By Andrew Bansal
July 12th 2013, The Troubadour, West Hollywood CA: Palms, the new band featuring Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and Isis members Clifford Meyer, Aaron Harris and Jeff Claxide, are on their first ever run of live shows, visiting the Troubadour in West Hollywood last night after performing in San Diego on July 10th and Santa Ana on the 11th. Based on my past experiences here, the vibe of this venue promised to be the perfect setting for the kind of music Palms were bringing onto the stage. The pre-show excitement and anticipation amongst fans of Deftones and Isis was palpable as the show was sold out in advance and a large number of folks lined up outside the venue nice and early. I’ve been an admirer of Isis’ style of musicianship. Upon listening to Palms’ recently released self-titled debut album I found it to be an interesting listen at home, but was curious to find out how well the three Isis guys and the one Deftones guy bring it in the live setting.
The doors opened at 8 PM and the show started at 9 with the opening act Crypts hitting the stage. I honestly knew nothing about this band, but even before they started I got a bad feeling about them as soon as I noticed that they didn’t have any guitars set up on stage. Sure enough, their brand of electronic/industrial/dance music, or whatever you might want to call it, wasn’t to anybody’s liking in this entire packed house, and a few minutes into the set, people started leaving the main concert hall and took shelter in the adjoining bar/merch area. The sheer number of people packed into that tiny room just went to show how repulsive Crypts’ music was to this audience. I am well aware of the fact that the dudes in Isis and Deftones tend to do things to throw people off, but this opening act threw people off in a bad way. All in all, a horrible choice for an opening band.
After what seemed like an eternity, their set ended and following another 40-minute wait period, Palms hit the stage at 10.20. The audience finally had something to cheer about, and went nuts upon seeing the band members descend down the staircase from the dressing room and take their positions on stage. Chino Moreno dominated the first few songs with his crooning vocal melodies, but it took quite a while for them to build any kind of momentum with this set because of the slow-paced and soft nature of the music. May be it’d even be fair to say that the vocals were too dominant. I didn’t get to hear or feel the actual musicianship of the Isis guys as much as I was expecting to. In fact, the parts I enjoyed most were the little instrumental bits that kicked off some of the songs, and this is nothing against Chino Moreno at all, it’s just that I expected the music to be a lot more powerful in the live setting.
Ironically though, when Chino put down his guitar and did the vocals alone, it was the moment that breathed some life into this performance as he was freed to move around a lot more and express himself with greater energy. The next couple of songs after that even featured Chino’s screaming albeit briefly. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself for enjoying his screams as much as I did, because I’ve always preferred listening to clean vocals over screaming/growling types. This was one exceptional occasion where I was waiting for the singer to release his aggression in the form of screams.
But moments later, the set again settled down into the soft, low-paced plateau it started out on, and couldn’t really hold the audience as I noticed quite a few people deciding to leave at around 11 o’ clock. Based on this performance, I’d say Palms’ music is the kind that gradually paints a picture and is not about providing instant gratification. At this time there isn’t enough variety in their live show because their only album has a sense of sameness to it, but I’m sure they will get better as a live band as they bring newer music into their set in the future. This being the Troubadour, a lot of people indulged in alcoholic beverages but this wasn’t the kind of band that would sound better when you’re drunk. If you really want to heighten your sense of enjoyment at a Palms show, cannabis is the way to go.
In conclusion, Palms’ first ever LA performance wasn’t mind-blowing by any stretch of imagination, but was an interesting experience nonetheless, and things will only get better from here on.