Diamond Lane & Legal Tender Rock Loaded Hollywood

By Andrew Bansal

August 25th 2014, Loaded Rock Bar, Hollywood CA: After a few gigs at the Skinny’s Lounge in North Hollywood in late 2013/early 2014, Lara Gladstone’s Metal Mondays series took a brief hiatus but has now returned at its new home Loaded Hollywood. The first Metal Monday at Loaded took place last night, featuring an all-local lineup of hard rock and heavy metal bands as always, this time including highly promising groups Diamond Lane and Legal Tender on the bill among others. These two bands have made an impact stronger than most others whenever I’ve seen them take a stage in the recent past. The prospect of seeing them together for the first time bore quite some potential, and was too exciting to even consider accepting a free ticket to the Nine Inch Nails / Soundgarden show happening at the Hollywood Bowl on the same night. But having made that choice, stakes and expectations were raised much further than usual, and it was up to these bands to meet them.

I arrived at 8 PM and was able to catch the entire five-band lineup, but aside from our two main protagonists, the only other band worth mentioning in a positive light is Heavy Justice who were the second band of the show and played a 25-minute set just before Diamond Lane. The four-piece Heavy Justice brought forth a sound very clearly inspired by Metallica and put on a solid performance with lots of energy but the biggest negative I could point out in their set is the excessive length of songs which reminded me of Metallica’s ‘Justice’ and not in a good way, as I’ve never been a huge fan of the overtly long tunes on that record and for a band that never fell under the progressive rock category, most of those songs dragged. Aside from this shortcoming, I feel Heavy Justice’s music needs to showcase a little bit more of its own identity as opposed to merely the Metallica salutation. But a good set, nonetheless.

Heavy Justice links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram

Soon after, LA hard rock quintet Diamond Lane arrived on this stage and conquered it with a 6-song set, setting Loaded ablaze with riffs, solos, harmonies and soaring vocals galore. They made an indelible first impression on me at the Troubadour a little over three months ago and while that performance was great in every sense, they bettered it by several notches with what they did here at Loaded. The relatively much smaller sized room enhanced the power of Diamond Lane as a live band to a large extent and it was hitting the audience with far greater punch.

Their latest full-length album ‘Terrorizer’ has not left my playlist ever since it was released, and adding to the enjoyment of this Diamond Lane show was the experience of hearing these songs live now after getting hugely familiarized with the album as opposed to that Troubadour show when I knew nothing about the band. All five members were on fire here and combined to deliver a memorable performance. ‘Kiss The Ring’, perhaps the best song on ‘Terrorizer’, was the highlight of the set but heavy bangers like ‘Life To Lose’, ‘The Enemy’ and ‘Hopeless Romantic’ ensured there wasn’t a single dull moment to be had, while their rendition of Ozzy’s ‘No More Tears’ got the crowd to sing and the incredibly catchy new tune ‘Bite The Bullet’ was an ideal way to end this fantastic set. Diamond Lane is undoubtedly onto something great, and I strongly urge all rock and metal fans to introduce themselves to the band’s hard-hitting music and face-melting live show.

Diamond Lane links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram | bandcamp

Set List:
01. Life To Lose
02. The Enemy
03. Kiss The Ring
04. Hopeless Romantic
05. No More Tears (Ozzy cover)
06. Bite The Bullet

Following an act like Diamond Lane was always going to be a tough challenge, but the dudes in Legal Tender were certainly up to it, presenting a sound relatively more metal than Diamond Lane’s but still constructed on a hard rock foundation which is what makes it easily accessible and relatable to a wide-ranged audience. They began with an older composition called ‘The Paradox’ and then delved into newer tunes ‘Swallow Your Soul’, ‘Until You Bleed’ and the instrumental ‘The Hunt’ which sounded decidedly stronger than the older ones in every way, no doubt a promising sign in terms of the progress the band has made as songwriters. Legal Tender’s manner of combining songwriting talent with a high-octane brand of on-stage performance makes them an unmissable live act. Besides the stellar new songs the set also included the ‘Lust In Demons’ title song and everything was going perfectly smooth for Legal Tender until an intoxicated dude knocked out frontman Jonah Nimoy’s guitar amp stack and they had to play the set-closer ‘Street Walker’ with a one-guitar setup. Respect for the stage and for the performing artist is such an underrated thing, and oftentimes audience members show none of it. This was another example. Anyhow, it was still a tremendous set by Legal Tender and they’re clearly a band that only succeeds in enhancing both their reputation and their repertoire with every single live performance.

Overall, a great time was had at Loaded Hollywood with Diamond Lane and Legal Tender on this Metal Monday, and I was filled with nothing but vindication with regards to the choice I had made in attending this show.

Legal Tender links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram

Set List:
01. The Paradox
02. Swallow Your Soul
03. Until You Bleed
04. Lust In Demons
05. The Hunt
06. Street Walker

Lara Gladstone links: facebook | twitter

Loaded Hollywood links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram

Comments

comments