrate and Rattlehead on Facebook or at their next concerts! The next event on my concert calendar is Ascendancy and Nekrogoblikon at Mirror Image Studios on 2/15.
I started off my Thursday evening metal adventure at The Whisky (yes, I'm there pretty often) to see Ascendancy play. If you haven't seen them before, I highly suggest you check them out. They're a local five piece that lays down some seriously heavy groove metal. It was a high energy show and I was stoked to see that there was a decent crowd there to support the band on a weeknight. Of course Ascendancy played a consistently bitchin' set but something hard to describe happened towards the end of the show that unleashed a mysterious untapped reservoir of thunderous energy on stage, giving the band a freakishly powerful finish! All of my hair stood on end! That was some good (but weird) shit, man!
Gus Trujillo on vocals.
Epic shred time.
Next, I wandered over to The Rainbow to check out Rattlehead and Desecrate for their pre-NAMM show. Both bands are well known on the Sunset Strip for being excellent shredders and great performers. This night was no different, even though everyone was crammed into the claustrophobically tiny upstairs space that The Rainbow has converted into a concert venue. I imagine that's what it must feel like to be stuck in a tugboat's boiler room. Desecrate hammed it up by running circles around the smushed audience with their wireless rigs and Rattlehead had to do battle with a drunk girl who kept insisting on providing backup vocals. Somehow, it all worked out!
The stage is actually below the audience space!
Rattlehead!
Be sure to look for Ascendancy, Desecrate and Rattlehead on Facebook or at their next concerts! The next event on my concert calendar is Ascendancy and Nekrogoblikon at Mirror Image Studios on 2/15.
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Steel Panther at The House of Blues Every Monday
Here's a possible scenario for you:
Maybe you love going to metal concerts but you hate comedy clubs. And maybe you have a friend who's one of those "comedy club people" who would rather go listen to people tell jokes than see a totally bitchin' metal concert (I know, it sounds unbelievable but it happens). Well, I have the perfection solution for your hang-out hang-ups: if you and your friend both go see Steel Panther you will both somehow miraculously agree that you witnessed a killer show full of heavy metal shredding and raunchy jokes!
I saw these guys perform on Monday night at the House of Blues and (just like the last four times I've seen them) they definitely blew away the expectations of everyone in attendance. All jokes aside, these guys rule! Steel Panther is singly-handedly keeping glam metal alive and well on the Sunset Strip by fully embracing and owning the comedy of the hairspray-spandex era. Songs titles like "Just Like Tiger Woods" and "Asian Hooker" consistently keep every audience shocked and laughing while guitar player Satchel's undeniably impressive guitar skills keep any skeptical metalheads fully engaged and impressed by the music. This is not a show for the pious, though. The humor is definitely R rated and so are the occasional displays of nudity by the random drunk women who crawl onto the stage. Whatever, I just go for the music.
The next event on my concert calendar is The Glory Stompers on Friday, September 7th, at The House of Blues.
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