{"id":10951,"date":"2016-03-31T22:05:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T05:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/?p=10951"},"modified":"2016-03-31T22:21:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T05:21:10","slug":"stoner-jams-industrial-doom-weedeater-and-author-punisher-perform-at-the-viper-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/2016\/03\/31\/stoner-jams-industrial-doom-weedeater-and-author-punisher-perform-at-the-viper-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoner Jams & Industrial Doom: Weedeater And Author & Punisher Perform At The Viper Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lisa Burke<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

March 25th 2016, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: <\/strong>Have you ever turned\u00a0up to a metal show with average expectations and after the whole night finally ended you realized your expectations were exceeded by one hundred percent and you may have just witnessed one of the most amazing bands\/artists\u00a0you had ever seen? Well I hope so, because it’s a great feeling and that’s the kind of night I had last Friday March 25th 2016\u00a0at the Viper Room with headliners Weedeater and support acts Author & Punisher, Today Is The Day, and Lord Dying. You should keep in mind that this night had some strong competition with UFO playing just down the street at the Whisky-A-Go-Go and David Gilmour from Pink Floyd was in town as well. Upon walking into this night I wasn’t sure I had ended up making the right decision, but soon enough, specially when the main support act took the stage, I\u00a0knew I had chosen the right show and smooth sailed into the land of no regrets from there on out.<\/p>\n

\"Lord<\/a>
Lord Dying<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were no local openers, and Portland, Oregon doom\/sludge\/stoner metal quartet\u00a0Lord Dying<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0opened the show and played to a fair sized crowd for such a busy night at such an early time. These dudes are all about the straight-up, in-your-face heavy metal with a bit of sludge and perhaps an occasional sprinkling of doom. They have a definite knack for all things heavy and the persistence of the jams have paid off well for them.\u00a0I find their artwork from the banner to the t-shirts to be top quality and full of creativity, and I wish that it wasn’t more exciting than the tunes themselves, but the thought did cross my mind. If they had a little more specific direction of focus in the music perhaps that would be the key to take it to a higher level. They’ve got everything they need skill wise to pull off a successful heavy metal band and it’s just about finding what separates them from the rest. I enjoyed the whole set and old vs new songs were both a pleasant time.<\/p>\n

\"titd\"<\/a>
Today Is The Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next up was a band called Today Is The Day<\/strong><\/a> whom I saw headline a while back at Whisky-A-Go-Go and who almost seemed like a different band on this occasion, simply due to the difference in sound levels and quality of sound engineering. This band is still totally noisecore to me and that usually isn’t a combination I enjoy, but I’ll never say never. I do give this band some credit for their skill and concept, yet I’m still not a fan at all. The trio needs a live noise maker in my opinion, or in other words a keyboardist or someone who is at least looking like he’s making the background sounds. The backing tracks normally overpower everything else going on on stage and cheapen the band to me, because it’s just tacky noise that is miles away from the live action which has a raw sound quality that is well played. On this night, because of the levels, I believe the backing tracks sounded less frequent and they were extremely scratchy when you could hear it which did not help make an uncomfortable situation worse. If you are into Asking Alexandria or a band that uses similar sounding backing tracks you will probably enjoy these guys who are at least non-emo grown ups, so they have that going for them.<\/p>\n

\"viper\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On my break between bands I walked out front of Viper expecting to be caged in as always, except the entire gated area was completely filled with band gear, to the point where only about two humans could squeeze in there with it. I’d never seen this happen there before, so I knew it must mean some excitement was about to happen, whether it be in the form of an equipment train wreck or otherwise. I have never been so impressed, surprised and blown away all at the same time by what I witnessed next.<\/p>\n

Author & Punisher<\/strong><\/a> consists of one man\u00a0named Tristan Shone and this man exudes nothing but pure maddening genius. Once again I’ll say, I’m usually not into projects involving noise, no matter what form it is combined with, however, this is industrial doom metal created to sound like a band of at least six humans all accomplished with strange looking drone machines, doom machines, and customized microphones. Basically, it’s sort of similar to the idea of Kraftwerk getting in a spaceship and a time machine and traveling to Mars as a future planet where the most amazing alien music technology is available, bringing all the equipment back to the year 1970 and firing all the members except one and having him present the most futuristic one-man show you’ve ever seen. However, what makes this even better is that he created all of this and made cohesive well-written, well-balanced, creatively intense, fully structured songs with strange futuristic stylized instruments and a curved remote control looking microphone that definitely could have only been hand crafted by extremely intelligent aliens.<\/p>\n

