Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
May 10th 2014, The Troubadour, West Hollywood CA: Los Angeles-based hard rock band Diamond Lane self-released their second full-length album ‘Terrorizer’ yesterday on, and to celebrate the occasion they played a headline show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood that coincided with the release date. Presented and curated by prolific local promoter Lara Gladstone, this show also featured promising Rosemead CA blues-based hard rock outfit Delta Rose and three other local bands Love And A .38, Bad Romantics and Book Of Curtis.
I entered the venue when doors opened at 8, and the first three hours of the show turned out be strange, to say the least. Book Of Curtis, Bad Romantics and Love And A .38 played their sets in that order, but none of them did anything to form any kind of positive impression on the audience with their performances. Their sets seriously lacked energy and passion, and it was almost as if they didn’t want to be there, which was literally the case with Book Of Curtis, where just one member had shown up without his band mates and played the set solo as vocalist/guitarist. As for Bad Romantics, Jason Achilles Mezilis of Owl and Black Belt Karate, whose musicianship I’ve grown to admire over the past four years, produced this band’s album and although not a member of the band, he sat in on keyboards for this set. But even his efforts couldn’t change my opinion of the band’s music which came across as too poppy for my personal taste, and wasn’t delivered with any conviction. The same goes for Love And A .38, whose music was decent in parts here and there but overall lackluster. In all honesty, the classic Metallica and Mötley Crüe tunes being played by the house DJ between sets was far more entertaining than anything going on stage during these first three hours. Justifiably enough, there were more people outside the main concert hall than inside of it. But thankfully, that would change with the arrival of our headline act and I was finally able to stop yawning.
Diamond Lane took the stage with a sense of purpose, bringing their A-game to mark the release of their new album, and aptly performing almost the entirety of it for this audience. They’re not one of those LA bands that play shows regularly, and as a result I’d never had a chance to see them until last night. The opening song of the set (and of the album) ‘The Enemy’ set the tone excellently, and led by dynamic frontman Brandon Baumann, Diamond Lane came out all cylinders firing. By the time they were done playing, they had succeeded in creating an indelible impact on the crowd, specially on first-timers like myself, delivering a no-frills brand of heavy music that brought forth everything great about hard rock, comprising fantastic clean vocals, catchy riffs, compelling solos and an effervescent rhythm section.
Besides his incredible performance on vocals, Brandon Baumann also did his bit to get the crowd involved, and was good at it. Guitarists Jarret Reis and Frankie Lindia (also of Legal Tender) along with bassist Ray Zhang carried a very active stage presence as well. In addition to the killer ‘Terrorizer’ tunes, they also treated us with an absolutely brilliant cover of Ozzy’s ‘No More Tears’. Altogether, the five members of Diamond Lane truly rocked the Troubadour with this performance. Hard rock fans are strongly encouraged to pick up ‘Terrorizer’ and keep a tab on Diamond Lane’s activities henceforth.
Check out a gallery of 13 Diamond Lane photos from the show below, or view them here if you’re on a non-Flash device:
Diamond Lane links:
DiamondLaneRocks.com
facebook.com/DiamondLane
twitter.com/DiamondLane
instagram.com/DiamondLane
Set List:
01. The Enemy
02. Favorite Kind Of Victim
03. Slow Destruction
04. Cheating Death
05. Life To Lose
06. * Solo *
07. New Model
08. No More Tears (Ozzy cover)
09. Hopeless Romantic
10. Kiss The Ring
Delta Rose were up next, serving as the post-headline act at this show which was a bit sad and unjust as a lot of people left the venue following the end of Diamond Lane’s set. But nonetheless, it didn’t deter the Delta Rose boys to put on a typically delightful performance, with their Van Halen and AC/DC inspired pristine bluesy hard rock. I’ve seen them play some amazing sets in the recent past, but their set on this occasion was shorter than usual, much too short for my liking. But it was good to see them present something different from past shows, as vocalist/guitarist Spencer Krasch put down his guitar and brought out his keyboard for the last song of the set ‘Golden Legs’ and added yet another new element in Delta Rose’s ever-growing musical repertoire.
Delta Rose is the kind of band that feeds off of a crowd’s energy, which was an aspect missing from this show as they started 15 minutes past midnight and played to a sparsely populated room, through no fault of their own. It was a severe disservice to their talents to slot them as a post-headline act, and ideally they should have played before Diamond Lane.
So, while the evening had its good and bad periods, on the whole it still made for a fun outing for the LA locals. The Troubadour should definitely play host to more such events in the near future because it serves as an ideal setting.
Check out a gallery of 14 Delta Rose photos from the show below, or view them here if you’re on a non-Flash device:
Delta Rose links:
DeltaRoseUSA.com
facebook.com/DeltaRoseUSA
twitter.com/DeltaRoseBand
instagram.com/DeltaRose
Set List:
01. Chew Me Up
02. Cut You
03. Crazy Little Game
04. One Is Too Many
05. Through The Night
06. Golden Legs
Lara Gladstone links:
facebook.com/LaraGladstone.Presents
twitter.com/LG_Presents
Troubadour links:
Troubadour.com
facebook.com/theTroub
twitter.com/theTroubadour
instagram.com/theTroubadour