By Andrew Bansal
June 6th 2013, The Echoplex, Los Angeles CA: Based out of the Northern California town Rohnert Park, hardcore punk outfit Ceremony have been going at it since 2005, prolifically releasing four critically acclaimed as well as fan-appreciated studio albums and three EPs during this period. Currently they are on a West Coast run which included a Los Angeles date at the Echoplex last night. I got my first live Ceremony experience at a Scion-sponsored show at the Roxy in 2010 when they opened for Integrity, and was impressed with what the band had to offer then. The endless amount of energy that accompany a good hardcore punk performance like that put on by Ceremony on that occasion is what draws me towards attending such shows, even though the genre isn’t my favorite by any means. So, I decided to venture down to the Echoplex to check out what Ceremony is like as a headliner.
I got to the venue at around 7, which turned out to be way too early for my own good. The doors opened at 7.20 but the show didn’t start until 8.30. A band called Total Control opened the show, followed by The Soft Moon. Now, I’m not going to badmouth these bands because their respective styles of music aren’t my cup of tea even in the slightest, so for me to say negative things about them wouldn’t be fair. There might be a whole group of people out there that likes this type of music, but it certainly wasn’t doing anything for me other than drive me nuts in a bad way, so much so that I had to retreat as far away from the stage as I possibly could. Thankfully, I found some solace in the Echoplex’ lovely, comfy couches at the very back of the concert hall, and simply bided my time waiting for these opening acts to get done with. A lot of the Ceremony fans were found doing the same thing as well, and as far as headline-versus-opening bands mismatches go, this lineup has to be right up there.
It seemed like an absolute eternity before things were finally ready for Ceremony to hit the stage. They did so at 10.20, opening up with a slow, alt rock-type song that further heightened the sense of restlessness amongst the fans gathered here, specially those nearer to the stage. But the next song onwards, things exploded into a full-on punk onslaught. The rate at which people were doing the circle pits and stage-diving was as fast as the music being played by the band, and it made for a very entertaining scene for everyone standing behind the circle pit and simply taking pleasure in observing the various aspects of the show.
Vocalist Ross Farrar was putting in a tremendous effort on vocals, and has to be one of the very few hardcore punk vocalists I’ve seen who are able to channel their expressions into the voice without needing to do the harsh growling or typically hardcore screaming. Even with his incredibly clean style of delivery, his vocals came across with great conviction and were received with positive acknowledgement by the crowd. Musically too, Ceremony seemed to lay more emphasis on clean guitars, a throwback to a very old-school, pre-hardcore era of punk.
The set was not all about the fast stuff, as a couple of the slower tunes calmed down the punk kids and made everybody just soak in the music. In an expectedly contrasting manner, they did a slow song and then were going to end the show with a faster one, but as soon as they announced that it was the last song, the kids went completely bonkers, with one guy even climbing onto one of the pillars that held the lighting rig, and dived into the crowd from there. The number of stage-divers was a little too much for the band and the venue, and they had to cut the song short right there, bringing the show to an end. But, I have to give credit to the Echoplex for being totally cool with the stage-divers for the entire set right up until that final moment. The venue seemed to understand the dynamics of a punk show like this and generally allowed everyone to have a good time.
I enjoy the harsher variety of hardcore punk as well because it has its own level of intensity, but Ceremony were hardcore and intense in their own distinct way, catering to their audience by giving them what they wanted while still keeping the musicianship aspect intact. They must be one of the very few bands that pull this off with success, as was evident by the great response they got from this Echoplex crowd.
There were a couple of other high-profile shows going on in the Los Angeles area last night, but I’m glad I chose to go see Ceremony because they did not disappoint this crowd even one bit. A stellar show in every regard.