By Andrew Bansal
October 5th 2013, The Satellite, Los Angeles CA: In the 18 years of their existence, British stoner rock band Orange Goblin have never toured as actively as they’re doing in 2013. They’ve made it into what’s perhaps their busiest year ever, specially in North America where they opened for Clutch on a full tour earlier this year and are now back Stateside for an extensive 38-show headline run with support from fast-rising Los Angeles metal quintet Holy Grail and Atlanta, Georgia’s 3-piece experimental act Lazer/Wulf. Building on the success of their fantastic latest studio album ‘A Eulogy For The Damned’, Orange Goblin are firing on all cylinders. This tour hit Los Angeles and visited the Satellite last night, and the folks gathered here for the show were in high anticipation of the event.
Doors opened at around 8:50 and the show started at 9:05 with an intriguing 40-minute set by Lazer/Wulf. This instrumental trio brought a strong element of modern progressive metal onto this stage, and even though it’s far removed from the styles of music played by Orange Goblin and Holy Grail, the band held their own and successfully demonstrated their talents, garnering applause from the majority of the crowd. The drumkit was placed all the way up to the edge of the stage, and the guitarist and bassist positioned themselves either side of it, and as the three musicians played in unison, the audience was treated to a brilliant array of sounds. For the most part they were heavy, but at times they played some mellow guitar segments that lent a jazzy feel to it all. It’s almost a surprise that they’re from Atlanta, Georgia, a region not really known for this style of music. To fans of experimental/prog rock, I would recommend checking out Lazer/Wulf.
Visit Lazer/Wulf on the web at:
facebook.com/lazerwulves
twitter.com/lazerwulves
instagram.com/lazerwulves
Shortly after, the Holy Grail boys hit the stage all guns blazing. Despite the fact that they play quite a few shows in Los Angeles whether it be on tours or as one-off dates, there’s always something new to take away from a Holy Grail gig, and this time it was the venue and stage setting they performed in. I’d never seen them at the Satellite before, and it was interesting to see them handle this stage. I think it was easier for them to create an atmosphere here as the room is small and gets really loud, which it certainly did during Holy Grail’s set. Their set consisted of four tunes from the debut full-length ‘Crisis In Utopia’ and five from the latest album ‘Ride The Void’, and I was actually surprised to notice that most of their fans were enjoying the newer songs more than the old ones. Their sound mix is a little off sometimes depending on the size and sound quality of the venue, but on this occasion they seemed to get it dead right for the most part, and that allowed them to deliver the complete Holy Grail live experience. It was as good of a performance as I’ve ever seen them put on, at least as an opener. This band is legitimately on the rise and I can only see them getting on bigger tours in the near future.
Set List:
1. Bleeding Stone
2. Crosswinds
3. Ride the Void
4. Requiem
5. Dark Passenger
6. Bestia Triumphans
7. Call of Valhalla
8. My Last Attack
9. Fight To Kill
At around 11:10, the visually and sonically mighty Orange Goblin appeared on stage. In every sense, they lived up to the expectation I had built up in my head ever since I got my hands on ‘A Eulogy For The Damned’, one of the heaviest, most powerful releases of 2012 without any shadow of doubt. While I’ll admit that I was mostly looking forward to hearing songs from that album, I was curious to find out how their older material gels with these newer tunes. It’s safe to say they fulfilled my appetite for the ‘Eulogy’ album by belting out four songs off of it, starting the set with a one-two punch of the ever-amazing ‘Acid Trial’ and ‘The Filthy & The Few’. Then they dug into their past albums and presented some great selections that showcased the blues rock element that their whole sound is based on. Frontman Ben Ward’s monumental on-stage personality compelled this audience to raise their voices and engage in some furious headbanging and moshing, and his bandmates Martyn Millard on bass, Joe Hoare on guitar and Chris Turner on drums did an amazing job at their respective instruments. Orange Goblin kept things simple. It was all about the music, and carried out the challenging task of entertaining this crowd in a mighty fine manner.
The smell of cannabis coming from somewhere in the back of the room was getting stronger and stronger as the set went on, and the intensity of the atmosphere just kept rising with every song, culminating at its peak with the final song of the night, ‘Red Tide Rising’. This is the opening track on the latest album and they might as well have began the set with it, but they did the right thing and saved the best for last.
I’d never seen Orange Goblin before last night so I have no frame of reference in terms of how Orange Goblin sound now as compared to the previous times they played in Los Angeles, but for this performance at the Satellite, to me they appeared to bring their A game to the stage and give this crowd much more than their money’s worth. This Orange Goblin set can only be summarized as stoner hard rock at its finest.
Related Interviews: Orange Goblin | Lazer/Wulf
Set List:
1. Acid Trial
2. The Filthy & the Few
3. Made of Rats
4. Time Travelling Blues
5. Saruman’s Wish
6. The Fog
7. Getting High on the Bad Times
8. Cities of Frost
9. Your World Will Hate This
10.They Come Back (Harvest of Skulls)
11.Some You Win, Some You Lose
Encore:
12.Quincy the Pigboy
13.Red Tide Rising
Remaining tour dates:
10/06/2013 Soda Bar – San Diego, CA
10/08/2013 The Observatory – Santa Ana, CA
10/09/2013 Oakland Opera House – Oakland, CA
10/10/2013 Oak Street Speakeasy – Eugene, OR
10/11/2013 Fall Into Darkness Festival – Portland, OR
10/12/2013 The Highline – Seattle, WA
10/13/2013 Rickshaw Theater – Vancouver, BC
10/15/2013 The Palomino – Calgary, AB
10/17/2013 The Pawn Shop – Edmonton, AB
10/18/2013 Amigos – Saskatoon, SK
10/19/2013 Windsor Hotel – Winnipeg, MB
10/20/2013 The Aquarium – Fargo, ND
10/21/2013 Triple Rock – Minneapolis, MN
10/22/2013 Reggie’s – Chicago, IL
10/23/2013 Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI
10/24/2013 Now That’s Class – Cleveland, OH
10/25/2013 Rockstar Arena – Dayton, OH
10/26/2013 Rex Theater – Pittsburgh, PA
10/27/2013 London Music Hall – London, ON
10/28/2013 The Opera House – Toronto, ON
10/29/2013 Mavericks – Ottawa, ON
10/30/2013 Foufounes Electriques – Montrea, QC
11/01/2013 Empire – Springfield, VA
11/02/2013 Saint Vitus – Brooklyn, NY
11/03/2013 The Note – West Chester, PA
11/05/2013 Strange Matter – Richmond, VA
11/06/2013 Tremont Music Hall – Charlotte, NC
11/07/2013 Broadway’s – Asheville, NC
11/08/2013 The Earl – Atlanta, GA
11/09/2013 Exit/In – Nashville, TN