By Andrew Bansal
August 28th 2016, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: While the entire world of stoner rock and doom metal seemingly united at the Psycho Las Vegas festival, New Jersey power trio The Atomic Bitchwax were on their own three-week US headline tour, and strangely enough, were not part of the Psycho lineup unlike support act and fellow three-piece band Dirty Streets, despite there being a total of something around 95 bands on it. But for the stoner rock fans in LA that chose not to travel to Vegas, The Atomic Bitchwax and Dirty Streets arrived at the Viper Room last Sunday August 28th 2016 to put forth some no-frills jams that attendees felt fortunate to witness and absorb.
The show started as early as 8:45 and with no local openers whatsoever, which was highly unusual by Viper Room standards. As it turned out, Dirty Streets were the first and only opener on stage, and ended up playing a 45-minute set. The Memphis, Tennessee trio played their music through a very simple and vintage setup comprising an Epiphone guitar, Gibson bass, small drumkit, minimal number of pedals, and just one solitary vocal microphone. This simplicity is what highlighted their true musical talents and allowed all three members to express themselves fully. Clearly inspired by classic bluesy hard rock a la Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Deep Purple and Rolling Stones, Dirty Streets played a highly enjoyable set wherein they settled into a groove from the get-go and stayed in that pocket throughout the set. The in-house lighting crew did a fine job on the lights for this band and used strobes at the right moments, adding a visual element and enhancing the power of the music being played. These young musicians served as an apt representation for the pure, inbred talent that runs through their home city and state, and gave the Viper Room a rock show one could instantly fall in love with.
New Jersey band The Atomic Bitchwax, also a power trio, have been longstanding perpetrators of the stoner psych rock sound, having been around since 1992 without any break-ups, hiatuses or reunions. With the same drum kit but otherwise a slightly different setup in comparison to that of Dirty Streets, The Atomic Bitchwax had two vocal microphones occupying the front of the stage, as both Finn Ryan (guitar) and Chris Kosnik (bass) contribute lead vocals. They both also run their instruments through elaborate pedalboards and add various fuzz, delay and layering effects to their organic sounds. They tried their level best to encapsulate six full-length albums worth of music into this hour-long set which began a few minutes past 10 o’ clock, and in addition to presenting tunes from their latest album ‘Gravitron’ (2015), they also pulled some early material out of the bag. Vocally and on their respective instruments, the three members of The Atomic Bitchwax were in high spirits, and happily gave it their all, even for the select few in attendance.
Psycho Vegas most certainly made an incisive impact on the turnout here, but amongst the small number of people in attendance was a group of really dedicated The Atomic Bitchwax fans who knew every lyric and riff, old and new, and made it a fun show for themselves and the band alike. This turnout is in no way reflective of The Atomic Bitchwax and Dirty Streets’ worth, both from the concertgoer and the promoter’s perspective, and one hopes that this does not discourage them from visiting Los Angeles in the future.
Overall, a show that deserved a packed house just as much as any of the well-attended shows here, and an evening graced by two pedigreed rock bands that delivered their 100 per cent and more.
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Remaining Tour Dates:
08/30/2016 – San Francisco, CA @ Elbo Room
08/31/2016 – Portland OR @ Dante’s
09/01/2016 – Vancouver BC @ Biltmore
09/02/2016 – Seattle WA El @ Corazon
09/03/2016 – Bellingham WA @ Shakedown
09/06/2016 – Minneapolis MN @ Grumpy’s
09/07/2016 – Chicago IL @ Double Door
09/08/2016 – Cleveland OH @ Grog Shop
09/09/2016 – Philadelphia PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
09/10/2016 – Brooklyn NY @ Black Bear