By Lisa Burke
October 16th 2015, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: I find it interesting that upon feeding my addiction to live metal on a nightly basis, even with the vast array of venues available I usually end up spending a week in the same location or very close by it. Last week has been a Sunset Strip kinda week, and last Friday night brought me to the Viper Room for the live debut of a newly formed rock ‘n roll band Furiosa with Young Flood, Plastic Rhino, and Pacific Radio also on the bill.
I arrived at the Viper Room in time to catch one of the openers, an alternative rock band Plastic Rhino. This local band consists of two female vocalists that play well off each other and have a very similar alto based range. There were some Alice In Chains vibes happening with the guitar style and some pretty fun and creative bass jams were in effect as well. The style with the two singers and overall tones could be compatible with Varuca Salt, and somewhere towards the middle of this set the two girls put on thin black cloaks, which led me to think there were going to be some dark undertones, yet I found nothing dark about this band. The powerful vocals incorporated screams which broke them out of the overall stagnancy that was otherwise in existence, and once all elements added up, it was a very solid and entertaining set.
Plastic Rhino set list:
Big Man Baby
Queen Crimson
H2S
Cochise
M.A.D.
Next up was Furiosa, which is Jonah Nimoy’s new project, and my main reason for attending this show. If you aren’t aware, Jonah is a dude with multiple musical talents who over the past few years of my observance has really grown into himself. This particular incarnation is written solely by Jonah Nimoy, and by that I mean he wrote lyrics, vocals, guitars, bass, drums as well as created his own artwork. If you are familiar with his previous band Legal Tender which consisted of him on drums originally and later he moved to vocals because nobody puts Jonah Nimoy in the corner, you should be aware that this is an entirely different band which is very hard rock in style. There is definitely an abundance of the Jonah style in both bands yet this one really exemplifies the window to his soul. As a genre style I prefer Legal Tender for its thrashy metal vibe, yet there is no denying the talent that soaks through with Furiosa, and there are some really witty and unique hard rock songs that lit up the Viper Room brighter than ever. From his fast hard riffs to an almost Western and slightly apocalyptic melodic vibe, he covers it all, and keeps the audience completely engaged with his ever-growing and empowering frontman skills. So if Jonah wrote everything how does he present this one-man show on stage? Well, he either clones himself Oompa Loompa style three or four times, or he hires some pros to do a bang-up job of representing his personal style and solo creation. The real Jonah on stage plays guitar and sings, and even switches guitars when necessary like the young rock star he has become. He even opened the show with a pre-recorded track that established the mood well, and then he did a little solo jam before the other players joined in. From the very beginning of his performance, with my lack of prior knowledge of the style I had no idea what I was in for, yet it was immediately clear what his style was, and it only got more interesting from there. Some serious thought was clearly taken into consideration on how the whole production was to be presented. It started literally with ‘The End’, and it ended with in my opinion his strongest song to date, titled ‘Wired Mind’. ‘Believe to See’ was another great tune which consisted of a trippy and wild bass solo played by ‘the man in the shades’ yet written by Jonah. It’s All-Systems-Go on this wild ride, and as the name of the band may or may not suggest, by the end of the set with all the talent exploding in my face I felt that Jonah and his crew could have still mesmerized the audience with one arm tied behind their backs. Go see Furiosa if you think good heavy rock ‘n roll died on the Strip in the ’80s so they can prove you so very wrong.
Furiosa set list:
The End
The Dead Song
Take What’s Mine
Believe To See
Life Sucks-PT 1
Life Sucks-PT 2
Wired Mind
The last band I watched on this night was one of the many projects Joseph Holiday is involved in and another heavy hitting rocked out punky band called Young Flood. His vocals, as always, command the hell out of a room and scream with the highest form of energy this planet can hold. As I was not in attendance for the whole set and am fairly unfamiliar with this particular project I will not ramble in uncharted territory, however I will say it’s a solid and technically sound group, and the heaviest band of my evening that I wish I had gotten to experience in full. I am interested in seeing what the future holds for all the bands mentioned, and it’s a very good feeling to know that new rock ‘n roll is still being produced, and is absolutely out there kicking ass for a packed to the maximum house.
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