By Andrew Bansal
January 18 2014, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Los Angeles industrial metal veterans Fear Factory recently completed a North American tour as main support to Megadeth. They played in front of crowds the majority of whom were completely unfamiliar with them, and for hometown fans who attended the Southern California show of that tour at the Grove Of Anaheim, it really wasn’t the ideal atmosphere for a Fear Factory live experience. But a month later, Fear Factory returned to their beloved Sunset Strip and played a headline show at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, as part of the club’s 50th anniversary celebration month. The band has had a long relationship with the Whisky, and it was only apt for them to partake in the festivities. Going into the show, Fear Factory fans had a good feeling about it being a memorable night, and by all means, it was.
A couple of hours before the headline act appeared, local opening band Kauze tore this stage to shreds with a tremendous performance that compelled a large majority of the audience to get involved and join in the fun. This thrash/groove metal band has been around in the Los Angeles scene for over eight years now, but due to lineup instabilities, they’ve not been able to play as many shows as they would have wanted. On this occasion, they got a great slot allotment of 8:40 to 9:10, the place was nearly packed with Fear Factory fans already, and led by vocalist Lane Steele, they impressed one and all with their musicianship and energy. He did a great job on the vocals both of the clean and growling varieties, and brought a highly entertaining stage personality to the stage with his hilarious crowd banter. The crowd was definitely enjoying Kauze’s set, they laughed at Lane’s jokes and engaged in mosh pits whenever the song demanded it. Lane himself jumped into the pit at one point, which was one of the best moments of the set. Guitarist Daisuke Wachi, bassist Jessie Sanchez and drummer Zac Morris combined well with the vocalist to play a killer set, although I felt the guitar could have been louder in the mix. Provided they can keep a lineup together, this band deserves more exposure and attention, for their undeniably excellent live show more than anything else.
Visit Kauze on the web:
Kauze.Bandcamp.com
facebook.com/Kauzeband
twitter.com/Kauzelsk
instagram.com/Kauzeband
Set List:
01. 12 Rounds
02. Mental Decay
03. We All Die Alone
04. Would You Say?
05. The Worst Is Yet To Come
06. The Rise To Power
07. Diabolic Possession
More Kauze photos:
After Kauze were done, I hopped over to the neighboring Viper Room to check out another awesome live band called Gypsyhawk, before returning to the Whisky well in time for the start of Fear Factory‘s set which began promptly at 11 PM with the title song from the band’s latest record ‘The Industrialist’. It turned out to be the only song from that album, as the band delved into some really deep cuts and rarities, along with the usual dosage of staples. Upon rejoining Fear Factory in 2010, guitarist and principal songwriter Dino Cazares explicitly announced that he had no interest in playing material off of albums he wasn’t a part of, namely Archetype and Transgression, but he has taken Fear Factory fans’ unending requests into account and has undergone a change of heart, willing to play those songs after all. The band played the Archetype title track in this set. I hadn’t even heard that song on my computer in a long, long time, leave alone hearing it played live, so it was almost like a trip back in time to the year 2004 when I first heard it on the MTV2 Headbangers Ball Vol. 2, and the band’s rendition of the song last night was greatly enjoyable as the crowd gladly participated in the ‘Open Your Eyes’ singalong.
Besides, one of the other rarities they dusted off was ‘Zero Signal, a song off of the Demanufacture album but made famous due to its appearance on the Mortal Komat soundtrack. Then there was ‘Cars’, a Gary Numan cover that was released as a bonus track on the Obsolete album with guest vocals by Gary Numan himself. Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell mentioned that they made an attempt to get Gary Numan to come out and join them for the performance of this song, but it couldn’t be arranged. Nonetheless, the band played an excellent version of it even without Numan, and Burton pulled out some dance moves on stage as well.
In terms of his vocal performance, Burton did not disappoint whatsoever. Usually that’s one aspect of Fear Factory’s live shows which is easy to criticize, not just for reviewers and critics but for fans of the band too. But on this occasion Burton put his best foot forward, doing extremely well on the clean singing parts in particular. Dino Cazares was his typical powerful self on the guitar, and Matt DeVries on bass with Mike Heller on drums laid down a thunderous rhythm section. Sonically, Fear Factory crushed the Whisky last night.
This was most certainly the best Fear Factory set I’ve ever seen, and if they continue to present such anthological set lists throughout the course of the year, fans worldwide are in for a treat.
Visit Fear Factory on the web:
FearFactory.com
facebook.com/FearFactory
twitter.com/Fear_Factory
Set List:
01. The Industrialist
02. Shock
03. Edgecrusher
04. What Will Become?
05. Damaged
06. Linchpin
07. Acres Of Skin
08. Cars (Gary Numan cover)
09. Archetype
10. Martyr
11. Leechmaster
12. Scapegoat
13. Demanufacture
14. Self Bias Resistor
15. Zero Signal
16. Pisschrist
17. Replica