By Andrew Bansal
January 12th 2014, Los Globos, Los Angeles CA: New Orleans sludgelords Eyehategod began their musical journey in the year 1988, and to celebrate the completion of 25 years of heaviness, they’ve embarked upon a run of anniversary shows on the US West Coast, with an Australian tour sandwiched within. After shows in Las Vegas and Phoenix, they made their way to Los Globos in the Silver Lake area in Los Angeles to play a sold-out show with an intriguing supporting lineup of Cattle Decapitation, Nausea, Obliterations and Strong Intention. Eyehategod have always enjoyed a tremendously loyal following in Los Angeles, as was evident from the kind of response they received for their set at Power Of The Riff 2011 at the Echoplex, and the same was expected here last night. It promised to be a special event, and in some ways it was, but in some others it wasn’t.
Upon arriving at the venue at 7:30 PM, I stood in the queue for people on will call/guest list, having no clue of the trouble that awaited me. As the doors opened at 8 and I walked up for the security check, the guy at the door told me I couldn’t come in with my backpack, even though there was nothing in it except for my camera, and I was approved to take pictures at the show. I told him I don’t have a car and took public transportation to get to the venue so I didn’t really have anywhere to put the backpack away, but he was having none of it. The reasoning he gave me was, ‘We can’t have people sneaking stuff in their backpacks.’ The venue didn’t have any ins-and-outs, and I clearly showed him what I had with me, so it was utterly confusing as to why he wouldn’t let me in. So, it took forever for me to sort out this issue. I couldn’t get in to until after 9 PM, and ended up missing the first band Strong Intention as a result. As a member of the local media that helped promote this show, the treatment dished out to me by the idiotic security staff was beyond disturbing and appalling. If anyone from the venue is willing to give me a valid reason for what transpired, I’m all ears. And unfortunately, this wasn’t the only negative aspect associated with the venue regarding this show, but I’ll get to that later.
Strong Intention ended their set at 9, apparently, but it wasn’t until 9:30 that the next band Los Angeles hardcore punk outfit Obliterations took the stage. In all fairness, they did prove to be worth the wait as they ripped into a fantastic 30-minute set full of angst and energy, fronted by a killer performance by vocalist Sam James Velde, and well backed by his band mates, including Saviours frontman Austin Barber on bass. This band put on a great show at the Power Of The Riff kick-off event at the Echo last year, and last night was equally good in that regard. For any fan of hardcore punk, it’s almost impossible to dislike Obliterations, such is the level of intensity they bring onto the stage. This is a brand new group that started out only last year, and by the looks of it, LA crowds will certainly get to see a lot more of them in the near and distant future.
Visit Obliterations on the web:
Obliterations.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/Obliterations
twitter.com/Obliterations_
A few minutes after Obliterations departed, Nausea guitarist Leon Del Muerte came up on stage and announced that his band would be canceling their appearance at this show because of their drumming Eric Castro being in hospital and not recovering in time to make it to the gig. A groan of disappointment was heard from a section of the audience that was looking forward to see Nausea here, and it must be a big blow to the band themselves as this was supposed to be their grand album release show. But, Leon did announce that the band will be playing at the Whisky on March 8th, opening for the very same band that was about to take this stage.
Visit Nausea on the web:
facebook.com/NauseaLA
So, another long wait began, and after more than 40 minutes of inactivity, Cattle Decapitation started their set at 10:45, but in all honesty, destroyed this stage with a grindelicious performance. Whenever they’ve played as a support band, they’ve always tended to stick out as a sore thumb and never got the response they truly deserved for being one of the finest live bands to have risen in the past decade-and-a-half. But last night was an exception to this trend as they clearly brought a large number of their own fans to this show and treated them with a show they thoroughly enjoyed every minute of. Vocalist Travis Ryan was in his element, bringing every bout of his insanity into the set. I strongly feel Dave McGraw is one of the best modern extreme metal drummers going around today, and he proved himself all over again with a monstrous exhibition on the skins. Material off of their latest album ‘Monolith Of Inhumanity’ sounded excellent, as did their older tunes. Besides, they won the merch contest hands down as they had the best shirt designs on display. Cattle Decapitation contributed just about as much to the show as the headline act.
Visit Cattle Decapitation on the web:
CattleDecapitation.com
facebook.com/CattleDecapitation
twitter.com/CattleDecap
instagram.com/Cattle_Decapitation
youtube.com/OfficialCattleDecap
After yet another 45 minutes of tiresome waiting, Eyehategod took the stage at midnight and played an hour-long set, capturing 25 years of ear-crushing sludge and pleasing their ardent fans who found themselves busy moshing, crowd-surfing, stage-diving and just having a blast the whole time their favorite band was up on stage. Chants of ‘Bower Power’ emanated at frequent intervals as the fans basked in Eyehategod’s shattering onslaught. Songs like ‘New Orleans Is The New Vietnam’ and ‘Sisterfucker’ were the highlights of the set, along with the new tune ‘Medicine Noose’. 60 minutes really felt like the apt set length for a band like Eyehategod, any shorter or longer would have dimmed the impact of the performance to an extent. Mike IX Williams was solid in his vocal delivery and funny in his crowd banter, with Jimmy Bower laying down those killer riffs, supported well by the rest of the band, specially drummer Aaron Hil who was formally introduced to the audience by Mike, as he also mentioned recently deceased drummer Joey LaCaze and dedicated the set to his memory.
But, as good as all three of these bands were with their performances, this show left a lot to be desired, mainly because of the venue which was clearly not worthy of being host to such a special occasion for LA metalheads. Where do I start? Aside from the rudeness and incompetence of the door security staff, the quality of the sound was far from acceptable, and there was hardly any lighting at all. Unless you were in the front row, it was extremely hard to see what was happening on that stage. If you paid the full $25 to get in, I’d say you’d be slightly miffed at not even being able to see the show. In addition, the roof of the place was dangerously and ridiculously low. The Obliterations singer was constantly hitting it with his mic stand, and crowd surfers were bumping into the handful of lights mounted on this roof. I have no idea who approved this place for metal shows and how. But that’s not all, as the house music from one of the other stages/rooms inside the venue was too loud and could be heard inside the room we were in. It’s hard to imagine a venue as dreadful as Los Globos being the first choice for the promoters of this show Thee Static Age (or whoever it was that booked and approved the venue for this show), and I’m guessing they did it here because they couldn’t get a better venue for this date. The Echoplex down the street would have been ideal.
Sadly, Eyehategod’s 25th anniversary Los Angeles show was ruined to some extent by this venue, and one would hope that LA metal concert goers would not have to visit this venue any time in the near future, or ever again, for that matter.
Visit Eyehategod on the web:
Eyehategod.ee
facebook.com/OfficialEyehategod
twitter.com/EyehategodNola
youtube.com/EyehategodTV
Remaining US tour dates:
1/22/2014 Jub Jubs – Reno, NV
1/23/2014 Brick And Mortar – San Francisco, CA
1/24/2014 Oakland Metro – Oakland, CA
1/25/2014 The Highline – Seattle, WA
1/26/2014 The Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO