By Andrew Bansal
July 9th 2016, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: The Viper Room is no stranger to residencies and theme nights, and this summer, West Hollywood’s coziest rock club is bringing you a monthly ’80s rock night called Flashback, with resident all-original band Knights Of Audio, and rotating special guests. Last Saturday July 9th, the lineup featured Kirby’s Dream Band, Paladin Shield and The Megas, and attendees arrived with their party hats and dancing shoes on, in anticipation of a good time. Ironically, the lighting on the Viper Room’s famous and historic marquee suffered a malfunction, and of all nights for this to have happened, it wasn’t lit for this otherwise very lit, luminous, fun-filled, high-energy evening of happy heavy music.
The flyer stated that live music would begin at 8 PM and last ’til 2 AM, and they absolutely weren’t joking or false advertising, as the show started a few minutes past 8 o’ clock, quite unusually early by Viper Room standards, with Paladin Shield taking the stage for a set of 8-bit/synth driven ‘adventure rock’. The early birds at the venue liked what Paladin Shield had to offer, and certainly approved of the band’s participation in this event. Later on, The Megas, a group dressed in Mega Man outfits played their brand of ’80s rock and thoroughly entertained the crowd, and closing the night were Knights Of Audio with their excellent tunes. But the highlight and focal point of the show was most certainly the second act of the night, Kirby’s Dream Band.
Dressed in all white, the six-piece band somehow fit all their members and gear on stage, and played a 30-minute set which breezed through before anyone even realized it, such was the entertainment level Kirby’s Dream Band brought to this room. Describing themselves as ‘pink rock’, this band plays video game covers through their brand of instrumental rock/nerdcore and do a mighty fine job at it, as their high-quality musicianship makes it look far easier than it would be to do full justice to these tunes to where they sound just right and create the desired impact. Besides shredding on their respective instruments, members of Kirby’s Dream Band also go through a few hat changes over the course of their set to fit the theme of the tune they’re covering. Almost as important as playing the music, if not more, these dudes also excel in their dance moves but encourage the audience to do their own thing and not necessarily follow the band. This particular Viper Room crowd was far more engaged and involved in the show than is typically the case at most shows here, as the dancers were out in full force and did not care what they looked like because this is one show where it was OK to be goofy. Song after song, the applause for Kirby’s Dream Band only got louder, and by the time they were done with their set, the crowd was clearly left wanting more, even though one feels that this kind of a band is better off playing short, fast, high-energy, high-impact sets, which is exactly what Kirby’s Dream Band did.
One hopes for many more such Flashback events at the Viper Room in the months to come, as this was just about as much fun as attendees have ever had at this venue. These bands aren’t the heaviest and aren’t the most ‘metal’, but while there are tons of bands portraying themes and subjects based on death, violence and Satan through their music, Flashback throws the spotlight on bands that serve as a throwback to a much happier variety of rock, and fans of dark/serious music are highly encouraged to let loose and give bands mentioned in this article a shot, because to appreciate one end of the spectrum, it’s sometimes necessary to venture to the other end.
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