By Andrew Bansal
October 24th 2013, The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood CA: After a successful Summer Slaughter touring run earlier in the year, modern progressive metal stalwarts Periphery are back on their own headline tour this fall, appropriately titled ‘This Tour Is Personal’, a play on words from their latest album ‘Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal’. Along with them they’ve brought Born Of Osiris as the main support act and two Australian bands Dead Letter Circus and Twelve Foot Ninja. Last night, this ‘personal’ tour visited the most chilled-out venue on the Sunset Strip, the Roxy Theatre. The queue of people waiting to get in was already long even before the doors opened at around 7. Periphery had played in LA only three months ago, so while their fans still seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing them as headliners, there was palpable excitement surrounding the appearance of Twelve Foot Ninja. I knew nothing about them, and was very curious to find out what the hype was all about. All systems were set to go for this modern metal extravaganza.
Local openers Ampora played a 25-minute set to start the show, but unfortunately my interview with Periphery bassist Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood clashed with their set so I had to miss out on them. Twelve Foot Ninja were up next, kicking off their set at 8 PM, and in all fairness and honesty, they absolutely blew this Roxy crowd away with their set. Their brand of music came across os weird that it took me a song or two to get used to it. It’s hard to even describe but I’m going to give it a try here. It’s a blend of modern prog-type sound (more popularly known as ‘djent’) and ’90s rock along with passages that can almost be categorized as Bob Marley-style Caribbean reggae. If that doesn’t sound weird to you, I don’t know what will. The extremely heavy bits followed the mellow segments and thus their impact was risen tenfold. Due to the US government shutdown, the Aussie bands had major hurdles to cross to get over to the States, and they missed the first part of this tour. This was their first show of the tour, and all I’d say is, I’m hugely glad that Twelve Foot Ninja made it in time for the LA show because they brought something truly unique, weird and jaw-droppingly awesome to this Roxy stage. They certainly turned me into a fan. If you’re unfamiliar with this band, you should waste no time in making yourself familiar.
Visit Twelve Foot Ninja on the web at:
TwelveFootNinja.com
facebook.com/TwelveFootNinja
twitter.com/TwelveFootNinja
instagram.com/TwelveFootNinja
Twelve Foot Ninja raised the bar so ridiculously high, the two bands that followed them couldn’t match up to it. Dead Letter Circus is a band I’ve seen in the past, opening for Animals As Leaders and Fair To Midland on two different occasions. I didn’t think they were bad at those shows, but last night they just couldn’t follow the previous band’s act, at all. Their music came across as too mellow and one-dimensional in comparison. Just like those past two times they played in LA, they weren’t bad, but this time they lost out to their fellow Aussies.
Born Of Osiris were up next. To be honest, I thought they were absolutely terrible at this year’s Mayhem Fest, and I can safely say they were even worse last night. I have nothing against them or their fans, and they used to be cool a few years back when their deathcore style was new, but that trend is now dying down and this band hasn’t made any attempt to expand their music at all. They played the same chug-chug riff with the same background keyboard rhythm for almost an hour last night, and a lot of people were retreating outside to the sidewalk. That being said, quite a few people did seem to enjoy Born Of Osiris’ set, so it’s fair to say that the band still has their fans, and more power to them!
But because of the lull in proceedings that occurred due to Born Of Osiris’ overly long and tedious set, I got the opportunity to scope out the surroundings. Official tour programs were available free of cost, which was a nice souvenir item for all attendees to keep. Twelve Foot Ninja merchandise was selling like hot cakes, and Periphery themselves were selling a black metal spoof shirt, which I thought was a brilliant idea. Outdoors in the smoking area, it was amusing to see Tosin Abasi just coolly hanging out without a care in the world, being constantly swamped by fanboys and fangirls trying to get a picture with him. Honestly, it was major surprise to see him hanging out at this show, because in the modern prog sub-genre he’s the equivalent of Lemmy. But it was great to see him enjoying the attention and willing to talk to fans.
Back to the gig, Periphery began their set at around 10:35 and played a hefty 70-minute set with a sizable offering of tunes from both of their studio albums. I thought their set at Summer Slaughter was absolutely fantastic, and they should have been at least above Animals As Leaders on that bill. But while that set was all about their music and delightfully enormous stage presence, this show was quite different as they brought their own stage production with vertical LED strips occupying large real estate either side of the drum kit and emitting red and blue lights throughout the set, and there was also a strobe light in the center of the stage pointing directly at the audience. I didn’t really enjoy this aspect of the show and in fact, in my opinion it largely took away from the band’s musicianship. One of the most enjoyable things about a Periphery show is the chance to see these excellent musicians do their thing, but with this lighting setup there was not much seeing to be done last night. Periphery is all about the musical unison between the six members, but the flashing red, blue and strobe lights behind them actually made them look chaotic, which is a word I never thought I’d use in a Periphery review. The Roxy has the best lighting out of any venue of the Sunset Strip, and to see it go to waste was a bit of a shame. Granted that this was Periphery’s headline show and they could do whatever they wanted, but this time they kind of outsmarted themselves with this unnecessary stage setup.
With that said, they still sounded great, and aside from a brief technical issue with Mark Holcomb’s guitar, they were error-free. Misha Mansoor and his fellow instrumentalists were as good as ever, with vocalist Spencer Sotelo once again proving himself as one of the most versatile vocalists in modern metal. From the set list, my highlights were ‘Scarlet’ which has been a ‘guilty pleasure’ song for me ever since it was released, and the encore song ‘Icarus Lives!’ which truly brought the house down and provided a fitting climax to the set. So, while the lighting rig dampened the impact of Periphery’s otherwise powerful show, the fans still had a great time and got more than their money’s worth. Periphery are certainly the ‘cool kids’ in modern metal right now, and as long as they can stay focussed on the right things, they will be sure to attract even larger crowds in the future.
Related Links:
1. Interview: Periphery Bassist Talks Touring, Next Album, Stage Setup & More (Audio)
2. In Conversation With Twelve Foot Ninja Guitarist Steve MacKay
Set List:
1. Muramasa
2. Ragnarok
3. Ji
4. Scarlet
5. Have a Blast
6. Jetpacks Was Yes!
7. Insomnia
8. Luck as a Constant
9. The Gods Must Be Crazy!
10.New Groove
11.Facepalm Mute
12.Make Total Destroy
13.Masamune
Encore:
14.Icarus Lives!
Remaining Tour Dates:
10/25 – San Diego, CA @ Soma
10/26 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
10/27 – San Francisco, CA @ DNA
10/29 – Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
10/30 – Vancouver, BC @ Tom Lee Music Hall WITHOUT BOO
11/01 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Club Sound
11/02 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
11/04 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theatre
11/07 – Chicago, IL @ Mojoes
11/08 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cabooze
11/11 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House – WITHOUT BOO
11/12 – Quebec City, QC @ Dagobert – WITHOUT BOO
11/16 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
11/20 – New York City, NY @ Gramercy Theatre