Review by Andrew Bansal, live photos by Karina Diane
March 21st 2015, The Troubadour, West Hollywood CA: Veterans of all things metal in Los Angeles for over 15 years, Desecrate had been working on new material for the past few years and the result is a hard-hitting third studio full-length album called ‘Of Death And Damnation’, for which they played a release gig at the Troubadour (blasphemously also known as “The Troub”) last Saturday March 21st, leading a lineup featuring Diamond Lane, Future Villains, Delta Rose, BrainDead and The Sahns. Put together by Lara Gladstone, this was perhaps the best group of local bands Los Angeles concertgoers have seen and will see on one stage in a very long time.
The atmosphere here was expectedly much different from that of the Whisky the night before. Instead of cougars there were fake tits galore, and in place of a mediocre headliner was a lineup that promised to deliver. The setup of this venue is unique in that the stage itself is almost as large as the general admission standing area, which gives the attendees the feel of a big show in a small room. The turnout was spectacular right from the outset, and the crowd awaited the 8:20 start of the show.
Starting proceedings was three-piece rock ‘n roll band The Sahns, easing attendees into the evening with some laid-back jams combined with a tinge of humor which came out whenever they addressed the audience. With a lineup as diverse as this, the order of bands was going to be crucial, and most will agree that The Sahns, musically, were the appropriate choice for the opening act.
Next was blues/hard rock quartet Delta Rose, a band that has successfully graced this stage in the past. A good chunk of their set comprised their brand new material which came across as discernibly bluesier and more mellow than any of their older tunes. Their guitar tones sounded fantastic, and their indisputable songwriting skills were quite evident in these new compositions, the song ‘Good Thoughts’ in particular boasting of great guitar melodies. But due to the dominance of this new sound, this Delta Rose set did not possess the AC/DC / Van Halen / Guns ‘N Roses vibe it typically does, and even the usual bit with frontman Spencer Krasch lifting guitarist Forrest Goss on his shoulders for a solo was absent from the performance. Delta Rose’ new tunes showcase excellent musicianship, but the live show would be more energetic with a better balance between the old and the new.
After a brief delay, Future Villains invaded the stage to provide a much-needed spark to the event with a tremendous exhibition of relentlessly high-energy hard rock. The place was almost completely packed by the time they started their set at 10 PM. This was a big show and these dudes certainly seemed geared and primed for the occasion as they put forth a very professional performance, songs like ‘Devil In Her Bones’ and ‘Toast To The Damned’ standing out, but with no dull moment elsewhere in the set. This band has already conquered big stages all around the country and clearly show that they belong. I was honestly not digging the usage of the dancing girls on either side of the stage, not because they were unattractive but simply due to the reason that Future Villains have what it takes to garner any crowd’s undivided attention on the strength of their music and stage presence alone, and should not need to hide behind such things. That aside, it was the best set I’ve ever seen from them.
True purveyors of real American blue-collar heavy music, Diamond Lane were in Desecrate’s position last year and played their release show for a Lara Gladstone-presented event at this venue. This time, they appeared as the main support, and put on an even better show. Stylistically they are most definitely my favorite amongst the six bands that played this gig, and with their ‘Terrorizer’ album indelibly ingrained in my head through repeated listening over the past year, it was great to see that they also turned out to be the best band of this night. Everything on ‘Terrorizer’ is pure gold and any tunes they picked from it for this set were going to come across great, as was proven by their rendition of songs such as ‘The Enemy’, ‘Life To Lose’, ‘Hopeless Romantic’, and ‘Kiss The Ring’ which was once again the highlight of the lot. But besides, a brand new song called ‘Young Lust’ added further punch to the set, and one of their oldest songs ‘Bite The Bullet’ was another solid addition, sounding greatly stronger than its original 2008 studio-recorded version, and a song that should perhaps be re-recorded for the next album. Collectively, the members of Diamond Lane are on top of their game in terms of their songwriting, performance, appearance and stage presence, and this band should be heralded as the ultimate representation of LA hard rock and heavy metal.
Shortly after, headliners Desecrate took the stage and the set they laid down was by far the heaviest of the night, playing several tunes from the new ‘Of Death And Damnation’ album. They proved that they’ve come a long way in recent years as these songs sounded significantly more powerful than their past efforts and perfectly fit their on-stage personality as a group. This set kept gaining momentum with every song, as items like ‘The Drowning’ and ‘Blackened Skies’ induced mosh pits on the floor and ‘Into The Abyss’ was the standout inclusion from the new record. It’s the kind of song one could keep listening to on repeat for an entire day and not get tired of. The clean singing as well as the growling was well-executed in equal measure throughout the set, and the growls raised the anticipation for the clean singalong parts even further. The audience gave them a fittingly great response as metalheads absorbed every moment of the performance. They ended their show by inviting everyone to join them on stage, to which many in the front few rows obliged. A crushing set indeed.
And lastly, punk/thrash perpetrators BrainDead closed the night with an exhalation of boundless energy and GWAR-like humor. Led by one of the finest punk-inspired frontmen currently going around in Los Angeles, backed up with conviction on guitar and bass by the unique sight of identical twins and rhythmically held strong by a competent drummer, BrainDead have progressed admirably in the last two years and even though the crowd had thinned by this point, their set was well-received by first-timers and fans alike. The guitar was not dialed in properly in the mix, but except for that they brought their best to this stage.
I was worried that most attendees would leave after Desecrate’s set, and despite there being more people for BrainDead than I had expected, it must be said, that the practice of slotting a band as the ‘closer’ after the headliner i.e. the band with the biggest draw has already played, should end. No band should be in the position of seeing the crowd exiting the venue while they’re getting ready to play, specially not bands of the calibre of BrainDead. The headliner should be the last band to take the stage, because if they are indeed worthy of that title, their fans will stay to watch them no matter how late in the evening it is.
Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable event from start to finish, collecting the best musicians of the local heavy music scene and setting the standard for local gigs in town in terms of musical quality, diversity and turnout.
