By Andrew Bansal
May 1st 2013, The Roxy Theatre, Hollywood CA: As a heavy metal fan and follower you must be already knowing this, but if you don’t, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted is back doing metal full-time with his eponymous band Newsted. The debut EP ‘Metal’ came out earlier this year. The four-track release gave us a fair indication of what to expect from the reincarnated Jason Newsted in the years to come. I personally enjoyed the EP a lot and even though it wasn’t perfect by any means, it grew up me rather rapidly as time passed by. I was very much excited to see the band perform these songs on stage, and more than anything I was curious to see what kind of material they would fill a headline set with. They started their North American tour with two shows in their hometown Walnut Creek, and three shows later, they landed at the Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip.
The Queensrÿche show at the Viper Room down the street ended well in time for me to hop over to the Roxy to get ready for Newsted to take the stage. I entered the venue at around 9.40. It was nice to be in a much more spacious concert hall after being squeezed in that tiny Viper Room. It wasn’t long before the classy Roxy curtains were raised. Right off the bat, they took everyone by surprise by coming out to a rap intro played on the PA. It was hugely amusing and entertaining for this bunch of dedicated metalheads to hear something like that. But that’s when the rap ended and the rest of the night was pure heavy metal.
They began with two unreleased tunes that I’m assuming will be on the debut full-length coming out later this year. Obviously no one knew these songs but they served as a solid, steady build-up for the first live taste of the Metal EP. Everyone knew and felt that a song from the EP was coming up. The tension was rising. Sure enough, ‘Soldierhead’ followed next. It was a tremendous energy release both for band and crowd, and as I had expected, Jason’s vocals sounded way more monstrous as compared to the Soldierhead we hear on the actual EP. Of course, the band’s sound on the whole was crushingly, deafeningly heavy for the whole set. If this doesn’t get your head bobbing and your feet stomping, I have no idea what will.
Obviously, they did the other three songs from the EP as well. In my mind I had imagined Soliderhead to be the clear standout before I went into the show, but ‘Godsnake’ was fun too and in the end I think ‘King Of The Underdogs’ complete with the ‘Die! Die! Die! interlude from the Metallica song ‘Creeping Death’ surely turned out to be the best live song from the EP. ‘Skyscraper’ in the encore was also fantastic, specially because Jason took over guitar playing duties for that one and despite that it was so heavy that it almost sounded like a double-bass attack by him and Jessie Farnsworth. Now, I am well aware that there is a whole lot of people who aren’t big fans of the material on the EP, but my motto has always been, ‘Wait till you hear it live’ and I’d say the same thing to anyone who skipped out or are planning to skip out on attending a show on this tour.
Amongst the unreleased stuff, ‘As The Crow Flies’ came across as a great singalong as Jason’s lyrical prowess shines through it. ‘Long Time Dead’ was an interesting new tune as well, but ‘Nocturnus’ easily took the cake for the best unreleased song (at least in the live setting). It was ominously heavy, almost Sabbath-esque in nature and should alone be reason enough to check out the band’s next release. With all that said, the moment this crowd was waiting for came towards the end of the main set as Jason announced, ‘So now we’ll play a song that you surely know, a song I didn’t write but helped bring to life.’ Of course he was talking about ‘Whiplash’. The crowd went into an absolute frenzy, and in the truest sense of the word, everyone went NUTS. Newsted did a far better job at playing this song than the current version of Metallica ever have or ever will, and based on this performance I would pick to see Newsted in a club setting rather than Metallica in a huge arena any day. But hey, that’s just me.
There was another Metallica piece in the set when Jason sat down to play the bass intro of ‘My Friend Of Misery’ to start the first encore. Yes, I said first encore because they did two. The second one ended the show on a fitting note, with a cover of a band that has clearly influenced and inspired generations upon generations of metal bands, Newsted included, none other than the mighty Motörhead, and the song chosen for this occasion was ‘We Are The Road Crew’. As he had already done quite a few times in between songs during the set, Jason thanked the crowd for one final time and the band gracefully left the stage.
Needless to say, it was fantastic to see Jason back on stage doing what he does best, but it wasn’t merely about the thrill of his comeback as he actually proved that he can pull this off with success and is not resting on past glory. The bass was thunderous, the vocals were great, and the way he was able to interact with people from the front to the back of the floor with his extremely expressive eye-contact and his commanding gestures got everybody even more involved in the show. He was well backed up by guitarists Jessie Farnsworth and Mike Mushok and drummer Jesus Mendez Jr. Together they created a very unified sound, were in sync with each other and full of energy.
With this performance, Newsted showed us what the term ‘heavy metal’ means. Everyone was leaving the venue with smiles on their faces, hurting necks and ringing ears. The band still has a lot of shows coming up on this tour alone, so whether or not you like the Metal EP, just go see the show and revel in the heavy. Listen to metal, listen to Newsted \m/
Related: The Jason Newsted interview | LA Photo Gallery
Set list:
1. AMP (full title unknown)
2. Heroic (full title unknown)
3. Soldierhead
4. Godsnake
5. As the Crow Flies
6. Long Time Dead
7. King of the Underdogs/Creeping Death bridge
8. Twisted (full title unknown)
9. Nocturnus
10.Whiplash (Metallica cover)
Encore 1:
11.Spider Biter
12.Skyscraper (Jason on guitar)
Encore 2:
13.(We Are) the Road Crew (Motörhead cover)
Remaining shows on this tour:
May 03 – Vinyl – Las Vegas, NV
May 04 – KUPD Ufiesta – Mesa, AZ
May 15 – Planet Rock – Battle Creek, MI
May 17 – The Crofoot – Pontiac, MI
May 18 – Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
May 21 – Highline Ballroom – New York, NY
May 22 – The Middle East Downstairs – Cambridge, MA
May 23 – The Stone Pony – Asbury Park, NJ