By Lisa Burke
April 7th 2016, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Normally I attend metal shows that I know I’m going to be a fan of from start to finish, or at least that’s always the hope, as was my hope for this night of primarily hardcore acts All Hail The Yeti, We Are The Riot and The Mendenhall Experiment plus the addition of the clear winners of my attention, outcasts of the evening, and my original draw to the show, Sisters Ov The Blackmoon, at the Whisky-A-Go-Go on Thursday April 7th, 2016. For Sisters Ov The Blackmoon this happened to be their one-year anniversary, almost to the day of playing their very first show at the very same venue.
I arrived at the scene of the crime on time for The Mendenhall Experiment which was started in 2008 by Brandon Mendenhall who spent some dedicated years re-training his left hand to play guitar during his daily battle with cerebral palsy. Now, if you know anything about cerebral palsy, despite the indication of brain circuitry troubles it does not necessarily affect your intelligence. Therefore, with the concept of mind over matter you can achieve your greatest desires and Brandon is living proof of this. He was definitely an inspiration, he played with grace, and if you didn’t know the story you wouldn’t even notice this was the case or a struggle for him based on what he has accomplished. I also really enjoyed the singer’s stage presence as he scaled the stage and even cleaned the floor with his back a bit towards the end as he laid down. He got the audience to participate whether they wanted to or not, and his clean to scream vocal range was really well achieved, not to mention his clean vocals are actually pleasant to hear and suit the music well. This is not an easy feat to achieve for my tastes, because growing up with so much hardcore that didn’t use much clean vocals at all, I have a very difficult time adapting to these more modern takes on that genre. This was great for that style of music and the drumming was on par, as was the other guitar and bass. They have my highest recommendation if you want to see a band with a heart and soul who’s got the skills to deliver as well.
At this time there were quite an above average amount of tiny children at this show which is a good aspect of the Whisky-A-Go-Go as usually their shows are all ages and while some 16-year olds can get annoying, the 5-and-under crowd is just adorable as long as their ears are protected, as they all were, because most metal parents are not interested in having deaf children if they can help it. One of these tiny children happened to be the daughter of one of the guitar players in Sisters Ov The Blackmoon and it was her first time seeing her dad on stage in her cute little white denim vest with customized black Sisters back patch, and she already knew how to rock out based on what I witnessed, so again there is still hope for the future of rock ‘n roll and metal. I have actually written about Sisters Ov The Blackmoon at least a couple times in the last couple of months and so I won’t let them steal all the thunder here, however they are still one of my favorite local bands to see with their unique female vocals, well-crafted guitar medleys, creatively fun bass jams, and seriously excellent drumming skills. They mix stoner and doom with bluesy rock and witchy yet deeply bluesy vocals, and it successfully blows people away every show. They are one of the best at collaboration where they all clearly seem to be on the same page and stylistically they are all there as well. You really can’t deny a great looking group of great players. This may have been an odd show for them, yet the audience here understood it for the most part if it was their first time. It does make me a little sad, however, when I see people who came for the headliner arrive early to pick up their tickets only to bolt to the Rainbow Bar down the street and not even give a new band a listen, specially when the new band has more to offer.
Moving on to local hardcore, post punk, goth industrial rock act We Are The Riot which features Meegs Rascon and Mikal Cox from Coal Chamber, I must say I was pretty underwhelmed but certainly not by their talents. I mean, also to their credit, you can’t watch this band and expect Coal Chamber because it is an entirely different entity, although Meegs and Mikal’s style was still there and that was by far the highlight of this band at the current moment. I am a big fan of Coal Chamber as I definitely grew up with them and love that whole genre of music, so keep that in mind when I explain my view on We Are The Riot. The band as a whole did sound good with the levels and the songs were solid, yet I really find the music itself to be unclear as what direction it is headed or what it wants to achieve, and perhaps it has only been this way since the current singer Jimmy Trigger has been on board. He was very pitchy in moments of clean vocals in a way that I find it a hard fit with the otherwise potential badassery of the jams, and to me the screamo was too screamo if that makes any sense. Again, fans seemed to really dig him and this is my personal take on the kind of hardcore/rock vocals I can handle versus the kind i can’t. I do also remember when Jonny Sculls Flanagan sang for this band and it seemed much more unified as a whole. He has since gone on to form other personal fun projects but I for one wouldn’t mind getting him back. This is definitely not a slam against the current singer in any way, however I just feel perhaps this isn’t the best fit for him as he has other more suited projects he is in as well. Long story longer, I do enjoy this band in small doses and was definitely happier hearing them than the headliners.
All Hail The Yeti is one of those bands that has a decent reputation in this town and I have been hearing about them for years, but for one reason or another I never was able to attend their show until now. This show was in support of their latest album “Screams From A Black Wilderness”. I can’t say I’d ever go out of my way to see these guys again, yet it’s not from lack of skill. I personally can not get into clean harmonizing vocals with hardcore music and in the case of All Hail The Yeti it is unfortunate because the back up harmonizing vocals are attached to a man with a very good singing voice. I will not deny that anyone singing in this band is very good at their craft, yet the combination of clean vocals with the very basic hardcore riffs put them in a category in my mind with Linkin Park and Nickelback, I’m very sorry to say. Argue all you want and throw my ass in the dumpster next time you see me, but I’m not going to sit here and lie to your face to pretend I like this band. Also, if they weren’t all wearing white button up dress shirts, minus the shirtless drummer, with burgundy band logo back patches that say ‘Hollywood’ on them, they might look less like what I imagine Maroon 5 to look like based on the name alone, so I suppose it’s good there are only four of them. The other part of this band that I can only support if it works with the music is the recorded backing tracks which featured at one point what sounded like weird, creepy, starving children locked in a closet and no matter what lyrics in the song came next, this still sounded out of place in a non-unique way. Leave the oddities to David Bowie next time please, or just leave out the creepy children stuff unless you are in a horror rock band which definitely do exist. This band is just not my forte and unfortunately even if this type of modernized genre of hardcore was appealing to me I still believe I’ve heard a better rendition that I still didn’t like, such as Asking Alexandria, although not with their new singer because I do believe those guys have good singing voices yet in this kind of combination it just sounds more emo than good. I respond better to men screaming rather than whining I suppose, and I don’t think I have any reason to apologize for that. I mean, could you imagine a man you were dating that kept blaming you and then themselves every other sentence and changing tone from whine to scream every time? I think that pretty much sums up what I hear.
Anyway, regardless, I stayed for the whole show just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything that would change my mind. On one last positive note it was a smoothly run show and all four bands seemed to be happy to play with and for each other, and that by all rights is a success for the bands as well as the venue.
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