Metal Assault: Gig Reviews

By Andrew Bansal

October 31st 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Following an active year of touring nationwide as well as overseas, parody metal kings Steel Panther have returned home, and just like the old days, are doing a residency on the Sunset Strip, albeit for a mere four shows. Having completed long and successful residencies at the Key Club and House Of Blues in the recent past and a short-lived one at the Fonda earlier this year, Steel Panther are now back to their old stomping grounds, the Roxy. The first of these four shows took place on Halloween night, and playing to a sold-out crowd, the band pulled out all the stops to make it a party to remember. Continue reading “Return Of The Kings: Steel Panther Begin New Residency At The Roxy”

By Andrew Bansal

October 31st 2016, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Hollywood CA: After completing an extensive two-leg North American tour playing in an evening-with format with no opening acts, shock rock icon Alice Cooper took the stage one more time this year, the night after a sold-out show at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, to make an appearance on the national television show Jimmy Kimmel Live on Halloween night. Alice Cooper and his band played an outdoor mini-concert in the JKL parking lot behind El Capitan Theatre, performing five of their beloved classics, two filmed for broadcast and the rest just for the live audience. Free tickets to attend this event were gone within seconds of being made available online, and rightly so, because what’s better on Halloween than an Alice Cooper (mini) concert? Continue reading “Elected On Halloween: Alice Cooper Plays Outdoor Mini-Concert In Hollywood”

By Andrew Bansal

October 30th 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Blending the worlds of hardcore, punk, horrorcore and hip hop with a very experimental approach to their musicianship, Ho99o9 is a group that originated in Newark NJ in 2012 and relocated to Los Angeles two years later. They’ve turned heads and garnered attention in these past four years, due to their eccentric musical style as well as wild on-stage performances, including their appearance at a sold-out Wiltern as opener for Faith No More in 2015. Currently on a US West Coast tour, Ho99o9 arrived at the Roxy in West Hollywood, fittingly on Devil’s Night i.e. October 30th, and headlined the ‘House Of Horror’ with support acts The Shrine and Petyr. Much has been already said about Ho99o9 by LA’s concertgoers and journalists, and in contrast to the ever-pleasant familiarity of everything that entails The Shrine, this was Metal Assault’s first Ho99o9 experience, and a memorable one at that. Continue reading “House Of Horror & Tripping Corpses: Ho99o9 & The Shrine Rock Devil’s Night On The Sunset Strip”

By Lisa Burke

October 29th 2016, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: The thrash metal genre has been a top contender as a crowd pleaser for many heavy metal shows for over thirty years and since it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon, it’s best to acknowledge those bands that stand out from a sea of skilled thrashers. On Saturday October 29th 2016 at Whisky-A-Go-Go, Death Angel headlined a show with mostly local openers at the end of ‘The Evil Divide’ tour in support of their latest album, an extensive two-month tour on which they opened for Slayer and Anthrax all around North America. The support acts on this night came from Salems Lott, Exterminate, and Trecelence, among others. The last time I had a chance to see Death Angel was at their last Sunset Strip House Of Blues show and I was absolutely blown away by how exciting they were in that live setting, not to mention they had just put out a fantastic record. In fact, very much opposite to bands like Metallica, they get even better with each new album release and can give at least 95 per cent of all thrash bands a run for their money. Continue reading “Firing On All Cylinders: Thrash Titans Death Angel Pack The Whisky”

By Lisa Burke

October 23rd 2016, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Supergroups are popping up all over the map lately and usually when various members from various groups come together to make something new the end, result is fairly exciting although mostly it seems to go unnoticed because instead of paying attention to band members, most people only pay attention to band names, so when I say I went to go see Last In Line headline a show at Whisky-A-Go-Go on Sunday October 23rd 2016 no one knows what the hell I’m talking about. If I said I went to see a headlining band with members from Dio, Def Leppard, The Offspring, and Black Sabbath, then may be you cared for a minute. Continue reading “Keeping The Legacy Alive: Vivian Campbell’s ‘Last In Line’ Headlines Whisky-A-Go-Go”

Images & words by Brad Worsham

October 21st 2016, The Theatre @ Ace Hotel, Los Angeles CA: When I read the press release that Korn would be releasing their 12th studio album ‘The Serenity of Suffering’, my first thought was how is it possible that this is their 12th album. The 2000 Summer Sanitarium show at the LA Coliseum was the last time that they seemed to be a relevant band. It must be hard to try to keep writing angsty lyrics, and have the same sound and look, when you no longer have some of the issues that made you who you were. You may not have things so bad when the biggest problem that you can write songs about deals with the pressure your record company is putting on you to release a single. Furthermore, it is undoubtedly the coolest microphone stand created, but when you commission H.R. Giger to create a mic stand, you no longer are dealing with “the real world”. Seeing the microphone stand on stage before the show, covered up, waiting to be unveiled, drives this point home. Continue reading “Not Rotting In Vain: Korn Plays Private Record Release Show In Downtown LA”