Dave Lombardo’s New Band Dead Cross Performs At The Roxy

By Andrew Bansal

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December 2nd 2015, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: To readers of this site, the name Dave Lombardo needs absolutely no introduction. The legendary metal drummer’s experimental side project Philm had been mildly active in the last two or three years, and had a short string of Southern California headline shows booked for December 2015. But the band went on an indefinite hiatus, and Lombardo formed a new hardcore punk project with members of The Locust and Retox instead, called Dead Cross, replacing Philm and saving these shows. Dead Cross headlined the Roxy in West Hollywood last Wednesday December 2nd, and out of pure curiosity towards this new entity, a good number of Lombardo fans were in attendance.

Generacion Suicida
Generacion Suicida

The turnout at the Roxy was light to start with but the crowd kept coming in steadily throughout the evening, and by the time the headliner went on, there were more people here than at any Philm show I’ve attended. The show started at 8:30 with Generacion Suicida, a punk quartet based out of south central Los Angeles. They treated the audience to an energetic 25-minute dose of old-school Misfits-inspired punk, for which they got a more-than-decent response.

Descartes a Kant
Descartes a Kant

Next up was Descartes a Kant, a six-piece act from Mexico that barely made it in time for this show after spending seven hours traveling from Tijuana to Los Angeles, suffering through a stringent border check. With three girls at the forefront and three dudes in the back, Descartes a Kant put forth an insanely eclectic and theatrical exhibition that is musically too hard to describe, but based on this set it was clear that they’re all about the performance and come across as true performers. There were choreographed movements, costume changes, instrument switches and stage props, and the crowd was sprayed with water and other materials during the set, as this group went all out in their endeavor to put on a show. Descartes a Kant gave this audience plenty of amusement, and theirs is an act certainly worth seeing.

Dead Cross
Dead Cross

And last at 10:50, Dead Cross took the stage for a very short set, as the band is very, very new at this point, do not have much original material as of yet, and definitely do not play any covers. But in a sense it was a treat for the audience, as they can genuinely boast of having attended one of the very first Dead Cross shows. They put together this short set at short notice just to save these shows, which is commendable, but in the future, until they have a lot more material, they themselves would admit that they’d be better off seeking support slots with suitable bands.

Talking of the musical style, Dead Cross’ hardcore punk infused with elements of thrash and grind is without doubt more up the alley for fans of Lombardo’s indelible contributions to the world of thrash. Dead Cross present fast-paced, brutal, to-the-point songs that allow Lombardo to annihilate the drumkit just like he did for all those years in thrash. He seemed to revel at the opportunity to play this style in front of audiences again, and worked well in combination with his three bandmates, bassist Justin Pearson (Retox, The Locust), guitarist Mike Crain (Retox) and Gabe Serbian (The Locust, ex Cattle Decapitation). Gabe Serbian in particular delivered an excellent performance in a role relatively new to him, while Pearson and Crain brought the heavy to the Roxy stage and despite barebones backline setups, sounded devastatingly loud. Even with such a short set, Dead Cross gave this audience a fair indication of what to expect from the band, which is nothing but sonic destruction.

To readers of this site it is no secret that I’ve been a huge fan and supporter of Philm, and while I’m disappointed that it’s on hiatus, I could never deny that Lombardo fans did not quite understood and appreciate the genius of that band. But, through Dead Cross, Lombardo can win his fans all over again, and with this being his only active project as of now, one hopes it will become a serious, steady, fully active and long term project. Dead Cross comes as strongly recommended to fans of all things musically heavy, fast and violent.

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