Tag: the shrine

Judas Priest at Knotfest by Alfonso Contreras

Take This: Win Two Tickets to Judas Priest at The Shrine

Janky Smooth Central Command March 7, 2022

Three Nights of Bjork CORNUCOPIA at the Shrine

Rob Shepyer January 12, 2022

It’s been years since the last time I saw Bjork perform in Los Angeles. I’ll never forget it, it was FYF fest 2017, the most stacked lineup this city has seen in years, with Frank Ocean’s last LA performance headlining one night, Nine Inch Nails closing out the fest, but Bjork and Missy Elliot reigning supreme on the opening Friday night festivities. Simply hearing “Joga” live was a life altering musical experience. Bjork’s vocals cut right through to people’s hearts so after two years of living in a covid hellscape, I have no doubt she will make every audience of her upcoming three night stint at the Shrine Auditorium cry their eyes out. related content: FYF Fest 2017 Steals Coachella’s Throne As So-Cal’s Premiere Festival These three Shrine performances won’t simply be Bjork shows, these are CORNUCOPIA shows, some of the avant-garde and inspiring live music you could ever experience, especially if you’re a creative yourself. Fantasy becomes a force for change with visuals co-directed by Bjork and Argentine genius, Lucrecia Marartel and co-creative directed by James Merry. You’ll see images of foreign worlds straight out of the queen’s mind. The visuals are so animated and vibrant they feel like

Photo Recap: Thundercat at The Shrine

Janky Smooth Central Command December 5, 2021

Photos by: Nicole Roussin Thundercat brought a whole slew of homies out to an epic performance at the Shrine that included Channel Tres, Flying Lotus, Haim, and more to celebrate his newest music in his hometown. The stage setup was magnificent, a giant cat with lasers shooting out its eyes. Thundercat played a long and late set that spanned from his classics, to his new shit, to a lot of improvisational free-form jazz that blew minds and sent everyone at the Shrine on a trip through Thundercat’s multi-dimensional, musical-genius mind. The man’s fingers are each a force of nature, hitting notes on that bass with perfect precision and Godly speed. Check out these pics from the show by Nikki Roussin. Thundercat Flying Lotus Channel Tres

One Hundred Trillion Gecs: 100 Gecs at the Shrine

Rob Shepyer November 27, 2021

100 Gecs, the duo of Laura Les and Dylan Brady, are the most polarizing group in all of contemporary music. People either love them or hate them. I rarely hear an indifferent reaction after playing their music for someone. Frankly, that’s the way I like it. A band that can summon immediate love or deep hatred at the same time means they’re a band made for the weirdos that even the normies can grow to appreciate. I personally love the band’s music and don’t care what anyone thinks of me for loving it. After all, since the beginning of 100 Gecs, it’s always been them against the world. related content: Alien Boys And Girls: George Clanton And Magdalena Bay At 1720 I was so incredibly stoked to cover 100 Gecs’ concert at the Shrine and wasn’t one bit surprised they packed the house with what might’ve been the biggest crowd they’ve performed in front of that wasn’t in a festival setting. You can say 100 Gecs is music for nerds because it attracts gamers, dweebs and outsiders but at the same time, there were plenty of jocks and cheerleaders in that audience, raging harder than anyone for the mysterious duo.

Chicano Batman Bring a Crumb Home to the Shrine

Danny Baraz November 12, 2021

Chicano Batman must’ve hit such an intense crescendo on their current tour when they reached the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Nov 10th to play night 1 of 2 sold out dates for their proud, gushing home town crowd. I have to be honest, after opening band Crumb finished their set, I thought I was going to make the word count in this review tilt toward the psych-rock outfit from New York but silly rabbit, Chicano Batman reign supreme in L.A. related content: Texis Or Treats: Sleigh Bells At Teragram Ballroom It was a case of one of the best bands in indie music opening for one of the best bands in indie music. A classic gorge fest of immaculate songwriting meets prodigious musicianship and the line to get through security was still around the block by the time Los Retros took the stage. I wasn’t there to see it for myself but I heard Mauri Tapia of Los Retros broke a guitar string and with no back up, he made the best of it with his wurlitzer tone on keys and classic retro rock croons-manship. I was inside and well placed while the changeover crew set Crumb

Grey Skies Above, Mosh Pits Below: $UICIDEBOY$ at the Shrine

Rob Shepyer September 7, 2019

I had been meaning to see $UICIDE BOY$ for a few years. To me, these two New Orleans born, Gen-Z rappers are the best talents of their crop. The face-tatted, nihilistic, drinking and drugging lyrical miracles that you might see on Rolling Loud have nothing on these two. Their flow, their beats, their song structures are a cut above the rest, white, black, or otherwise. And their success has matched their talent. Perhaps there’s been no better evidence of just how popular they are than two sold out two nights at the Shrine Expo Hall on a tour that was absolutely stacked. With all the nu-metal inspired hip hop blending with hardcore music on this stage, this is as close as 2019 can come to the the Family Values tours in the 90’s. related content: Rolling Loud SoCal 2017 Doses The Youth With The Latest Opiate Of The Masses The Grey Day tour included young gun rap stars and duos such as City Morgue, who took the Shrine to fever-pitch right from the get-go with their visceral hardcore horror rap and Slipknot covers; Shakewell, the big boy with a flow that’s lightning fast and gets everyone jazzed, juiced, and jumping; Germ,

Shrine to a Goddess: Tash Sultana Sells Out the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles

