By Andrew Bansal
August 28th 2014, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Keeping to their current regimen of occasional live performances and taking a breather from working on material for the next studio album, New Jersey thrash veterans Whiplash traveled coast to coast for two shows out West this week, descending upon the Whisky in West Hollywood last night and slated to make an appearance at Slim’s in San Francisco tonight. Whiplash played the Whisky last summer as well, an extremely well-attended show, and Los Angeles’ thrash metal community was expected to turn up in support of legendary thrash figure Tony Portaro and his cohorts in Whiplash once again. New Jersey rock/metal group Sinners was their touring support act, and as always, the Whisky added their local openers. The thrash kids started arriving at the venue early evening onwards, and a great show was in the offing.
As I entered the venue at around 8:30 during an intermission between two of the local bands’ sets, listened to the house music and observed the atmosphere, two things crossed my mind: firstly, Lamb Of God’s ‘Omerta’ and Megadeth’s ‘Take No Prisoners’ will always be great metal songs no matter what, and secondly, iPads/mobile devices with giant screens and dudes with t-shirts tucked into their jeans don’t belong at a metal show. The LA thrash kids typically seen at shows of this nature were very much in the majority here, mostly under 21 and hence confined to the insides of the venue once they entered it, and the abundance of the under-21 crowd is always a refreshing change from the norm for the sake of the venue and the bands performing on stage.
Talking of the show itself, I missed out on the first four openers and the first ten minutes of Velosity because of my interviewing commitments with Whiplash, but by the time I joined the crowd in the midst of the Velosity set, the trio had already induced a giant mosh pit and were scorching their instruments in the same manner they do so often at this venue, playing a set as enjoyable as ever, specially the newer material. Aside from thrashing the crowd they turned quite a few heads amongst the onlookers and passers by. “Do you know these guys? They’re pretty good!” said Whiplash’s tour manager to me while she checked out Velosity’s set, while outside the venue, a dude walking down with his group of friends was overheard saying, “Whoever that band is, they’re killing it!” It’s the blend of traditional metal melodies which makes Velosity stand out amongst the hundreds of bands playing the same beaten-to-death Metallica/Slayer riff over and over. Velosity are playing another Hollywood show at Loaded tonight ($5, 21+) and I might well go down to check it out.
New Jersey female-fronted hard rock quintet Sinners took the stage next, and while their exhibition of metal firmly rooted in rock wasn’t at all bad and the singer put forth some very listenable vocals to go with decent work by the two guitarists, their style of music didn’t turn out to be a great fit with that of Whiplash and this thrash-hungry crowd standing on its toes ready for a mosh wasn’t quite digging Sinners’ set. The lack of energy from the band, except for some from the singer, also didn’t help their cause. It was time to start looking forward to the headline act.
For this audience, the Whiplash set couldn’t come soon enough, and finally at 11 o’ clock, guitarist/vocalist Tony Portaro, bassist Dank DeLong and drummer Charlie Zeleny walked onto the stage and gave these fans exactly what they wanted, an unabated set of old-school thrash metal dominated by the band’s revered early catalog, including songs like ‘Spit On Your Grave’ and ‘Insult To Injury’ which instilled thrash-induced euphoria into this crowd. But in addition they also demonstrated some of the newer material set to be included on the next album, and these couple of tunes sounded just as solid, proving that Tony Portaro hasn’t lost his chops and his well-selected band mates are up to the task of being his partners-in-crime, creatively and performance-wise.
The turnout was light in comparison to some of the other thrash shows that have taken place at the Whisky in the past year or so, but this crowd was very vocal in support of Whiplash, and this collective passionate expression of the fans is one positive aspect of getting to see a band with a cult following. The passion overran its boundaries in the case of some attendees, as at one point two chicks started making out with each other which I found to be extremely strange as I hadn’t exactly earmarked Whiplash as makeout music.
In an era where I strongly feel that thrash is dying and there isn’t a sufficient number of good young bands to justify a revival or a sustainment, it’s still up to the veterans to keep the flame burning and show everyone how it’s done. Whiplash certainly proved here that they do it as well as any of their peers, predecessors and successors. It’s quite clear that as a thrash fan you really can’t go wrong with Whiplash, so if you’re one of them, keep your eyes and ears peeled for more Whiplash live onslaughts and new music in the near future.
[Interview with Whiplash coming soon]
Whiplash links: website | facebook
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