By Andrew Bansal
October 1st 2013, The Whisky, West Hollywood CA: Drummer extraordinaire Gene Hoglan has done a million gigs over the past three decades for a multitude of well-respected heavy metal bands. Having recorded drums for Testament’s latest album ‘The Dark Roots Of Earth’, he is currently occupying the kit for that band, but despite their heavily active touring schedule, Gene is able to find time to pursue other things, like ‘The Gene Hoglan Experience’, which is something quite different and unique as compared to whatever he has done in the past. He is taking this ‘experience’ out on a short run of dates while Testament is off tour, and visited the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood last night, along with opening acts Sirion and Last Great Nation, and post-headliner act P.D.P. I knew it wasn’t really going to be your typical ‘drum clinic’, and was very much looking forward to seeing what this evening brings forth in terms of live music and entertainment value.
Doors opened at 7:30 PM, much later than the norm for shows at the Whisky, and it meant a smaller number of opening bands, which wasn’t a bad thing at all. The first band Last Great Nation began proceedings at 8 o’ clock with a 30-minute set of groove metal. Unfortunately their music and performance didn’t do anything for me whatsoever. They’re a three-piece band that’s come out of Musicians Institute, and I have nothing against that establishment but I’ve always wondered why they don’t produce good metal bands. All three members of Last Great Nation seemed like good established musicians, but they were playing with absolutely no expression, no feel and no personality, and I’m afraid that’s typically the case with all metal bands coming out of Musicians Institute.
Last Great Nation ended their set at 8:30. Clearly, things could only get better from there, and they sure did. The ever-awesome Los Angeles-based melodic extreme metal band Sirion took the stage and blasted through an intense 30-minute set that turned out to be a great representation of this hard-working 6-piece band. I saw them at the same venue when they opened for Holy Grail on July 26 of this year, and I thought they sounded better as compared to that night. More importantly, the sound guy gave them the right mix this time, with the keyboards/keytar a lot more audible. These guys play so many shows opening up for national and international touring acts coming through town, but unlike most other bands that play the same number of shows, Sirion is not a band people are tired of seeing, not yet anyway. Granted the fact that their musical style is nothing new and has been done before by many, many bands, their manner of presenting it is excellent and compelling. All in all, another great set by Sirion.
At around 9:50, Gene Hoglan was introduced onto the stage amidst loud cheers, and he obliged the small gathering with a combination of question-and-answer, stories, jokes and a live drum performance of a few songs from his repertoire which he played to backing tracks. This whole ‘experience’ lasted well over 90 minutes, and it was perhaps the most comprehensive one-on-one time anyone could have ever imagined getting with him, whether it be a Gene Hoglan fan or a metalhead in general. First of all he mentioned that Dark Angel members Jim Durkin and Eric Meyer were in attendance for this event, which drew some very enthusiastic applause from the audience, most of whom are hungry for a Dark Angel reunion. Upon being asked the obvious question, Gene said that the band is ‘working hard at making it happen’.
Gene shared a couple of really hilarious Dark Angel stories and talked about a show they played at this venue in 1986, after which he proceeded to play ‘Rise Up’ from the latest Testament record. As you can imagine, it was a totally different experience compared to seeing him play with the actual band, and we could get a greater clarity of everything he was doing on the song. Later on he also played ‘Native Blood’ from the same album. I thought it would be hard for him to talk about every band he’s played it, but to his credit he largely did, and wasn’t shying away from any kind of questions. He shared stories about his experiences with Testament, Death, Opeth, Slayer, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory and Dethklok, and to be honest, more than his drum performance it was these stories that made the evening interesting, at least for me.
He played two Death songs ‘Overactive Imagination’ and ‘The Philosopher’, and at around 11:20 PM, once he realized that he had been on stage for much longer than he expected to be, he abruptly ended the show with two short Dethklok songs. But amidst the six songs he played live, there was a lot of great content in his stories. Besides the bands he has worked with, he talked about health (and with it came the obligatory Fear Factory fat joke), drum pedals, sobriety, unique drum kit pieces like the ‘boat propellor’, bad experiences at shows, and many other things. The only negative aspect of the show was the ambience. A lot of people were talking amongst themselves and at times it was hard to hear what Gene was saying. But he handled it well as he played the double bass until those people shut their mouths. Overall, I expected this to be a fun experience and it was. Sadly the turnout was not great, but all I’d say is, people who attended the show got treated to a unique evening, refreshingly different from the gigs we see on a daily basis. Here’s hoping for more such events not only by Gene Hoglan but by other musicians of similar calibre.
Related: In Conversation With Gene Hoglan
Update: I wasn’t able to stick around for the post-headline act P.D.P., but local musician and reviewer Lane Steele stayed to see them and had this to say about their set: “PDP started late, but fans were still ready for more metal. This was the first time I’ve seen the band’s new line up and they did not disappoint. They played a fourteen song set showcasing songs from all of their releases as well their signature 9-string guitars. PDP is a mixture of Meshuggah and Pantera that any metal fan should check out.”