By Andrew Bansal
May 30th 2013, El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles CA: Led by frontman and only original member Lee Ving, Los Angeles punk rock veterans Fear were set to take the stage at the lovely El Rey Theatre in western Los Angeles to play their 1982 release ‘The Record’ in its entirety, and also to celebrate the 2012 release of its re-recorded version. The band has a lot of unique history associated with them, influencing the development of the California hardcore punk scene back in the day, so I was very much interested in finding out whether they still have it in them to perform these tunes live, and the kind of turnout they would get. Opening for them at this show were The Shrine, a last-minute addition to replace the original openers Dirty Fences. This Venice-based band always put on a great show whenever I saw them in the past. It was going to be interesting to see if they could raise their level any higher, and my goodness, they sure did.
‘Welcome to the shrine!’ yelled frontman Josh Landau, as The Shrine kicked off their 45-minute set, performing most of their latest full-length album ‘Primitive Blast’ in front of this small yet steadily building El Rey crowd. Their sound is so much different from that of Fear when you think of it in a broad sense, but they do have an undeniable punk element that shone through brilliantly last night and managed to win a majority of this crowd over. No matter who they open for, they always seem to have the ability to come across as great as the headliner, and at times blow that headliner off the stage too, as was the case last night.
This set by The Shrine was absolutely in every way more enjoyable than anything Fear did at this show, and don’t get me wrong, this assessment is based on the performance alone, not the respective genre of the two bands. This trio of Josh Landau on guitar and vocals, Court Murphy on bass and Jeff Murray on drums performed some of the purest, most unadulterated rock ‘n roll music you will ever get to witness on a stage, with elements of punk and stoner/sludge that keeps their horizons sufficiently broad to open for a multitude of bands ranging from Kyuss to Fear. There were no favorite moments during their set that I could single out, because the entire 45-minute set was a highlight in itself. I thought they had already hit their performance peak when I saw them open for Graveyard last year, but I was wrong. They raised their game a lot more last night with some delightful extended jams in a couple of songs like ‘Nothing Forever’ and ‘Deep River (Livin To Die)’, and I’m sure as hell they’ll sound even better next time, if at all that’s possible. As many of you know, I was away from Los Angeles from February 2012-April 2013, and I can honestly say that seeing The Shrine on a regular basis was one of the things I missed the most, because they’re easily amongst the top LA heavy bands in the scene today. So after the set, I gleefully grabbed hold of a copy of their Primitive Blast album on tape, and I’m already cranking it loud, much to the dismay of my neighbors.
Set List (missing song #7):
1. Whistlings Of Death
2. Drinking Man
3. Zipper Tripper
4. Nothing Forever
5. Freak Fighter
6. Wasted Prayer
8. Primitive Blast
9. Deep River (Livin To Die)
After a short gap, Fear hit the stage. No intro music, no buildup. The curtains quickly drew apart, as Lee Ving announced that the band would proceed to play The Record from start to finish. I found it hilarious that his voice reminded me of Lemmy in a lot of ways. To be honest, with Fear being such an old LA punk band, I expected them to sound a little more ‘punk’ than they actually ended up doing by playing The Record. It was definitely more guitar-oriented than I ever thought it would be, or may be it just sounded like that on stage. I haven’t heard the re-recorded version of the album, to be honest, so I can’t really compare this lineup’s sound on the recording to that on stage. I did enjoy lead guitarist Dave Stark’s performance as he brought out some sweet, tasty licks on his Fender. I’m glad his guitars were dominant in the mix because Lee Ving was certainly struggling with his vocals. Add despite the killer lead guitar sound, there wasn’t much of an effort from Stark’s band mates to be in sync with him and sound tight on stage. I guess that’s not the kind of expectation one should have from a punk band, but I still feel they could have sounded better as a group than they did.
The place wasn’t sold out by any means, but was packed to a respectable extent. But even Fear’s fans both old and new looked a little perplexed and bored with what the band had to offer to them in the name of live performance. Granted, it was really cool to be able to see The Record in its entirety from these veteran punk rockers, with Lee Ving being a legend in his own right, and I give them credit for still continuing to play, but the actual performance level left a lot to be desired, and the energy both on stage and amongst the crowd was nowhere near what you would expect at a Fear show. So overall a disappointing Fear set, but hopefully it was just an off-night and they might do better next time.