By Andrew Bansal
October 14th 2013, The Echoplex, Los Angeles CA: One of Savannah, Georgia’s finest music exports in the past decade, psychedelic stoner/sludge outfit Kylesa released their sixth studio album ‘Ultraviolet’ earlier this year via Season Of Mist Records, and following an early summer North American tour with Blood Ceremony, White Hills and Lazer/Wulf, this month they are touring here again to promote the new album, along with support bands Pinkish Black and Sierra. I’ve seen the band twice in the past, the first time as part of the eclectic Metal Alliance Tour lineup at the House of Blues in early 2011, and then as a headliner at the Troubadour later that year, and in all honesty, the Kylesa live experience was fantastic on both occasions. With the prospect of hearing tunes from a new album like Ultraviolet which is so adventurous in its sound, there was plenty to look forward to for anyone who stepped in through the doors of the Echoplex last evening.
The first band to hit the stage was Sierra, a three-piece stoner rock band from the city of Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and they were on their first ever full North American tour, in turn this being their first ever LA appearance. Their 30-minute set was a decent slab of stoner rock, and for fans of the sub-genre it’s quite easy to connect to these tunes. Although the music is nothing new and is being done by several bands in this day and age, Sierra is quite a new band and I’m sure their sound will develop more in the years to come. As of now, they turned out to be a good opener and warm-up to Kylesa, with some of the musical elements being similar to what Kylesa pursues.
Visit Sierra on the web at:
sierariff.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/sierrariff
Next to take the stage was a two-piece experimental doom act called Pinkish Black, hailing from Fort Worth, Texas. Heavy on synth and loops, and devoid of guitar, their music was honestly a little hard for me to grasp onto. While I could sense the quality of the musicianship in the compositions they presented, it was too synth-driven for my taste. With that said, there was definite expression and emotion in the music, specially in the vocals, and on some level I was able to appreciate it. It surprises me that the band is signed to a proper heavy metal label like Century Media Records, because their music is certainly not a heavy metal fan’s cup of tea and seems to be more suited to movie scores and creative outlets of that nature. It would make for good background/traveling music, I would say. Nonetheless, it’s always good to experience something so strangely different from the norm, and for that reason more than anything else, Pinkish Black’s performance was interesting.
Visit Pinkish Black on the web at:
facebook.com/pinkishblackband
At 10 PM, the stage was set for Kylesa to present their set, and the small number of people in attendance for this show made their way closer to the stage and formed a tight group. They began with the song ‘Scapegoat’ off of the 2009 studio release Static Tensions and immediately hit the groove with their sound. As per the norm for a Kylesa show, trippy light patterns were being projected onto the stage to make for a truly psychedelic setting for all involved. They followed up the opening tune with ‘Unspoken’ from the new album, and it sounded just as good, if not better than what I had imagined in my head. With this album, Kylesa have pushed their boundaries and stepped outside their self-created realm of past albums by coming out with a set of tunes that’s massively dynamic in nature, extremely trippy and heavy at the same time.
They played just three more songs off of Ultraviolent during the course of this 60-minute set, namely ‘We’re Taking This’, ‘Long Gone’ and ‘Quicksand’, and for an album that’s only 39 minutes long, to be honest I was expecting more songs from it. Songs like ‘Grounded’ and ‘Steady Breakdown’ were glaring omissions and could have added a lot of strength to this set. But regardless, the set was a good representation of not only the new album itself but the manner in which it stands out from the past albums.
The set flowed rapidly from one tune to another, as there was almost zero talking from guitarists/vocalists Laura Pleasants and Philip Cope between songs. They took only two momentary pauses during the set to change their instruments. Other than that, this set was over before anyone realized it, and the ending segment with the final four tunes was, in my opinion, the best part of it. The set seemed to have hit its peak with the 13th and last song ‘Running Red’, and in many ways it was a disappointment to see it end right then, instead of potentially riding on the high and continuing for at least 10-15 more minutes.
For a band that’s put out as many as six studio albums now, this set was way too short, and that would be my only criticism of the show, aside from the lack of Ultraviolet material. The fact that it was a Monday night was also a major dampener, as the turnout of what couldn’t have been more than 50 people clearly reflected. But with that said, it’s always great to see Kylesa live in concert and this was another excellent performance from the band. One can only hope for them to make a Los Angeles return on a better night of the week, with a longer set. But for fans across the country, it’s still worth the money to attend a show on the remainder of this tour and if you’re a Kylesa fan or just a fan of heavy, trippy stoner music, I would recommend you to attend.
Visit Kylesa on the web at:
kylesa.com
facebook.com/kylesamusic
twitter.com/kylesamusic
Set List:
1. Scapegoat
2. Unspoken
3. Hollow Severer
4. Tired Climb
5. Bottom Line
6. Quicksand
7. Don’t Look Back
8. To Forget
9. Said And Done
10.Long Gone
11.Unknown
12.We’re Taking This
13.Running Red
Remaining Tour Dates:
10/15 Oakland, CA @ Oakland Opera House
10/16 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
10/17 Portland, OR @ Dante’s
10/18 Olympia, WA @ Capitol Theater
10/19 Missoula, MT @ The Palace
10/20 Rapid, City SD @ Johnny Billiards
10/22 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
10/23 Detroit, MI @ Small’s
10/24 Wilmington, DE @ Mojo Main
10/25 Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus
10/26 Springfield, VA @ Empire
10/27 Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter