Animals As Leaders Headline The Roxy

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal

March 30th 2014, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Modern progressive metal band Animals As Leaders embarked upon a month-long North American headline tour to coincide with the release of their third studio album ‘The Joy Of Motion’ which came out on March 24th via Sumerian Records. On this tour, their support acts were label mates After The Burial along with former Animals As Leaders drummer Navene K with his solo act, and CHON. The last show of the tour took place at the Roxy in West Hollywood, a show that was sold out in advance, and starting as early as 5 PM, the queue of people starting forming outside the venue in anticipation of an eclectic evening of heavy music.

Doors opened promptly at 7 and although the show started 30 minutes later than the scheduled time of 7:30, it turned out to be worth the wait. The Roxy had closed its doors for a couple of months to undergo renovation and reopened this month. Upon entering the venue, it’s easy to notice that the VIP section, the men’s restrooms and the backstage area have received a facelift, and as was discovered later during the course of the show, the sound and on-stage lighting are better than they used to be, and these changes make for a more enjoyable concert experience for attendees.

San Diego-based prog quartet CHON were the first to take the stage and with their 30-minute set of well-crafted tunes filled to the brim with delightful guitar harmonies, they impressed this crowd, many of whom were already familiar with the band and were almost as excited for their set as the headline act. This was CHON’s first ever full North American tour and judging by the quality of their musicianship and its presentation on stage, it certainly won’t be the last and I can foresee this young band going on to achieve great things. Besides the guitar wizardry, special mention must be given to drummer Nathan Camarena for his demonstration of extremely creative fills that enhanced the impact of the tunes. Fans of Animals As Leaders and bands of that nature will find a lot to appreciate in CHON’s music, and the band couldn’t have picked a better first tour. Fantastic.

Visit CHON on the web:
facebook.com/MusicOfChon
twitter.com/ChonOfficial
instagram.com/ChonOfficial
youtube.com/ChonOfficial

Set List:
01. Knot
02. Fluffy
03. Wut the… (Poop)
04. O.G.
05. Dew
06. Bubble Dream
07. Ecco
08. Suda
09. Perfect Pillow
10. Elliptical Illuminations

Next up, ex-Animals As Leaders drummer Navene K played a solo set, a truly one-of-a-kind experience for the audience. His act solely consisted of him and his drum kit, as he played live drums along with a backing sequence of electronic music tracks composed by him. His music is far from being categorized as metal or rock, but in the live setting he presents it in a manner that’s almost impossible for a progressive rock/metal fan to dislike. Electronic music is all about the beat at most times and Navene brought these beats to life with his exemplary drumming on stage, on a drumkit that’s very unconventional and different from what’s seen in rock and metal. Performance-wise he was at his best and fondly reminded Animals As Leaders fans of his work in that band. Besides, he seemed to be in jolly spirits and gladly addressed the crowd between tracks. He left the stage to a rousing reception and definitely garnered a new set of fans.

Visit Navene K on the web:
NaveneK.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/Navene-K
facebook.com/NaveneK
twitter.com/NaveneK
instagram.com/NaveneK

Minneapolis prog metal/hardcore band After The Burial were the next to take the stage. This is a band I’ve seen several times over the past few years and as a live act they never fail to impress, which was exactly the case at this show as well. Theirs was the most high-energy set of the show, and the only one to initiate circle pits. After The Burial truly got this crowd to bounce with their tunes and put on a killer performance that’s become typical of them nowadays. Their music is more than meets the eye, much more diverse than what you would imagine it to be if you weren’t familiar with them and merely formed a pre-conceived notion based on their genre description. They have the deathcore breakdowns but also present a healthy dose of shred guitar leads and harmonies by axemen Justin Lowe and Trent Hafdahl, and the ‘djent’ sound is very much a prominent part of their music as well, with bassist Lee Foral and drummer Dan Carle playing an integral role in that aspect. As for vocalist Anthony Notarmaso, he managed to get the crowd more and more on the band’s side with his level of interaction and vocally he brought forth a great range of styles. He deserves to be considered as one of the best modern metal vocalists going around today. Set list-wise, they mixed it up and presented material off of each of their four studio albums, but the song ‘Pennyweight’ from the latest effort ‘Wolves Within’ was probably my favorite of this set. Although it’s musically as heavy as anything they’ve done, it has a fun, party vibe to it, almost in a punk-ish sort of way, with the gang vocals thrown in for good measure, and it was all the more fun in the live setting. All in all, great set once again from After The Burial.

Visit After The Burial on the web:
facebook.com/AfterTheBurial
twitter.com/AfterTheBurial
instagram.com/AfterTheBurial

Set List:
01. A Wolf Amongst Ravens
02. My Frailty
03. Berzerker
04. Pennyweight
05. A Steady Decline
06. Anti-Pattern
07. Aspiration
08. Your Troubles Will Cease and Fortune Will Smile Upon You

And finally at 10:35, Animals As Leaders took the stage amidst huge cheers to play a 60-minute set consisting of a blend of tunes from their three studio albums, with four songs off of the newly released ‘The Joy Of Motion’. These new tunes created a mellower vibe as compared to the previous album ‘Weightless’, but definitely sounded more guitar-driven and showed some traits that were prevalent on the debut album. Talking of which, there were as many as five songs off of that unforgettable self-titled album, much to the delight of those in the audience that had followed the band since their very beginning. In all honesty, Animals As Leaders’ debut album being as great as it was, it was always going to be a double-edge sword because it gave the band a great launching pad and rapidly garnered them recognition, but then all their following albums would be compared to that one. I thought ‘Weightless’ didn’t quite live up to deliver the same level of musical brilliance, but the ‘The Joy Of Motion’ gets a lot closer to doing so, and the live renditions of some of its tunes at this show proves that. Over time with repeated listens it might even be considered equally as good as the self-titled.

Besides the music in this set, the other notable aspect of Animals As Leaders was the sequence of visual patterns on the two screens behind the drumkit, which was done using an LED-based display instead of the projection-based display they’d been using in the past. This gave these visuals a lot more impetus and enhanced the show a great deal, forming a great combination with the Roxy’s new LED-based on-stage lighting.

‘Tooth And Claw’ stood out to me as the best live song off of ‘The Joy Of Motion’, while as expected, ‘Tempting Time’, ‘Wave Of Babies’ and ‘CAFO’ were the highlights of the set on the whole. But regardless of the songs in the set, this was a complete audio-visual presentation of modern progressive music in a manner only Animals As Leaders can pull off with success. Every time they take to a stage in the LA area, the trio of Tosin Abasi, Javier Reyes and Matt Garstka blow minds with their musical prowess, and fans of the band and the genre will look forward to their return.

Overall, an incredibly eclectic and thoroughly enjoyable show for one and all.

Visit Animals As Leaders on the web:
faebook.com/AnimalsAsLeaders
twitter.com/AnimalsAsLeader
instagram.com/AnimalsAsLeaders

Set List:
01. Tooth and Claw
02. Do Not Go Gently
03. Tempting Time
04. Wave of Babies
05. Ka$cade
06. Lippincott
07. Point to Point
08. The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing / Behaving Badly
09. Espera
10. Physical Education
11. Weightless
Encore:
12. To Lead You to an Overwhelming Question
13. CAFO

Visit the Roxy on the web:
TheRoxy.com
facebook.com/TheRoxy
twitter.com/TheRoxy
instagram.com/TheRoxy 

Comments

comments