Rob Shepyer December 4, 2018

I first heard about Tash Sultana a few years ago from a friend giving her high enough praise to crown them a genius, always the skeptic, I gave her a brief listen and certainly heard something special but didn’t pay it the mind I should have until this year. Tash’s first time playing Los Angeles in 2017, they had an audience of 300 people. Not bad for an artist that earned their chops the hard way, busking back home in Melbourne, Australia. This time around, after the release of 2018’s phenomenal Flow State, Tash sold out the Shrine Expo Hall to a lucky lot of Angelinos who got to see what was nothing short of a goddess in our presence. related content: The Queens Converge At Outside Lands 2018 I say this with as little hyperbole as possible, Tash Sultana embodies bliss and transcendence to a point that they vaguely have a quality that is not human or of this Earthly plain. Identifying as non-binary, Tash rejects labels like female, so perhaps goddess doesn’t serve them any better but because a God is not a he or she but rather an it, I will submit that a goddess is just as much an

Photo Recap: Underoath “Erase Me” Tour at the Shrine

Janky Smooth Central Command November 14, 2018

Underoath are back and no longer playing under the “christian” moniker. This musical resurrection came to the Shrine Expo Hall for the Erase Me tour with Dance Gavin Dance, Crown The Empire, and The Plot in You. Fans waited anxiously in silence until just like a kick to the face, post-hardcore heroes, Underoath hit the stage, blaring with “On My Teeth” off their new album, Erase Me. People went nuts, jumping over the railing and crowd surfing while the band reeked havoc on stage. Then just as things were getting extremely heavy and intesne, this giant and gentle band brought the crowd to tears with “I Hate It”. Over all, it was a killer show to mark the rebirth of Underoath from start to finish. Photos by: Pedro Carrera Underoath Dance Gavin Dance Crown The Empire The Plot in You

Ahead of his Timelessness: David Byrne at The Shrine Auditorium

Jessica Moncrief August 29, 2018

A lone brain sits on a fold out table complete with a wooden chair directly under a spotlight. This abstract scene of living art set the stage perfectly for a journey into the psyche and imagination of the legendary David Byrne. With bare feet, white disheveled hair, and a cool gray retro suit to boot, Byrne looked like a mad scientist or guru to a new age religious cult, the church of Byrne. He walked out onto the stage, sat in the chair and picked up the brain. While solemnly singing into his headpiece, a glittery beaded curtain raised from the floor. From there, the production went full psychedelic with a marching band of smiling, dancing, barefoot instrumentalists and back up singers, all uniformly dressed in the same retro grey suits. They gracefully emerged from the curtain in what would be the beginning of a fully choreographed spectacular production that was completely wireless. No amps on stage, no cords dangling from instruments to step over, the drums were attached to their player’s bodies instead of fixed on a kit. related content: Finally Admitting It’s Real: Portugal. The Man At The Shrine This had to be the most avant-garde concert tour

Alison Wonderland Uplifts L.A. at the Shrine

Aria Silva-Espinosa August 20, 2018

Every EDM festival lineup, every mainstream festival EDM selection, year after year is an exhausting shirtless sausage fest. It’s totally true, look it up. Prior to 2014-ish, very few female acts graced the lineups of dance music-focused shows and festivals. Alison Wonderland was the woman who worked her way to the main stage of some of the largest festivals in the world and for the past three years she has toured the world bringing her unique blend of original vocals and electrifying dance music to her massive international fan base. Born Alexandra Sholler in New South Wales, she’s certainly come a long way from playing classical cello in the Sydney Youth Opera for those who want to argue that electronic artists aren’t real musicians. She played bass for a while too before being inspired to go in a different direction by Swedish avant garde electro-pop duo The Knife. The rest is kind of history. She began working as a mixer and began touring in her native Australia as Alison Wonderland in 2012 and released her debut single ‘Get Ready’ in 2013. related content: Overcoming Fear With Fever Ray At The Palladium Dance music festivals are big business for a lot

Finally Admitting it’s Real: Portugal. The Man at The Shrine

Robert Cohen August 14, 2018

For everything pop culture as a whole has done to convince us that the best humanity has to offer comes out of relationships and love, outside of shitty rom coms, the weird and winding paths that people take to get into them often go unacknowledged. People often go months or years without expressing their true feelings; and when they do, the time and place is not always as cookie cutter perfect as it’s made out to be in the popular imagination. In my opinion, Portugal. The Man is characteristic of the many angles of this scenario in the context of a fan’s relationship with a band. Once upon a time, they were the new kid in school: a little band from Alaska whose songs would show up occasionally on a mix CD someone gave you of cool new music that had flown under the radar. A few years later after they’d earned more cred with the local kids, they start hanging out with one of the cool seniors who brings them to the next level: auteur producer Danger Mouse who produced their 2013 album Evil Friends. Their insider status secured, after a few years away they come home from college

House of Ho99o9 Halloween at The Roxy

Rob Shepyer November 2, 2016

Angelinos spent the Sunday before Halloween under an overcast sky, bracing against the trashing rain. 9.9.9: The dead could feel the day’s coming haunt, seeping in through the soil. Oh the Ho99o9… Not your typical Sunday, the city’s thirst to party had not be quenched by Friday or Saturday’s pre-Halloween escapades and so creepers poured onto the Sunset Strip looking for a fix. The chic elite WeHo-llowieners past The Roxy and just kept on walking while the punks checked right in, dressed in costumes that depicted such characters as: low life’s, whores, pimps, derelicts, 22nd century anal nuns, cross-dressing goo gobblers, and a hesher or two. Like a horde of roaches skittering into a crack, we all gathered to see Ho99o9 and The Shrine, two buzz bands and the cream of today’s crop. It was Ho99o9’s first Los Angeles show since dropping two new songs: The Dope Dealerz and Double Barrel. One track is heavy rap, the other is heavy punk. Yin and Yang… or actually, Yin and Yin. I had seen half of Ho99o9’s set opening for Faith No More last year at the Wiltern and wasn’t able to get sucked into it. So I wasn’t sure if they’d