By Andrew Bansal
November 5th 2015, Complex, Glendale CA: 26 years into their career, New Orleans sludge veterans Crowbar find themselves as active and prolific as they’ve ever been, releasing strong new material and performing live on a regular basis. Crowbar released their tenth full-length studio album ‘Symmetry In Black’ in 2014 via EOne Music, and have been touring since. In the midst of a run of US dates in support of Soulfly which began in late October 2015, Crowbar arrived in the Los Angeles for a headline show at Complex in Glendale last Thursday November 5th, for an event presented by Church Of The 8th Day and featuring Yidhra, Chemical Burn and Teeth as openers. Church was in session and it promised to be yet another righteous heavy ritual.
I arrived at the venue at 8 PM, 30 minutes before doors opened, and was amused to the unmissable sight of Crowbar’s tour bus, bigger than this venue, parked right out front. With the massive King Diamond ‘Abigail’ show taking place at the Wiltern on the same night, plus the Doyle/John 5 show at the Whisky, I was concerned about the turnout at this show but hoped that the diversity of the LA scene would be enough to make all three shows successful.
The show started at around 9, with doom/sludge/death metal quartet Teeth taking the stage. The band created a great first impression on Metal Assault at a Los Globos show earlier this year, and has been playing wisely selected gigs around town since then. Teeth set the tone for the evening with their heavily ominous and dissonant tunes. There is a great sense of expressiveness that comes through in Teeth’s sound, as it’s some of the darkest, most miserable and hateful heavy music to have surfaced in the genre’s local underground circles in recent times, and their 2014 LP release ‘Unremittance’ fully replicates the impact they make as a live band.. The skull-crushing riffs and rhythms are amplified by bestial vocals and complemented by bleak guitar melodies, and Teeth’s music very much has the personality of a slow-moving freight train inevitably marching on its path of total destruction. For a band like Crowbar, one could not have picked a better opening act.
Next up, San Jose-based three-piece band Chemical Burn hit the stage. The Pantera-inspired heavy metal ethos is overdone and has become very stale, at least for my taste, and having heard hundreds of bands that sound like Pantera, not only in the LA area but literally everywhere I go on tour in the country, I find myself hard to stay awake whenever I hear such a band. Chemical Burn did come across as very Pantera-inspired, and weren’t my cup of tea, but at a Crowbar show their inclusion probably didn’t go amiss, and full credit to them for the effort.
Next up, deservedly taking the main support slot at this gig, stoner/doom quartet Yidhra played a 40-minute set that sonically exceeded the expectations of what Yidhra fans have become used to, specially through recent performances. They played tunes off of their 2013 debut full-length ‘Hexed’ as well as from their upcoming 10-inch EP ‘Cult Of Bathory’, which was captured live by Bill Metoyer. A good-sounding venue (with skilled sound guys) is very crucial in ensuring the full Yidhra experience, and after their gig at the Satellite opening for The Skull last September, this set here at Complex made it two great sounding venues in a row. Yidhra are currently in a phase wherein they attain higher peaks in performance level every time they take the stage, and this set continued the progression for them, as frontman Ted Venemann and his band mates brought their best to this show. I find the theremin to be one of the most fascinating instruments, specially when used in rock/metal, and besides Yidhra’s glorious salute to the gods of all things heavy with powerful vocals and solid traditional instrumentation, the theremin draws me towards them just as much as anything else they do. Venemann’s usage of this instrument infuses a clear sense of psychedelia into the band’s live show, and is accompanied by a series of mind-bending visuals projected in the background, as was the case here, although one wishes that the projection was sharper and more prominent, as it was almost completely washed out by the stage lighting. But that was the only blemish in an otherwise fantastic set that is sure to bring attendees back to the next Yidhra show.
Aside from the one power nap, I was having a blast at this show, seeing excellent hometown bands like Teeth and Yidhra, and mingling in the company of some heavy hitters in the community such as Bill Metoyer, Tommy Victor, Rex Brown and Matt Olivo. Some of my friends here said they really wanted to see King Diamond but decided that they couldn’t miss Crowbar, and when I told them that King Diamond shows on his ongoing tour have been typically ending at 10:40, and that they could have easily attended the King Diamond show and then made their way over to Complex, I was met with a flurry of cuss words and almost got punched in the face. But, it was great to see that this place was appreciably populated by the time the headliner was ready to start, considering the circumstances.
At 00:15, Crowbar started their set, and the vibe inside Complex changed completely, the crowd turning from a bunch of passive-aggressive bystanders to a group of circle pit dwellers, which goes to show the kind of instant impact Crowbar’s music makes on an audience. Frontman Kirk Windstein was in his element, was well supported by his band mates, and together the quartet went on to deliver a typically devastating, heaviest of the heaviest set of tunes old and new. Attendees that chose this as their poison for this busy Los Angeles concert night did not regret doing so, because as a fan of heavy music you simply cannot go wrong with a Crowbar show. For that reason, on their past visits in town, besides their own headline shows Crowbar have consistently been the standout band even as an opening act on tours and festivals, such as the inaugural Metal Alliance tour in 2011 and the Scion Rock Fest in 2014. The Soulfly/Crowbar tour is (thankfully) not visiting Los Angeles, but if you get a chance to see that tour in your town, see it for Crowbar as much as for anyone else, because their brand of no-bullshit, no-frills, no-gimmick heavy music is second to none.
For full video coverage of the show, check out Arturo Gallegos’ YouTube channel.
Crowbar remaining tour dates with Soulfly, Shattered Sun and Incite:
11/07 – Tucson, AZ @ The Rock
11/09 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
11/10 – Omaha, NE @ Sokol Underground
11/11 – Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
11/12 – St Louis, MO @ FuBar
11/17 – Ringle, WI @ Q & Z Expo Center
11/18 – Indianapolis, IN @ 5th Quarter
11/19 – Memphis, TN @ New Daisy Theater
11/20 – Shreveport, LA @ Riverside Ballroom
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