By Andrew Bansal
January 29th 2014, The Satellite, Los Angeles CA: The previous edition of the Scion Rock Show featured Wilmington, North Carolina’s ASG as the headline act, and for the January 2014 edition of this event, it was the turn of ASG’s fellow NC brothers-in-arms Weedeater to crush the stage at the Satellite in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. They embarked on a short US West Coast run a couple of weeks ago, culminating with this showcase event with support act Pins Of Light from San Francisco, with whom they’re slated to release a split EP via the Scion label itself. After underwhelming turnouts for the last few Scion Rock Shows, upon arriving at the Satellite it was great to see a long line of people waiting outside before the doors opened, and the pre-show atmosphere for this gig was more akin to to the old Scion shows at the Roxy in Hollywood. Starting at 9 PM, entry was being granted to these people, and one had a feeling it was going to be an excellent evening of heavy music.
It took a while to get everyone safely in so it look longer than usual for the show to get started, but as always, the LSDJs were here to entertain and indulge the waiting audience by playing some sweet tunes on the PA. Most attendees got their drink on and gathered to greet the opening act Pins Of Light, a San Francisco-based quartet that can perhaps be best described as psychedelic punk rock for the sake of those who seek genre labels, but in reality their music encompassed a large variety of styles, ranging from Motörhead-esque fast jams to stoner/doom-laden passages and pure psychedelia. They hit the stage at around 10:20, played a 35-minute set and impressed a sizable portion of this audience. Scion A/V does a fantastic job at highlighting hidden, unknown talent by bringing them for these shows and letting them open for bigger bands, and they succeeded yet again in unearthing another potential gem.
Visit Pins Of Light on the web:
PinsOfLightSF.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/pages/Pins-Of-Light/124270370694
Set List:
01. No Way Home
02. May Be Millions
03. Empire
04. New Sun
05. Sound & Pressure
06. * New Song *
07. Lie Detector
08. 4112
Shortly after, all was in readiness for the Dixie Dave Collins-led Weedeater to unleash their onslaught onto this crowd. The dirtiest, ugliest sludge trio going around at present, Weedeater has always been known to crush skulls and make ears bleed with their brand of heavy music. They presented these traits to perfection in their Los Angeles shows at the Whisky and Key Club in the recent past, and last night at the Satellite was no different in that regard. Dixie Dave, fueled by an unending intake of Whisky, brought out the low-end on his bass, the intensity in his vocals and the insanity in his crazy eyes and monkey moves. He was ably assisted by Dave Shepherd on guitar and vocals. Meanwhile Travis Owen was giving the audience a unique perspective on live drumming with his kit positioned at the edge of the stage and facing sideways, and he lent just about as strong of a dose of energy into the performance as Dixie Dave himself. The trio played a short and high-impact 35-minute set, inducing some mosh pits, crowd surfing and stage diving. By Silver Lake standards, this was certainly an above-average audience in terms of their energy level and response towards the band playing on stage. Weedeater did their reputation no harm whatsoever with this performance, and sludge fans would be well-advised not only to attend the next Weedeater show in their town, but also to get a hold of that upcoming Scion split release with Pins Of Light.
Visit Weedeater on the web:
WeedMetal.com
facebook.com/WeedMetal
twitter.com/WeedMetal
Overall, this edition of the Scion Rock Show was probably the best attended one the Satellite has had so far, and everyone involved in putting together these shows would have enjoyed seeing such a great turnout for this particular gig. Some people were complaining about glitches in the online RSVP system, so aside from striving to continue booking awesome bands and spreading the word sufficiently to attract audiences to future shows, the RSVP issue is probably the only thing Scion would need to address. Other than that, another fantastic show by Scion that vindicates Metal Assault’s unwavering support for everything they do for the genre of heavy music.
Visit Scion A/V on the web:
ScionAV.com
facebook.com/ScionAVmetal
twitter.com/ScionAV
instagram.com/ScionAV
Visit The Satellite on the web:
theSatelliteLA.com
facebook.com/theSatelliteLA
twitter.com/theSatelliteLA
instagram.com/theSatelliteLA