Review by Darshun
March 19th 2014, The Echo, Los Angeles CA: Hailing from Brooklyn NY, hard rock band Mutoid Man played at the Echo last Wednesday March 19th on their West Coast tour with local support from Lightsystem, Black Mare and Mossbreaker, and our man Darshun was in attendance to review the show for us.
Mossbreaker is a Los Angeles based quartet hugely influenced by the band Failure. It was a loud set and I gathered that the sound man didn’t really dial the levels right according to one of the members of the band. Gabe’s Failure-esque guitar leads and vocals never disappoint. This would be my first time seeing Kevin Lessley rocking out on bass. Matthew Davis also held down the rhythm guitars while Jarred hit the skins like there was no tomorrow. Kellii Scott of Failure commented to me and Gabe after their set that Jarred is very much influenced by Dave Grohl. Mossbreaker tore through a couple of new tunes that sounded great. I am also proud to say that I’ve seen this band more than five times and you can easily say that I’m a fan. Note: they only have two songs released on 7” and digital. If you like modern space rock, you’ll definitely dig Mossbreaker.
Visit Mossbreaker on the web:
Mossbreaker.BandCamp.com
facebook.com/Mossbreaker
twitter.com/MossbreakerBand
instagram.com/Mossbreaker
Up next was another Los Angeles-based band Black Mare, featuring two members (Sera Timms: guitar/vox and Brian Tulao: guitar) of now defunct Black Math Horseman, a member of Ides of Gemini (J. Bennett: bass) and a member of Marriages (Andrew Clinco: drums). Sera is the mastermind of Black Mare, basically her solo project. This was my third opportunity to see the full band incarnation. The music is very haunting and Sera’s vocals are uniquely her own in these songs. On occasion she’ll just sing without playing guitar and letting Brian cover for her on guitar. One thing I learned from that night was that Brian was a former member of Mother Tongue back in the day. The lighting and sparse smoke machine gave a nice ambiance to the Black Mare set. J. Bennett’s bass playing intertwined with Andrew’s perfectly chosen drum hits. Sera’s vocals seemed effortless and beautifully serene with the dark tones. Black Mare’s album, “Field Of The Host,” is available on vinyl and digital and this set featured four songs from that album including two new songs. This was the longest set I’ve seen of Black Mare and never was a dull moment spared.
Visit Black Mare on the web:
TheBlackMare.com
facebook.com/pages/Black-Mare/166439840132254
twitter.com/TheBlackMare
Set List:
01. Tearer
02. Saturn’s Grave
03. Elk Sedge
04. Isa
05. Iseult
06. Fighting Birds
I know one thing for sure that Los Angeles is saturated with mediocre rock bands in its scene, but Lightsystem is definitely not one of them. With the departure of their keyboardist late last year, the band has found themselves as a power trio once more. The music was solid that night minus the soundman not knowing how to dial in Axe F/X with a direct in to the PA. The clean parts of Danny Byrne’s guitars were audible, but at the beginning of the set the distorted guitars were not. Probably midway through the set the distorted guitars were finally dialed in, albeit okay. Jason Greenly struck at his bass with a resounding urgency while John Kyle hit his drums with deadly precision. The band also have dialed in their own lighting and have come a long way and accented their songs just right. Their album “Lost Language” was released last year and is one of my favorite albums. Lightsystem’s set comprised of songs from this release and the highlights were “Bury The Tongue” and “Subtracted.” A great set of songs prior to the night’s main event.
Visit Lightsystem on the web:
Lightsystem.us
facebook.com/Lightsystem
twitter.com/LightsystemBand
Set List:
01. Mirrors/Reflections
02. Bury The Tongue
03. Subtracted
04. Plurals
I buckled up for the wild ride of a set of Mutoid Man, fronted and masterminded by Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky and Converge’s Ben Koller. Late last year, their album “Helium Head” was released and is a blistering seven song album. Last night they played all the songs from that album including a couple of Cave In songs for good measure. Their merch girl Sara Beth guested on the Dio-era Black Sabbath song “Falling Off The Edge Of The World”. This rendition was awesome and her vocals soared. I was so sad missing the last half of the set last night due to my transportation issues, but the first half was so memorable. I had also missed their in-store set at Vacation Vinyl on March 9th and couldn’t go to their set in Santa Ana at the Observatory. What a bummer missing that many times the greatness that is Mutoid Man. At least I bought the second-to-last tour copy of Helium Head on vinyl. Stephen, please continue this band and bring back Cave In to the West Coast.
Visit Mutoid Man on the web:
facebook.com/MutoidMan
twitter.com/MutoidMan
Set List:
01. Scavengers
02. Scrape The Walls
03. Friday the 13/8
04. Effigy
05. Retina Sees Rewind
06. Falling Off The Edge Of The World (Black Sabbath cover)
07. Sacriledge
08. Little Dick
09. Lost In The Hive
10. The Manimals
11. Big Riff
12. Gnarcissist
Visit the Echo on the web:
AtTheEcho.com
facebook.com/EchoLA
twitter.com/TheEchoLA
instagram.com/TheEchoLA