Monolith, Livin Alive & Tyranis Bring Metal To El Monte

By Andrew Bansal

imageJuly 17th 2015, Silver Dollar Saloon, El Monte CA: As part of their three-day Southern California heavy metal bender, San Diego-based Monolith and Los Angeles’ own Livin Alive presented a night of old-school metal at the Silver Dollar Saloon in El Monte last night, along with opening act Tyranis hailing from Orange County. Monolith caught my attention in early 2014 with a stellar performance at the Down’N Out in downtown LA, and have been on my radar ever since. They released their debut full-length album ‘Against The Wall Of Forever’ via Funeral Noise Records in February 2015 and with a revamped lineup, have been going all guns blazing as a live band. The combination of Monolith with Livin Alive, one of Los Angeles’ most exuberant young bands, promised to deliver an enjoyable Friday night for all in attendance.

Upon arriving at the venue at 9 PM, the strength of the turnout was already noticeable as a good number of people were seen hanging out at this sports bar, soaking in the brews. The stage was set up on the floor in one corner of the room, and at around 9:45, Tyranis began the show with a hefty dosage of quintessential rock ‘n roll a la AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath. They carried a steady tempo and groove through their set, with occasional fast thrashy outbursts, and sounded loud, heavy and pristine. For a room of this nature, the quality of the sound was commendable. Tyranis have been around since 1999, which makes me feel disappointed in my own exploratory powers, because they were an unknown entity to me prior to this gig. Anyhow, better late than never. Tyranis is rock ‘n roll badassery certified.

Next up, perfectly slotted in the middle as the sole out-of-town touring band on this lineup, Monolith took the stage and decimated it with a scintillating classic metal onslaught that garnered unanimous cheers and shouts from the audience, and the beers were flowing all around at an increasingly rapid rate. May be it was due to the fact that the stage and audience were on the same level, but singer Aaron Howell certainly had a Neil Fallon thing going on in his performance and augmented his expert singing voice with a wide range of expressions and moved around plenty to get in people’s faces. Meanwhile, guitarist Doug Walker led the charge instrumentally and was not at all far behind in his energy level, leaping onto the pool table in the middle of the room to play an entire guitar solo at one point. Even in the short period elapsed since the last time I saw them, Monolith have taken themselves to a whole another level, performance-wise. Their studio material is classic metal to the core but their live show is all that and more, with elements of rock ‘n roll and punk infused in the mannerisms and stage presence. While every song in the set contributed positively towards the impact they made on this grateful crowd, ‘The Emperor’ stood out as the highlight.

On a side note, Aaron Howell happens to be from Denver, and sang in the Dio tribute band Dios Mijos that played with Night Demon and Raven at the Three Kings Tavern in his hometown in November 2014. Besides, Doug Walker is from Louisville, Kentucky, and is used to live with Adam Neal, guitarist/mastermind of Savage Master, whom Night Demon played and stayed with last month. Small world.

When it comes to the so-called old-school metal, there is a lot of elitist, hipster attitudes flying around these days, where people try to outdo each other in their coolness factor based on how many obscure bands they know about. If you take an honest look at yourself and admit that you come under this category, I have news for you. Your old-school status isn’t vaild until you become aware of the greatness of Monolith. One of the finest performances of the year, hands down.

Monolith
Monolith

And lastly, Livin Alive played a typically fist-pumping, hellraising set to bring the night to an apt end, presenting tunes from their 2014 Heavy Cream Records release ‘Shred The Gnar’ and more. All four members of this band rock as hard as humanly possible whenever they take a stage, and it’s refreshing to watch. Livin Alive is right up the alley for metalheads but also cross over well into the skate/punk realm with their musical style and overall outlook.

Guitarist/vocalist Wowie is genuinely the most metal dude I know in the Los Angeles heavy music scene. Besides excellently fronting his own band, he also set up and organized this show and did everything to ensure that things ran smoothly, helping in changeovers, working with the sound guy, and adding his own lights and fog machine for all three bands. There is no denying that this city needs more people like him.

Overall, a glorious night of heavy music in an unexpected setting.

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