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By Andrew Bansal

Jan. 14th 2012, The Roxy, Hollywood CA: After a largely successful Nuclear Blast showcase last November, Scion A/V put together their second label showcase, this time spotlighting Prosthetic Records. The bands that represented the LA-based label at this event were Holy Grail, Scale The Summit, Last Chance To Reason and The Greenery.

This would be Holy Grail’s biggest headline show so far, and in Scale The Summit they had a fantastic opening band. Besides, I was interested to see how well Last Chance To Reason perform this time, and I had never seen The Greenery. So there was more than plenty to give fuel to my anticipation of this show.

The doors promptly opened at 1 PM, and The Greenery hit the stage at 1.25. I was really impressed by their debut full-length “Spit & Argue” which was released last year, and have been wanting to see the band live ever since. Today I finally got my chance, and it’s safe to say that The Greenery did not disappoint. Vocalist Matt wasted no time in jumping straight onto the floor to be among the crowd, and he stayed there for majority of the band’s set. He did his best to get the crowd pumped, and his attempts were successful. I could tell that their set was well appreciated, even by people who didn’t know who they were. Besides loving them for having one of the most awesome band names I have ever come across, I love what they do musically, and how they present it on stage. Their brand of hardcore punk has a distinct groove to it, which makes them a great live band. These dudes are based in Long Beach CA, so if you live around Southern California and haven’t seen The Greenery yet, you should. Continue reading “Scion’s Prosthetic Records Showcase Provides Memorable Afternoon Of Eclectic Music”

By Avinash Mittur

January 7th 2012, Club Nokia, Los Angeles CA: Nearly twenty years ago, the band that headlined Club Nokia last Saturday night, Sanctuary, disbanded. From its remains came the genre-defying Nevermore. After two decades of some of the most innovative progressive/power/thrash metal yet recorded, the band splintered. Now from the remains of Nevermore, Sanctuary rises once again, ready to deliver their unique take on classic heavy metal.

Unfortunately, this show was plagued with problems even before the night began. To begin with, the band booked a venue far beyond the scope of their present fan base. To make matters even worse, the show was extremely poorly promoted. The only way I learned about the concert was from a random Ticketmaster listing. Sanctuary did not do any press work in promoting this short tour, and only announced the show on their social media pages an hour before the show began. Lastly, the tickets were extremely overpriced, beginning at $40 after “convenience charges” from Ticketmaster. Even if one bought tickets from the box office the day of the show, tickets were still $33.  Continue reading “Sanctuary Performs In Los Angeles After Long Absence”

By Andrew Bansal

Dec. 21st 2011, The Forum, Los Angeles CA: Guns N’ Roses was the very first rock band I ever got into, and I have waited a long, long time to see them live. Even though I was extremely excited about this show right from the day it was announced, I was a little apprehensive about how the current GNR line-up would sound, and whether their lengthy show would turn out to be a little too much to take. But I definitely went in to the show with a very open mind, and honestly, by the time I left the venue I was in a state of complete shock and utter amazement.

As is usual for big LA shows like these, things were pretty stressful outside the venue, because of which I got held up and couldn’t enter the building before 9.45. But, I was given an awesome floor ticket, and I still got to see enough of the opening act Steel Panther’s set to be able to write about them here, so no complaints at all. Continue reading “Guns N’ Roses Treat Hometown Fans To Memorable Rock Marathon”

By Andrew Bansal

Dec. 14th 2011, Key Club, Hollywood CA: As soon as the second annual Dimebash was announced, I was eager in anticipation of the event and I was curious to find out if the organizers stepped it up a notch and made it better than the first ever Dimebash which took place late last year at the very same venue. For those of you that don’t know, Dimebash is an event done for two purposes, to celebrate Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell’s memory, and to raise money for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund. The Key Club was sold out for this in 2010, and indeed it was sold out this year as well. The line-up of performing musicians confirmed to participate this year was looking great on paper, and it remained to be seen as to how good the actual show would turn out to be.

The show started at 8 PM with hosts Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson from VH1 Classic’s “That Metal Show” coming out and giving everyone a short intro on what to expect. Shortly after, the opening act Kill Devil Hill, featuring Rex Brown on bass and Vinny Appice on drums, took the stage and played a 45-minute set. I was glad they got a long set, and it was in fact longer than the two headline sets I’ve seen them perform. They had a few more new tunes as compared to the last time, and these sounded great in my opinion. The crowd was getting more and more into their music as each song went by, and Rex did his best to pump up the crowd. Even though the newer tunes were great, “Gates Of Hell” was still my favorite tune of the set. All in all, Kill Devil Hill’s set provided a very heavy beginning to the night’s proceedings. Continue reading “Metal Community Comes Together To Rock Dimebash 2011”

By Andrew Bansal

The end of 2011 comes nearer, and compared to the two other list-based articles I’ve written, this one was most definitely the hardest. To choose 20 best live performances from the 175 shows I’ve seen till date this year, was quite a task to say the least. But I would be kicking myself if I didn’t do it. As you found out from the list I posted yesterday, I strongly believe that bands deserve flack for putting on bad shows. Well, they equally deserve accolades for devoting their whole-hearted effort into giving the paying fans their money’s worth. Here it is, in the order of #20 to #1, my picks for the best live performances of 2011. Continue reading “20 Best Live Performances Of 2011”

By Andrew Bansal

This is a list-based article I simply had to write, because I strongly feel that nobody should be paying money to watch a mediocre show, and bands that put on a bad show deserve flack for it. You might ask, why am I not making a worst albums list? Because as it is, not many people buy albums, so it’s kind of pointless to write about albums that nobody should buy. But people do go to shows and spend their money on tickets. It was actually pretty easy for me to come up with this list, because fortunately most of the shows I went to this year turned out to be good experiences, so there weren’t many bad shows at all. The only bit of ‘work’ involved was in putting these select few bad ones in order of 1 to 10. Continue reading “Ten Worst Live Performances Of 2011”