Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
July 21st 2015, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Philm and Owl are two of Los Angeles’ most unique musical entities, bands that many may find hard to appreciate but highly gratifying to those who can. After being in existence for a number of years and playing their respective one-off gigs and short touring runs, the two three-piece experimental heavy rock groups finally came together for a one-of-a-kind gig at the Whisky-A-Go-Go in West Hollywood last Tuesday July 21 2015.
At 10:45, Owl took the stage to put forth a dynamic six-song set that presented tunes from the band’s upcoming Overit Records release Things You Can’t See, as well as from the previous album ‘The Right Thing’ and the self-titled debut. Bassist/vocalist Chris Wyse transitioned seamlessly between standard and upright bass instruments, all the while delivering vocals with much expression. Alongside him, Jason Achilles Mezilis held his own on guitar and backing vocals, and in the backdrop, drummer Dan Dinsmore maintained a solid beat. The newer tunes blended into the Owl live set so well that it was almost as if they weren’t even new. The old gem ‘Pusher’ still remains as the centerpiece of their set as proven once again last night, but the Things You Can’t See title track had an equally strong impact, and the set ended on a real high with the progressive, jam-oriented ‘Violent Center’. Towards the end of this tune, Jason Mezilis placed his guitar horizontally at the edge of the stage and used a front row photographer’s additional camera lens to play a slide solo. If that’s not experimental, nothing is.
Aside from Les Claypool of Primus, one cannot think of a hard rock/heavy metal band that successfully employs the usage of upright bass. Qualities such as that make Owl an intriguing band. They sounded supreme on this Whisky stage, did justice to the potential power of their sound more than ever before, and proved themselves worthy of sharing the bill with a band as immensely talented as Philm. Owl certainly kept Hollywood’s nocturnal rock-loving creatures awake and attentive through their performance last night.
Set List:
01. The Right Thing
02. Send
03. Alive
04. Pusher
05. Things You Can’t See
06. Violent Center
More Owl photos:
Shortly after, the trio of Dave Lombardo (drums), Gerry Nestler (guitar/vocals) and Pancho Tomaselli (bass), together known as Philm, gracefully took the stage, only to completely tear it apart with an exhibition of unparalleled cohesive musical wizardy. They began with the crushing title track from the latest album ‘Fire From The Evening Sun’, and followed it up with ‘Vitriolize’, the most relentlessly high-octane track off of the debut album ‘Harmonic’. They went on to play a sizable chunk of the newest LP, along with select offerings from the debut. Not a single word was said through the entirety of the set, as this was purely and solely about the music.
One of the most unique things about Philm is their stage setup, with Lombardo, Nestler and Tomaselli all positioning themselves at the front edge of the stage, in line with each other to treat audiences with a band of three frontmen. Having seen them at various venues in and around Los Angeles and then seeing them on this Whisky stage for the first time, it has to be said that this venue suits them best. The monstrosity of the Philm sound was coming across in full through the Whisky’s PA system. In addition, whoever was doing lights did a tremendously awesome job both during Owl and Philm’s sets, the latter in particular, as the strobes and colors were used perfectly to augment the moods and tempo of Philm’s music.
The turnout wasn’t spectacular but it was just as expected, and those in attendance undeniably considered themselves fortunate to bear witness to the events unfolding on stage. Dave Lombardo left no one in any doubt that Slayer’s loss is the true heavy music fan’s gain. On that subject, it was refreshing to note that there were no mindless yells of ‘Slayer!’ at any point during the set, which makes complete sense because Philm’s music, for the most part, is not for Slayer fans.
Philm belted out one scintillating tune after another for an hour straight, and there was no letting up from them. The other major noticable aspect of this show was the indication that through changes and upgrades in their gear, and the rise of their mutual chemistry and cohesiveness, Philm sound much cleaner and polished as compared to when they started performing live in 2010. The savagery comes through the songwriting and arrangements, but the sound is clean and each layer is perfectly discernible. Philm in 2015 is far superior to its 2010 incarnation.
The ability to appreciate Philm is indeed a privilege, because in terms of the level of musicianship, no other individual or band will come anywhere close all year long. This was the best show of 2015 so far, and will stand strong in memory for a long time. A show in a class of its own.
More Philm photos:
