By Andrew Bansal (Sorry, no live photos. Blame Danzig)
October 31st 2015, Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles CA: Glenn Danzig’s ‘Blackest Of The Black’ package tour was resurrected in 2015 for the first time in five years, and traveled through North America for four weeks before landing in downtown Los Angeles for its final gig, on Halloween night at the Microsoft Theater (formerly Nokia Theater) in the L.A. Live court. Headlined by Danzig, of course, the diverse lineup featured the comeback of Superjoint, along with Veil Of Maya, Prong and Witch Mountain. Many of the attendees were in costumes, and they trickled into the venue in the early evening with expectations of an entertaining Halloween celebration, but ended up witnessing what could lightly be described as one of the most bizarre shows ever.
Doors opened at 6:30, and the show started at 7 PM, with less than 100 people present at this 7100-capacity theater, as Portland, Oregon doom quartet Witch Mountain was the first to take the stage. The spellbinding performance they put forth at Los Globos earlier this year was translated brilliantly to a stage much, much bigger, and the band’s sound came across as powerful enough to fill the entire theater. It was strange to see such a small number of people scattered through the standing room general admission floor and seated orchestra sections and it would have been far more sensical to have everyone as close to the stage as possible, but that’s what comes with big shows and categorized ticket prices. Frontwoman Kayla Dixon was commanding the stage with voice and presence in equal measure, and even though her face was practically invisible even from the front row of the orchestra as it was so far away from the stage, it is safe to assume that Dixon brought along her usual range of facial expressions and theatrics. Her band mates were laying down an exemplary exhibition of heavy worship, and were wearing costumes. As much as I wanted to take a picture to show you all what they were wearing, I couldn’t do so because of the ridiculously strict Danzig-enforced no-photos policy which applied to the opening bands too. Anyhow, Witch Mountain were restricted to a 25-minute set which meant they could only play three songs, ‘Psycho Anamundi’, ‘Veil Of The Forgotten’ and ‘Shelter’. Doom metal is extremely commonplace these days but doom metal with real singing is equally rare, and Witch Mountain stand out far and above their peers, juniors and seniors for that alone. After the visually engaging and sonically pristine performance they delivered, one got a feeling that this show was only going downhill.
Tackling the herculean task of following a Witch Mountain set were New York groove/thrash/hardcore punk veterans Prong, led by Danzig’s guitarist Tommy Victor on guitar and vocals, who’s finally getting to do double duty on this tour, something that I’ve always wanted to see him do. Prong played a very solid set of tunes old and new, including a couple from their 2014 ‘Ruining Lives’ album, and the brand new single ‘Ultimate Authority’ off of their upcoming tenth full-length studio album ‘X (No Absolutes)’, slated for release in January 2016. As per tradition, Prong ended the set with their most popular tune ‘Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck’. Just like Witch Mountain, they also got only 25 minutes, but made the most of it. There were a few more people in the theater during their set, but it was still dead and the response from the crowd was far too lackluster for what the band deserved.
Next up were the oddball band of the lineup, Chicago-based ‘technical deathcore’ group Veil Of Maya. The poor turnout inside the theater was made even poorer during their set as people started heading towards the lobby to get in the beer/restroom/merch lines and indulge in people-watching instead of watching this band. Veil Of Maya are great at what they do, and this was not a reflection of their talent, but simply a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. This was completely the wrong concertgoer demographic for Veil Of Maya to even attempt to play in front of, and the very idea of slotting them in the center of this lineup clearly turned out to be a failure of epic proportions, because you would be extremely hard pressed to find one single attendee that actually enjoyed Veil Of Maya’s set.
Main support act Superjoint, featuring the dynamic duo of Phil Anselmo and Jimmy Bower, took the stage next, and brought forth a style that’s prominently old-school hardcore punk, playing songs from the two albums the band put out under the Superjoint Ritual name in 2002 and ’03. The band hadn’t been active for a decade and this was their first US tour since the reunion. Many in the audience seemed genuinely excited to see the return of Superjoint, while others that knew Anselmo from his more popular bands didn’t know what to make of it. Regardless, Anselmo delivered his signature brand of frontmanship, and went far and beyond to ensure that everyone had a “great fucking asshole time”. This was the only band of the night that initiated any kind of mosh pits. With the band’s songs being so short in length, more than half of the set was filled with Anselmo’s crowd interaction, a concept first-timers found hard to grasp, but Superjoint is clearly even more Anselmo-centric than any of his other bands. On guitar, ‘Bower Power’ raised up the decibels, and the rhythm section was equally strong. MMA fighter Cody Vidal, who I actually ran into at a Starbucks near the venue before the show, also joined the band on guest vocals for one song. At the end of the day, Superjoint’s music has elements of Pantera, Eyehategod and Down in it, and I’d find it hard to understand how fans of those bands could dislike Superjoint. An interesting set, without a doubt, and as Superjoint now begin writing a new album and planning tours for next year, I await their return to a smaller stage to really get a feel of the atmosphere they could potentially create in a club as opposed to this vast, sparsely populated theater.
And finally at 10:15, Danzig appeared on stage to put on a performance that surpassed and superceded all of my previous Danzig experiences for its sheer mediocrity. Why do I keep going to Danzig shows if I disliked the previous ones so much, you might ask? For one, to his credit he always books fantastic opening bands that I simply cannot afford to miss even seeing 25-30 minutes of, and secondly, since I’m already there to see the openers, I always stay for Danzig and objectively give it another chance.
With all due respect to Danzig and his legacy, without which some bands from subsequent generations that I adore might not have existed, based on this set it has to be said that it’s no surprise to see this 7100-seater occupied by what couldn’t have been any more than 500 people, as the entire orchestra section was nearly empty while the GA floor looked a little less pathetic. As far as Los Angeles area shows go, Danzig should never be booked at a venue any bigger than the El Rey or the Regent. Lesser and lesser number of people are buying into Danzig these days, and rightly so, because the vocals are terrible, the set list hardly ever changes, the pinch harmonics in the guitar parts are truly brain-pinching, and the covers are abominable. At this show, the cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘N.I.B.’ was, ironically enough, the final nail in the coffin and there was going to be no recovery from it. This is one legendary musician that needs to gracefully retire, the sooner the better.
Overall, Witch Mountain were by far the best band in this edition of ‘Blackest Of The Black’, and the rest of the show was bizarrely entertaining in ways good and bad, making for a strangely apt Halloween celebration for Los Angeles concertgoers.
Danzig set list:
01. SkinCarver
02. Hammer of the Gods
03. Until You Call on the Dark
04. Am I Demon
05. Her Black Wings
06. How the Gods Kill
07. Let Yourself Go (Elvis Presley cover)
08. Action Woman (The Litter cover)
09. Satan’s Sadists
10. N.I.B. (Black Sabbath cover)
11. Brand New God
12. Black Hell
13. Long Way Back From Hell
14. Twist of Cain
15. Mother
Encore:
16. Halloween (Misfits cover)
17. Skulls (Misfits cover)
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