By Andrew Bansal
March 13th 2014, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Highly influential death metal legends Possessed haven’t been an active live band in recent times for reasons aplenty, so whenever they do announce a show anywhere, it’s very much a special event for all of their die-hard fans in that town. The band played an eagerly-awaited Los Angeles headline show at the Whisky-A-Go-Go last night, a gig that was sold out in advance and attracted a huge amount of hype amongst LA’s death/thrash faithful. I saw Possessed open for Danzig on an extremely weird lineup at the Grove of Anaheim in 2010 and since then, besides Primus and ex-Possessed guitarist Larry LaLonde lightheartedly playing some riffs of his old band at the Fox Theater last year, I hadn’t had any taste of live Possessed. So I went into this show with a great degree of anticipation, waiting to discover what a Possessed headline show in LA is like.
The doors opened as early as 6 PM and the show started soon after, as a result of which I ended up missing Miscreancy and Darkult, the first two of the six local support bands, by the time I reached the venue through LA’s evening rush hour traffic.
The first band I got to see was Velosity, a technical thrash trio that’s been around in the local scene for more than four years and have improved tremendously in their musicianship during this period. They played an enjoyable 30-minute, 6-song set that got the moshpits going and warmed the crowd up for the rest of the show. Velosity presented a couple of newer songs that sounded a lot more diverse and mature as compared to the older stuff, specially the set-closer ‘Spiritual Encounter’. Amongst the four old songs, ‘Widespread Devastation’ clearly stood out as the best. Guitarist/vocalist Oscar Castillo demonstrated that he has attained new levels of quality in both aspects of his performance, while bassist Omar’s instrument was tastefully loud, definitely by design and not by accident because he ripped some killer licks on that bass in unison with Oscar on the guitar. Drummer Abimael Cruz did his part by maintaining a scorching tempo during the standard thrash bits and injecting some creative fills in the newer songs. While they still draw major inspiration from old-school thrash, there’s undoubtedly more to Velosity’s music than just that. Thrash is often described as mindless and repetitive by detractors, but Velosity is one of the few LA thrash bands that defy the norm and present a more intelligent interpretation of the genre. As it turned out, they were easily the best of the openers at this show, and thank goodness they didn’t do any covers. Look out for their new release and more shows in the area coming soon.
Visit Velosity on the web:
facebook.com/Velosity211
Set List:
01. Illumination
02. Widespread Devastation
03. Thrash Metal
04. DTA (working title)
05. Dying Ritual
06. Spiritual Encounter
Unfortunately, following Velosity’s set which ended at 8:30, it became a waiting game until Possessed hit the stage much later as the next two bands Lethal Fire and Mortifixtion failed to make a positive impression. They simply weren’t up for the occasion, seemed to be marred by stage fright and their music didn’t come across strongly enough to have any kind of impact on the audience. But these are things they can improve and get better at, and it’s not the end of the world for them. Both bands need to work on their stage presence as it makes a huge difference when playing to a largely unfamiliar audience, and is often more important than the music itself. Nonetheless, credit to them for stepping up onto that stage and performing, which for these youngsters couldn’t have been an easy thing to do in a setting like a sold-out Whisky-A-Go-Go.
One thing that bothers me when it comes to local support bands a lot is, they don’t announce their name nearly enough number of times. All of the opening bands at this show did it just once at the start of their set, but at this kind of show that’s just not good enough, as people are walking into the venue all the time and even if they end up liking a band, chances are they missed the name. In a city like LA with such an endless plethora of live music, bands should make every effort to make themselves memorable to the audience, and besides actually playing good music, saying your name goes a long way towards getting etched in the audience’s mind.
But despite the lack of action on stage and the seemingly long wait for Possessed, there was no shortage of entertainment coming from other sources at the show. Underage kids were constantly asking me to buy them beer, for example, and I was torn between breaking the law and breaking those kids’ hearts, but had to choose the latter. The house DJ was playing some sweet metal classics on the PA in the intermissions, and when Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ hit the airwaves inside the Whisky, as expected, a full-fledged moshpit ensued. It’s amazing how that song automatically starts a pit no matter when and where it’s played. Songs should be written about that.
And to spice things up further, popular performer/entertainment personality Malice McMunn was go-go dancing to the house music just like she did at the Havok show here a few months ago, and I find it hilarious that she gets asked to do her thing at all-ages thrash gigs, the kind of shows that certainly aren’t synonymous with go-go dancing, but somehow the vibe at this venue makes it all fit together appropriately enough. Dudes were gleefully tucking dollars in her wares. I’m by no means a dance connoiseur but I dug Malice’s performance at this show, and her booty shakes in rhythm with Scott Travis’ drum fills in Judas Priest’s ‘Painkiller’ gave the song a whole new meaning.
Coming back to the music, Unsanctified hit the stage at 10 PM as the main support act at this show, As a band that’s been around in the scene for a number of years, they brought a semblance of normalcy to the event and they seemed to actually know what they were doing on stage. The crowd looked too tired to mosh to their music at first but the pits started rolling as the set went along. I enjoyed their frontman’s lower register growls more than the guttural vocals, and their music came across as straight-up death metal in the vein of Deicide and Cannibal Corpse. Although nothing out of the ordinary, it was very solidly performed and served as a good appetizer for the main course to follow.
And finally at 11:20, the Jeff Becerra-led Possessed took the stage at a jam-packed Whisky-A-Go-Go. The venue had fit in as many people as they possibly could, and there was no room to walk about as even the aisles were occupied. As soon as the band ripped into the opening track ‘The Heretic’, it was all-systems-go for this audience that had waited patiently for this, and the moshing didn’t stop until after the band was done playing. Some ventured to crowd-surf their way onto the stage despite the venue’s extremely strict policy against stage-divers, and as a result, there was a constant stream of attendees getting kicked out of the venue. For the 90 minutes Possessed were on stage, Whisky was in every sense a hot, sweaty, overcrowded mess. I found the answer to the question that occupied my mind before the show. This is what a Possessed headline gig in LA looks like.
Performance-wise, Jeff Becerra proved that he can still handle most of the demands that come with performing the older Possessed material live. He played with a big sinister smile on his face and showed that he was very much enjoying his time up there. He brought with him an able group of band mates comprising drummer Emilio Marquez, guitarists Daniel Gonzalez and Mike Pardi, and bassist Robert Cardenas who each delivered on their respective instruments. Most longtime Possessed fans have reservations against this reincarnated version of the band and don’t want to give it their time of day, which is understandable, but as someone who never got to see this band in its prime, I have no basis for comparison and judging this performance as a standalone entity, I honestly can’t find any fault in it. They played some newer material as well, which sounded largely like what anyone familiar with Possessed would expect.
But at the end of the day, neither Jeff Becerra’s band mates nor the selection of tunes in the set list mattered to this ensemble of fans who had simply gathered here to have a good time with Possessed, which they sure did.
Visit Possessed on the web:
facebook.com/666Possessed
Set List:
01. The Heretic
02. Tribulation
03. Seance
04. The Eyes Of Horror
05. Pentagram
06. Evil Warriors
07. Satan’s Curse
08. Fallen Angel
09. The Crimson Spike
10. My Belief
11. Storm In My Mind
12. The Exorcist
13. Swing of the Axe
14. Burning in Hell
15. Seven Churches
16. Death Metal
Encore:
17. Confessions
18. Holy Hell
19. Beyond The Gates
20. Twisted Minds
Visit The Whisky-A-Go-Go on the web:
WhiskyAGoGo.com
facebook.com/theWhiskyAGoGo
twitter.com/theWhiskyAGoGo
instagram.com/theWhiskyAGoGo