By Lisa Burke
July 14th 2016, Couture, Hollywood CA: Finding your inner voice in the modern day rock n’ roll and heavy metal scene that can not only stand out among the masses for creativity, individuality and originality, but also remain undamaged by the current financial and personal hurricanes all bands have to fight their way through, can prove more challenging than rocket science with much less accredited rewards to take home to mom at the end of the day. The real prize then becomes personal goals and accomplishments met within a team in the style of music to be proud of that affects the audience in a positive way. There is nu metal and then there is new metal, and I prefer the latter which is the core of what I witnessed at Couture in Hollywood on Thursday July 14th 2016. The headlining act on this evening was Six Foot South, with supporters Void Vator, Crowned By Fire and Eye Of Ember. Couture, if you aren’t aware, is not used to putting on metal shows as the usual scene is more of a night club style with a DJ. That said, both the promoter and the venue were far from virgins in the live metal show department and both parties allowed the night to get off to a slightly rough start due to lack of proper communication.
Eye of Ember played a short but sweet 20-minute set that included a cover of Alice In Chains’ ‘Rooster’, which was a pleasant take on the original and fit well with the band’s new style and direction featuring their new singer who took the reigns with ease in commanding this group. Rumor has it that this is the beginning of a transition within this band, who will most likely also change their name before the next live show, so stay tuned for that. Also, they rushed in some new material and successfully pulled it off as it definitely had flow and catchy appeal, yet upon refinement could also achieve even more of a specific and original overall voice. They are headed in the right direction for sure, and the choice to remain fairly mellow in their general pace for most songs worked in their favor with the melodies in the vocals. The contrast when the guitar gets more metal rather than rock seemed to work best when vocal change-ups happened more frequently. Overall, I am curious and intrigued to see the developments over time as this band in its current line up has almost literally just arrived on the same plane and are ready for lift off.
Before I get to the next band, because I might as well make them wait like the DJ/sound engineer did for twenty minutes after they were clearly in my eyes ready to go on, as he was busy playing nu metal songs on his iPad instead of giving them a proper sound check. Previously, Eye Of Ember had their own unfortunate occurrence where the dedicated audience that came early to see them had to be stuck outside during at least the first two songs they played because some miscommunication happened and the bouncer thought they were warming up and told us that because bands were still loading in the back, and that we had to wait to enter the venue. We knew the band was not warming up as we could hear a full song professionally played from outside the venue. The band didn’t know we weren’t allowed to enter, and only after myself and others complaining thrice that we should be in there did we get to finally enter. The first band always gets shafted out of a full crowd, so to deny them further is just rude. Bands loading in and out at a small venue happens at a metal show all night long and anyone who worked at any venue ever before should have known better, so that should have been a non-issue. After these two incidents, the night seemed to fall into place and run smooth with bands running on time thanks only to the band Crowned By Fire who I believe were asked to cut their set a song short, even though they were ready well within their allotted set time. Each band had an hour to work with, which is somewhat of a wet dream to obtain in Los Angeles in the first place. Had the promoter of this show actually been in attendance, these problems most likely would have been avoided, but hey why show up when you have another show happening elsewhere and you can just stay home and pick up a phone?
After the steam finished pouring out of my ears and the fire shot its last spark out of my mouth, it was time for Crowned By Fire who held the title for heaviest band of the night, longest duration of existence as a band, and for the most patient. The bass was cranked up to the most appropriate level of at least 13 and it was a little bit like living inside a vibrator for a while which was certainly far from the worst experience to have at a heavy metal show. The Pantera-esque grooves and tough, deep and heavy vocals mixed with some classic heavy metal riffage reminiscent of early Motörhead with an extra large splash of sludge and doom, dirtied up the venue nicely before the floor was wiped with the lingering scent of iPod nu metal. The guitarist hashed out some heavy riffage with technical fortitude, and the interspersed back-up vocals from the bass player proved a good contrast with the lead vocals as well. The drummer seemed to be the most disturbed by the initial wait time and while this may or may not be sheer speculation on my part, he seemed to be serving up an ass kicking cocktail of bass kick and rage that intoxicated anyone in its path. This band has been around the block quite a few times, however, and their professionalism shone.
Next on the agenda was Void Vator, who is still fairly new to the scene as well, despite its members having a lot of previous experience in and out of other bands. The Couture venue has a long narrow stage backed by round mirrors and the sound overall is above average, but the bands surely helped make this so, as the louder the better worked nicely with the natural acoustics of the venue, resulting in one of the best sounding performances I’ve heard from this band. With the heavier Soundgarden-esque vibe that happens in the vocal range and riffage at times, it actually has a unique style, especially for today. It’s as if Soundgarden and Temple Of The Dog went out into a field and got high on heavy metal. The genre combo is mixed nicely and for that has a relevance and appeal to the new world of metal where mixing unusual genres in an interesting way seems to be on trend. Out of the blue, they played a cover of Megadeth’s ‘Symphony Of Destruction’ where the second guitarist sang the vocals, who actually among other bands happened to be in a Megadeth cover band a few years back. I say there is a shortage of good Megadeth cover bands in the world and “getting the band back together” is no harm no foul. Back to Void Vator, for me, the cover, though commendably done, did appear as if it were an alien from the planet next door, yet I’m not convinced this was as uninviting as it sounds. The only harm was that it distracted from the rest of the music as it was a highlight of the set. Here’s yet another band full of vocal talent and skill emerging out of the gutters of Hollywood into the dark yet optimistic metal scene of 2016.
Finally on the bill as the venue filled up, local hard rock band Six Foot South took the stage, and as my first time seeing them I was happily picking up my jaw off the floor by the end. The vocals are superbly thought out and the voice is extremely compelling. I also can’t really tell you what well-known band they sound like, which makes them sound like Six Foot South, which is creative, new and refreshing, not that obvious influences are in any way bad when taken to a new place. This was just unexpected and fun, and if I had to pick some influence I’d go with Stone Temple Pilots, but it was more complicated than that, even though there was an effortless quality in it as well. The clean mixed with the wah and the “pretty” in the most masculine way possible vocals really set the bar high. I can’t wait to hear what comes next from all four of these bands of four, and as much as I think Couture makes an acceptable metal venue I won’t be attending any more shows there without a proper in-house promoter present. Until the next time, thank you and good night.
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