By Andrew Bansal
November 15th 2015, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Horror punk icons Misfits are currently on their ‘Static Age Revisited’ North American headline tour, performing the ‘Static Age’ album in its entirety along with fan-favorites and new songs, and in New York and Los Angeles, playing two nights wherein on the second night they would perform both the ‘Walk Among Us’ and ‘Earth A.D.’ albums in their entirety, along with other material. Besides, they are presenting the band She Demons as the sole support act at these shows. Despite severe discouragement from “true Misfits fans”, I was in attendance for night #2 of Misfits’ weekend at the Roxy in West Hollywood, on Sunday November 15th, for my very first experience of any version of the Misfits.
I arrived on the Sunset Strip to the shocking sight of a strange power outage that affected only a few businesses, the Roxy being one of them. Doors had opened at 7 and the power went out at 7:15, leaving everybody waiting and curious to find out what would happen next. Jerry Only came out to greet attendees waiting in line and gladly signed autographs and took pictures, which helped fans kill time and encouraged them to wait it out. Thankfully for everyone involved, power was back on at 8:30, and the show was ready to start at 9, just an hour behind schedule.
Los Angeles-based all-female group She Demons, formed by Jerry Only, served as the opening act for the event, and after being introduced onto the stage by Only himself, they played an entertaining 30-minute set of straightforward punk-infused rock ‘n roll that got the crowd warmed up for the headliner. Led by Diemonds frontwoman Priya Panda, She Demons is a quintet of young, pedigreed musicians that certainly showed adeptness at their respective instruments during this performance, with the guitar parts sounding particularly strong and Panda’s great clean-singing voice resonating across the Roxy. The 11-song set was dominated by original compositions that will be featured on a soon-to-be-released full-length album, and also included a cover of Ramones’ ‘Strength To Endure’. They turned out to be an ideal opening act for Misfits. She Demons is not only the newest and best-looking all-female rock band to have surfaced, but boasts of a group of girls with undeniable musical talent.
Set List:
01. Fresh Blood
02. Be My Baby
03. I Thirst
04. She Demon
05. He’s A Rebel
06. Huntress
07. Halfway To Hell
08. Once Bitten
09. B-Movie
10. Strength To Endure (Ramones cover)
11. Be Still My Heart
The stage was set with a hefty dosage of the iconic Misfits artwork, and at 10 PM, the band appeared on stage to begin what would end up being a 35-song set, including the entire ‘Walk Among Us’ and ‘Earth AD’ albums and an assortment of 13 additional tracks from other albums. Besides vocalist/bassist Jerry Only, this Misfits lineup has his son Jerry Jr. on guitar and vocals, and Eric Arce on drums. This incarnation of the band is obviously a far cry from its original form, and for that reason many Misfits fans refuse to support it, but the Roxy was packed to near capacity for this show, which in all honesty came as a pleasant surprise to me as I had heard nothing but hatred towards this version of the Misfits from people in my circle, and I wasn’t sure whether anybody would turn up for this. But those that did seemed to be having a great time, as the band sounded good and was full of energy through the entire 80 minutes of their performance. The vocal harmonies of Jerry Only and Jerry Jr. were the strongest aspect of the band’s live sound and enabled them to deliver all 35 songs to the fans’ satisfaction.
‘Skulls’ was certainly a highlight in the ‘Walk Among Us’ portion of the show, as the circle pit suddenly gained intensity and the security had to intervene. Parris Mayhew, former guitarist of Cro-Mags, joined the Misfits for ‘Astro Zombies’. After performing the ‘Walk Among Us’ album, the band went into songs from other albums, then played all nine ‘Earth AD’ songs, followed by a three-song burst of hits to end the show. As rightly pointed out by Jerry Only, the music on the ‘Earth AD’ album gave rise to the Metallicas and Slayers of this world, and this was none more evident than in the live rendition of the album.
Considering the fact that the word ‘fan’ gets thrown around excessively and far too conveniently, I wouldn’t call myself a Misfits fan and I first discovered the band only because of Metallica, so I do not care about not being labeled a ‘true Misfits fan’ for enjoying a Jerry Only-led Misfits show. He showed that he is certainly capable of holding his vocals together for the entire set, which is the most important aspect, as instrumentally, playing songs of this nature should come as second nature to professional musicians. People that attended this show genuinely had a fun time as circle pits were rolling constantly, and there’s no denying that a near-capacity crowd at a place the size of the Roxy makes for a better concert than a 500-strong turnout at a 7000-capacity theatre, as was the case at the original frontman’s most recent show.
All in all, I have nothing bad to say about Jerry Only’s Misfits, and for punk rock fans that are worried about nothing other than seeing a good show and getting the bang for their buck, a Misfits show serves the purpose.
Set List:
01. 20 Eyes
02. I Turned Into A Martian
03. All Hell Breaks Loose
04. Vampira
05. Nike A-Go-Go
06. Hate Breeders
07. Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?
08. Night Of The Living Dead
09. Skulls
10. Violent World
11. Devils Whorehouse
12. Astro Zombies
13. Braineaters
14. Kong At The Gates
15. Forbidden Zone
16. Walk Among Us
17. Crawling Eye
18. Hunting Humans
19. Who Killed Marilyn?
20. Dig Up Her Bones
21. Scream
22. Saturday Night
23. Descending Angel
24. Earth A.D.
25. Queen Wasp
26. Devilock
27. Death Comes Ripping
28. Green Hell
29. Wolf’s Blood
30. Demonomania
31. Bloodfeast
32. Hellhound
33. Die, Die My Darling
34. We Bite
35. We Are 138
Misfits + She Demons remaining dates:
11/16 — Santa Cruz CA — Catalyst Club
11/19 — Seattle WA — The Showbox
11/21 — San Jose CA @ Rockbar Theatre
11/22 — Sacramento CA @ Ace Of Spades
11/24 — Denver CO @ The Summit Music Hall
11/27 — Chicago IL @ The Portage Theater
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