Black Belt Karate Begins First Annual ‘Poker Run’ At King King Hollywood

By Andrew Bansal

July 23rd 2014, King King, Hollywood CA: Los Angeles hard rock quartet Black Belt Karate recently announced a ‘poker run’ of five shows spread through the LA area across a span of four weeks, and played the first of these shows at King King in Hollywood last Wednesday. They’ve printed custom poker cards to mark the event and are handing out cards at the merch booth at each of these shows, with prizes on offer for the best hand collected through the shows. King King made for good vibes the last time I was here, and it promised to be another fun evening out for locals.

Support act House Of Wolves, comprising a simple three-piece guitar-bass-drum setup, took the stage at 9:30 for an enjoyable set of raw, heavy stoner sludge which got progressively better as it went on, as the three band members were locking in with each other’s instruments more and more, resulting in a compellingly tighter sound. The mix they got wasn’t completely ideal and the bass certainly sounded louder than the guitar for most of the set, but they overall still made a positive impact on fans of heavy music. Their extended instrumental passages were extremely easy to appreciate, and it made me wonder how they’d do as an all-out instrumental band laying down guitar solos, bass licks and drum fills as the lead parts instead of vocals. It’s a possibility they ought to consider, although the vocals weren’t bad by any means. Regardless, it was great to be able to discover another promising LA band and I’m glad I arrived at the venue early enough to catch their set.

House Of Wolves links: website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp

Soon after, it was Black Belt Karate‘s turn, and even though they were a bit rusty to begin with, they picked up momentum a couple of tunes into the set and carried it all the way to the end, finishing on a very strong note with songs such as ‘Kaleidoscope’, ‘Burning’ and ‘Cry On The Mountain’. Guitarist Jason Achilles Mezilis’ tone felt dirtier than usual, solely due to the fact that he wasn’t using House Of Wolves guitarist/vocalist Lukas’ amplifier instead of his own, and it turned out to be a good thing as Black Belt Karate’s sound was rendered relatively raw as a consequence. The set also included an untitled song wherein Jason played a Wurlitzer electric piano, an absolutely beautiful composition that goes through transitions and comes across in a very 70s rock opera kind of way, and thankfully it was easier to absorb the entirety of the piano’s sound this time sans the overwhelming distraction that was the noisy Viper Room crowd the previous time I saw BBK play this one. To actually come up with a title that would match the enormity of the tune seems like a task even harder than performing it.

Through excellent, no-bullshit performances such as this, Black Belt Karate continue to be one of the most genuine and organic rock bands going around LA, and any local rock fan would be well served to catch them on at least one of these upcoming poker run shows.

Black Belt Karate links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram

Set List:
01. Mechanical Man
02. Street Cleaning
03. One And Only
04. Transformer
05. Servant
06. Brace Yourself
07. * Untitled Wurli tune *
08. Kaleidoscope
09. Burning
10. Cry On The Mountain

Remaining ‘Poker Run’ dates:
Thurs July 31st – The Federal [Long Beach]
Mon Aug 4th – Harvelle’s [Santa Monica]
Sat Aug 9th – The Mint [West LA]
Wed Aug 20th – Lexington Bar [downtown]

King King Hollywood links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram

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