\"Author<\/a>
Author & Punisher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His vocals sound perfectly crafted and with the doomy, death style through the custom microphone it gives off a perfect combination of robotic and human. This one man from San Diego is to me the pioneer of the future of industrial music and he’s the good guy ‘Terminator’ of industrial doom metal. I could picture this guy creating and pressing a button that shoots off a laser beam that is powerful enough to destroy all the ear bleeding dub step in the world. Can we make this happen? I’ll say too that with him being in existence since 2004 and having a good collection of albums out there, and really fun quality music videos as well, it’s a wonder I’ve never experienced this live before. If I had my own goth club, this man and his machine would headline every night, and after seeing what he’s capable of, it puts my life to shame and anyone else who doesn’t get out there and do what they dreamt and work hard at it everyday without giving up no matter what circumstances fall your way. He can put bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Ministry, Marilyn Manson, and every noise band in existence to shame in one song. After watching this, I had a newfound appreciation for life, and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Even if you don’t like industrial doom or non traditional instruments, you will walk away from this knowing that this man is a genius in what he created, and you will be humbled in a good way. Put Author & Punisher live on your bucket list now.<\/p>\n

\"Weedeater<\/a>
Weedeater<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, what could possibly sound good after what I just witnessed? Well, North Carolina trio Weedeater<\/strong><\/a> can definitely do no wrong here and the constant entertaining insanity throughout their set left me wanting more. As I walked into the room for the start of their set, of course appropriately all I could smell was weed. This stoner sludge trio is quite the unique bunch with their quirky entertaining traits alone. The drummer sits sideways in the front center\u00a0of the stage and is beyond creative with his out-of-the-box madness that is enhanced with tons of ‘stick tricks’ where he flips the drumsticks into the air and catches them with pure ease and confidence. If I didn’t know better and based the band title on him alone, I may have thought I was watching ‘Crackeater’ instead. Also, with the cymbal\u00a0facing out towards the audience and his fast hard-hitting antics,\u00a0I couldn’t stop imagining it flying out into the audience and decapitating someone horror movie style. Speaking of horror movies, apparently these guys have suffered their fair share of horrific accidents and injuries due to the singer\/ bass player accidentally shooting himself in the foot years ago and losing one of his big toes, not to mention the guitarist apparently broke his hand at one point as well. Regardless, these dudes are really fun live and super talented for the win. The singer can even balance a beer glass on his head between songs after smoking and drinking from a flask.<\/p>\n

The tunes they served up were all fun-filled and delicious jams, and whether you are interested in marijuana or not, this band has character and flavor you are bound to enjoy if you are into stoner metal as a genre. I’m very glad this was how I spent my evening and I’m always happy to discover new interesting bands, or to finally see bands I’ve known for for a while,\u00a0in a live setting for the first time, as was the case with Weedeater, to further expand and intellectualize my heavy metal universe.<\/p>\n

(If you like what you’ve read, support Metal Assault and buy a shirt<\/a>!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weedeater + Author & Punisher + Lord Dying + Today Is The Day remaining tour dates:
\n<\/strong>First Leg:
\n4\/01\/2016 Granada Theater \u0096 Lawrence, KS
4\/02\/2016 Gabes \u0096 Iowa City, IA
4\/03\/2016 Hi Tone \u0096 Memphis, TN

\nSecond Leg:
5\/06\/2016 New Brookland Tavern \u0096 Columbia, SC
5\/07\/2016 Ground Zero \u0096 Spartanburg, SC
5\/08\/2016 Hideaway \u0096 Johnson City, TN
5\/09\/2016 5th Quarter \u0096 Indianapolis, IN
5\/11\/2016 Pyramid Scheme \u0096 Grand Rapids, MI
5\/12\/2016 The Demo \u0096 St Louis, MO
5\/13\/2016 Vaudeville Mews \u0096 Des Moines, IA
5\/14\/2016 Rock Island Brewing Co \u0096 Rock Island, IL
5\/15\/2016 Reggies \u0096 Chicago, IL
5\/17\/2016 Outpost \u0096 Kent, OH
5\/18\/2016 Pike Room \u0096 Pontiac, MI
5\/19\/2016 Mavericks \u0096 Ottawa, ON
5\/20\/2016 Hard Luck \u0096 Toronto, ON
5\/21\/2016. Petite Campus \u0096 Montreal, QC
5\/22\/2016 ONCE Ballroom \u0096 Boston, MA
5\/23\/2016 Saint Vitus \u0096 Brooklyn, NY
5\/24\/2016 Kung Fu Necktie \u0096 Philadelphia, PA
5\/27\/2016 Hardywood Brewery \u0096 Richmond, VA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lisa Burke March 25th 2016, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: Have you ever turned\u00a0up to a metal show with average expectations and after the whole night finally ended you realized your expectations were exceeded by one hundred percent and you may have just witnessed one of the most amazing bands\/artists\u00a0you had ever seen? … <\/p>\n

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