House Of Horror & Tripping Corpses: Ho99o9 & The Shrine Rock Devil’s Night On The Sunset Strip

By Andrew Bansal

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October 30th 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Blending the worlds of hardcore, punk, horrorcore and hip hop with a very experimental approach to their musicianship, Ho99o9 is a group that originated in Newark NJ in 2012 and relocated to Los Angeles two years later. They’ve turned heads and garnered attention in these past four years, due to their eccentric musical style as well as wild on-stage performances, including their appearance at a sold-out Wiltern as opener for Faith No More in 2015. Currently on a US West Coast tour, Ho99o9 arrived at the Roxy in West Hollywood, fittingly on Devil’s Night i.e. October 30th, and headlined the ‘House Of Horror’ with support acts The Shrine and Petyr. Much has been already said about Ho99o9 by LA’s concertgoers and journalists, and in contrast to the ever-pleasant familiarity of everything that entails The Shrine, this was Metal Assault’s first Ho99o9 experience, and a memorable one at that.

Doors opened at 7:30, and after a DJ set to warm attendees’ ears, proceedings on stage began at 9 PM. Before the two main protagonists got their turn, San Diego-based psych rock quartet Petyr played a 30-minute set of smooth stoner jams, most of them decorated with long, flowing instrumental passages. Their brand of sonic heaviness is well-crafted and was equally well-presented on this stage, keeping the steadily filling Roxy engaged, as generous applause followed each of their tunes. The only negative aspect of their set was the awkward dead silence while their frontman tuned his guitar after almost every song, and the band would perhaps be better served with lesser tuning variations from song to song, or another way to fill the silence during the tuning changes. That aside, certainly a compelling set by Petyr, a band well worth the listen, specially for the stoner rock/metal community.

Petyr
Petyr

The Roxy was considerably more packed and may be even at its largest turnout for this evening for the next band, Venice Beach psych violence trio The Shrine. For those uninitiated, The Shrine incorporate a whole range of influences from Black Sabbath to Black Flag and much more, and are without doubt in a genre on their own as it’s far from easy to describe them to someone who hasn’t heard a song of theirs, which is definitely a good thing that only showcases pure musical skill. The best way to discover and understand The Shrine is watching them live, and once you do, there is no turning back, as evident from the hordes of dedicated fans of the band that attended this show specifically for The Shrine.

Keeping with the Halloween spirit, this band’s fans also turned up in some colorful costumes and make-up, but that one superfan dude dressed as a Shrine groupie chick, wearing a high-cut girlie Shrine shirt, Shrine hat and a Shrine tramp stamp, probably won the unofficial costume contest this evening. The band itself wasn’t one to disappoint when it came to dressing up for the occasion, and at 10:15, came out in hard hats and trench coats, and with their backline also covered in green leaves, they brought the artwork for their latest album ‘Rare Breed’ to life. Later, guitarist/vocalist Josh Landau removed his coat to reveal a white strap slip dress, even as he continued shredding away on guitar.

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The band began the set in signature style with the opening riff of the song ‘Deep River (Livin’ To Die)’, and that was the only thing they played off of ‘Primitive Blast’. Songs that constitute their 2014 album ‘Bless Off’ have taken a life of their own since release, and this set included four of them, the fast-paced rockers ‘Tripping Corpse’, ‘Worship’ and ‘Destroyers’ and the set-closing quintessential Black Sabbath-meets-Black Flag anthem ‘Nothing Forever’. As expected, a good chunk of the ‘Rare Breed’ material was also performed, and songs like ‘The Vulture’ and the title song got the fans as excited as the older songs did. Heads were banging, fists were shaking and circle pits were rolling fast. The Shrine have been on tour non-stop since May and toured most of last year as well, so they’re a well-oiled machine at this point, yet never on autopilot, specially when they’re playing in Los Angeles. Not many bands can claim to have successfully done such a variety of tours as The Shrine already have in their short career thus far, and their crossover appeal is second to none. Here at the Roxy, they left fans vindicated and first timers awe-struck with a truly classy performance.

The Shrine
The Shrine

Following The Shrine’s set, there was quite a noticeable shift in the crowd, as waves of The Shrine’s fans stepped out from near the front few rows and either moved to the back or exited the show altogether, while fans of the headline act surged to the front. Although certainly boosted by The Shrine’s LA draw, the overall turnout wasn’t as great as the Roxy would have hoped for, but this was probably not a surprise, given how busy the LA concert calendar typically is on this particular weekend, with such a multitude of events taking place in clubs and theaters all around town. Ho99o9 took the stage at 11:30, and it was all-systems-go for those that still remained. Members of Ho99o9 were also dressed in costumes and make-up, and started out with a fast-paced punk song which got the circle pit going. The set alternated between punk and hip-hop/hardcore numbers as the two singers took turns on lead vocals. It was like nothing a concertgoer would normally experience, and the ease with which Ho99o9 orchestrated these wild stylistic shifts was nothing short of incredible, specially from the perspective of a first-timer/casual onlooker. People that grew up in generations past constantly lament the modern-day state of music, but groups like Ho99o9 are arguments towards the contrary, because their music couldn’t have been as unique and eclectic if the musicians in this band were born in an earlier era, as they wouldn’t have the vast pool of past influences they draw from.

All in all, the Roxy got treated to a show that lived up to the occasion, and on a night that offered several other potential concert choices, Ho99o9, The Shrine and Petyr left attendees with no regrets whatsoever. A thoroughly entertaining Devil’s Night at the best venue in Los Angeles.

Ho99o9
Ho99o9

Ho99o9 remaining tour dates:
11/01 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room (w/ The Shrine)
11/04 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
11/06 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
11/07 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
11/09 – El Paso, TX @ The Lowbrow Palace
11/10 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Rebel Lounge
11/11 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box San Diego

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