Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
September 13th 2014, The Troubadour, West Hollywood CA: Brooklyn NY based teenage metal trio Unlocking The Truth have been turning heads and grabbing attention with some high-profile activities in the recent past including an appearance at this year’s Coachella festival, and a gig at the Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles as an opening act to Motörhead in April, which is where many in this town got introduced to their talents, myself included. Malcolm Brickhouse (guitar/vocals), Jarad Dawkins (drums) and Alec Atkins (bass) have played plenty of festivals and support slots since then, but last Saturday night at the Troubadour in West Hollywood they took a significant step in their young yet already prolific career with their first ever headline show.
It was an unusual gig for LA/Hollywood concert regulars, as the headline act went on stage as early as 9 PM and the show was done by 10. Unlocking The Truth brought forth a great amount of energy and exuberance throughout their hour-long set and were well appreciated by this audience, and it was pleasantly surprising to see that they already have a big enough fan-following to garner a more-than-decent turnout at a venue like the Troubadour.
Obviously, the band is still very much in a developmental phase in terms of their musicianship and will certainly mature a lot further as they move forward, specially in the vocal department, but even at their current age they succeeded in entertaining the attendees here, doing a fine job on their respective instruments, Malcolm and Alec jumping off the stage and stepping out onto the floor on a few occasions to indulge in a more direct form of crowd interaction, and inviting fans up to join them up on stage. They ended the show with a song called ‘Monster’, with Malcolm surfing atop the crowd even while he played his guitar solo.
Unlocking The Truth proved that they have the music, the firepower and the fan-following to hold their own as a headline act, and fans of heavy music can expect this band to come through with plenty more such shows in the near as well as distant future.
Check out some more photos of Unlocking The Truth from the show below, and to view their downloadable versions or if you’re on a non-Flash device, click here:
Related: Interview With Jarad Dawkins Of Teenage Metal Band Unlocking The Truth
Unlocking The Truth links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram
Set List:
01. Ravens
02. Chaos
03. Help Me
04. Destruction
05. Take Control
06. Other Side
07. Start The Game
08. Escape
09. Drum Solo
10. Inside
11. Free As You Wanna Be
12. Monster
Upcoming tour dates:
09/18 – Toronto ON – The Opera House *
09/19 – Ferndale MI – Magic Bag *
09/20 – Chicago IL – Park West *
09/24 – New York NY – The Studio @ Webster Hall
09/26 – Philadelphia PA – The First Unitarian Church
* = w/ Living Colour
The Troubadour links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram