Review by Andrew Bansal
[Marquee photo by Art Daniels]
August 10th 2014, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: Sunday on the Sunset Strip: the day of the dead. Typically, all clubs, bars and restaurants in the area are sparsely populated on Sundays, which means there isn’t a high-profile rock/metal show to be found, but it in turn gives an opportunity to some of the promising local bands to show their wares at these clubs. Fledgling LA hard rock band Future Villains have had quite a tremendous year, completing a successful North American tour with Steel Panther in the spring and continuing to play local shows regularly ever since they returned home. They’ve made somewhat of a habit of performing at the Viper Room, and here they were on this Sunday night with fellow LA band Mad Temple and Baltimore MD/Washington DC touring act Charm City Devils.
I arrived at the venue at 8:45, by which time Mad Temple were already half-way into their 30-minute set. I was surprised that the show started at 8:30, which is early for Viper Room standards on any night of the week. But whatever little I caught of Mad Temple formed a positive impression as they handled themselves well on stage, bringing an energetic brand of music dominated by an instantly enjoyable rock ‘n roll stomp which makes me inclined to catch them the next time they play a show around here.
Mad Temple links: facebook | twitter | instagram
Future Villains hit the stage at 9:30, and in the first couple of songs itself, they displayed more variety in their musicianship than most other young hard rock bands do in their entire set. After this compelling start they proceeded towards a fine rendition of AC/DC’s ‘If You Want Blood …’, and from then on, they absolutely scorched the stage with the remainder of the set, hitting the ‘sweet spot’ in every sense of the term, specially on the tunes ‘Toast To The Damned’ and ‘Devil In Her Bones’. Vocalist Dusty Bo excelled at the ‘screaming in tune’ singing style of the 80s, succeeded in getting the crowd to participate, and not only moved around on stage as much as he could but also posed for the photographers while hitting a high note or two. His band mates were extremely solid on their respective instruments as well, and one hopes for the lineup to stay together because nothing ruins young bands more than lineup instabilities and constant changes.
LA locals who’ve seen Future Villains in the past are strongly encouraged to see them again now, because based on this performance it’s clear that even in short period of time they’ve come a long way from being a passable opening act in Steel Panther’s Hollywood residency shows to what they are now, a tremendous live band forming great first impressions and turning naysayers into fans.
Future Villains links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram
Set List:
01. Sweet Little Evil
02. Bullets In The Wind
03. If You Want Blood (AC/DC cover)
04. Toast To The Damned
05. Devil In Her Bones
06. Reject
07. Down The Drain Blues
Upcoming Shows:
08/13 – Viper Room – West Hollywood CA
09/12 – Vamp’d – Las Vegas NV
09/20 – Whisky-A-Go-Go (Sunset Strip Music Festival) – West Hollywood CA
The Viper Room links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram