Category: SHOWS

Don’t Fear the Weird: Fidlar’s Record Release at Teragram

Dillon Vaughn February 4, 2019

Despite 2019 being the 10th anniversary of Fidlar‘s existence, I first heard the band around two years ago while on tour (late to the game, I know.) We were driving somewhere through the Carolinas in a rattling van formerly used to shuttle the homeless out of LA and all six of us were hungover as hell. With four of the bandmates passed out in the back, I was riding shotgun and taking in the sights while my friend that was driving cued up Fidlar’s 2015 record Too and began singing along in that kind of raspy voice you have after a long night out. Something about the tone of that album – the wistfulness, pacing, and honesty about facing adulthood resonated perfectly with the moment. Almost Free, the album being celebrated and released recently at the Teragram marked a new direction for the band that captured their interest in exploring new song structures and instrumentation and allowed this show to highlight other LA bands approaching music with a similar attitude. related content: Family, Friends, FIDLAR: A Punk Rock Love Fest At The Observatory “Don’t Fear the Weird,” the motto scrawled in red across Brandon Schwartzel’s bass guitar summed up both the new direction for

Songs of Freedom: Jesse Malin’s Gates of the West at the Roxy

Rob Shepyer February 2, 2019

The damage done by the last string of California wildfires is still being felt and so relief is still needed to rebuild all the lives that were changed forever. Music, which always seems to be the source of spiritual refuge for those in need, came to the rescue in the form of Gates of the West, an all-star celebration of the life of Joe Strummer hosted by D-Generation’s Jesse Malin. related content: Jesse Malin And All Star Rockers Raise Money For A Friend At The Roxy The night began with a musical collaborator of Joe Strummer’s, Zander Schloss who took the stage solo with an acoustic guitar to play three songs including “Redemption Song” and “Go Straight to Hell”. Following him, Jesse Malin and his house band took the stage to play a set of originals that harkened back to rock and roll’s heyday of coolness, swagger and nonchalance. Jesse was on the guitar, in the crowd, jumping and jiving, and singing his guts out with more New York attitude than Los Angeles is used to. One special moment was when the band covered a Pogues song because Shane McGowan called the Cat and Fiddle bar in Los Angeles to

Punx Not Dead in Petaluma – Home Sick 2 at the Pheonix Theater

Nicole Verto January 30, 2019

“Is punk dead?” I’ve typically found this refrain loathsome and lazy. Despite my ongoing aversion to the utterance, it was front and center in my own (traitor) brain during the week leading up to Home Sick 2. You see, after almost forty years, the punk institution known as Maximum Rocknroll announced that the zine would cease printing in 2019. The notion hit me hard. I recalled being fourteen and seeing MRR for the first time as a young teenager and traced from there to the first time I saw the rows and rows of green-taped records myself. It felt like a death. I went to three other shows in the days between the announcement and attending Home Sick 2 but HS2 was the one that really shook me out of my cynicism. Of course punk is not dead. Of course the community is still growing and reaching folks of all ages. Even better: those of us already in too deep seem to be better than ever at welcoming other sounds into our spaces. The curators behind Home Sick (none other than headliners Ceremony) managed to again create a space both familiar and refreshingly representative of this constant evolution happening within

Heart to Mouth with LP at the Observatory

Janky Smooth Central Command January 29, 2019

Words and Photos by: Maggie St. Thomas While promoting her 5th studio release Heart To Mouth, singer Laura Pergolizzi better known across the globe as LP kicked off the first night of her much anticipated and heavily sold out North American Heart To Mouth 2019 Tour at the Observatory in Santa Ana. Playing in support for this critically acclaimed recording artist and songwriter on a vast stretch of the tour is LP’s fiancé’ Lauren Ruth Ward, another high energy performer with an exceptional vocal range, and with instruments that compliment her free spirit including a star shaped tambourine, and red and white polka dotted mushroom maracas. related content: The Queens Converge At Outside Lands 2018 The sold out venue goes dark and the crowd screams in anticipation. It was a sight to behold and everyone in attendance was immediately transfixed the second LP’s boots hit the stage. LP’s voice is powerful and euphoric, creating an expansive dreamlike state that becomes a high all in itself. Her stage presence is magnetic from any angle, unique and unforgettable. Accenting her strikingly sharp androgynous look with her signature wild brown curls, tonight she sported a teal colored long sleeve pirate shirt, a dark vest, pencil think black

Photo Recap: Parquet Courts and Snail Mail at the Constellation Room

Janky Smooth Central Command January 27, 2019

Parquet Courts and Snail Mail took their tour to the Constellation Room and brought down the house with their funk inspired art punk. People felt the rhythm and the groove, dancing around to all the hits that made Parquet Courts one of the breakout bands of 2018. Photos by: Albert Licano Parquet Courts Snail Mail

Photo Recap: Judas Priestess at Catch One

Janky Smooth Central Command January 27, 2019

Psycho Entertainment brought a night of female-led cover bands to Catch One with Judas Priestess and Cowgirls From Hell. Both bands delivered a new, heavy, and fun take on classic metal songs. Photos by: Anthony Mehlhaff Judas Priestess Cowgirls From Hell

Rebels of Wrestling: PCW Ultra 3 Year Anniversary

Jonathan Reyes January 25, 2019

For how popular independent wrestling has become, it’s still at the edge of the map, on the outskirts of the mainstream, that’s where PCW Ultra grows. In the dark, like a mushroom, unsuspecting and complex. Outcasts and rebels with a super chill attitude. Cultivated in the San Pedro bay, to describe the organization as such is to describe the city. While I mean it romantically, if you ask Johnny Ultra who grew up on the other side of the hill in Palo Verdes he’d call it “the place where he throws his trash” and “people with cars who can’t make it up the hill”. Right from the start this felt different. To start PCW ULTRA’s third year anniversary show Shane “Swerve” Strickland the first person to carry the PCW Ultra LHW champion and PCW Ultra Heavyweight championship came out to address the crowd. To let them know to ignore what the internet might say. To let them know that there is nothing, not contracts, not rumors, not weight class stopping him from achieving his goals. He is the newly designated PCW ULTRA champion as he relinquishes the PCW ULTRA light championship with a challenge to the ULTRA light division, try

A Return Full of Firsts: Deerhunter at The Lodge Room Highland Park

Janky Smooth Central Command January 23, 2019

Words by: Krista Anderson Photos by: Dillon Vaughn On a cold Thursday night when January’s torrential flood had finally let up over Los Angeles, the band, Deerhunter brought in the eve of their newest album, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? Deerhunter’s atmospheric presence mesmerized the excitable, full house at The Lodge Room in Highland Park. related content: The Universe Smiles Upon Khruangbin At The Lodge Room Opened by Confusing Mix of Nations, a New York and Los Angeles based duo with spacey vocal melodies and harsh, analog dance beats, the night was an exploration into sounds both vast and aggressive. Listeners anticipating the album’s midnight release swayed and bobbed while bathed in swirling guitar melodies and whimsical rhythms. Deerhunter’s unpredictable and provocative performance spoke to the experimental nature of the Atlanta based group. Among the haziness of several esteemed favorites such as Halcyon Digest’s “Helicopter” and “Desire Lines” (2010), the band launched two new songs for the very first time before the keen, Los Angeles audience. related content: Creep Or Charmer: Alex Cameron At The Lodge Room The penultimate track of the new album, “Plains,” was revealed mid-set. Synthesizing the cutting rage of Monomania (2013)

Satan’s First Born: Possessed at the Whisky

Rob Shepyer January 18, 2019

Anton Lavey’s church of Satan could’ve only happened in San Francisco. They have a certain way of playing with ideas in Northern California that they can deal in evil and sin while not taking themselves too seriously but also not being perceived as jokes. Anton Lavey’s dream of a new world based on humanist principals was so unapologetic that it could invert any cross. It’s no wonder, that these two forces, satanism and good ol’ fashioned San Franciscan California dreaming, contributed to the birth of death metal in a band called Possessed. related content: The Battle Of The Bays: Obituary & Exodus Clash At Teragram Ballroom Whether you debate death metal crawled out of the San Francisco bay or Tampa bay, we are all in agreement that Possessed’s singer, Jeff Becerra is an icon of the genre. You feel power and wisdom emanating from him when he’s working a stage. His vocals shoot out in bolts, they’re not quite guttural but it’s certainly signature death. It delivers the satanic, thought-provoking, and ominous lyrics home, as if a dark wizard were singing. related content: Morbid Angel At The Regent: A Lesson In Death Possessed began in 1983 and after breakups, reformations, lineup

Photo Recap: Mick Jenkins and Stock Marley at El Rey Theatre

Janky Smooth Central Command January 17, 2019

Chicago hip hop sensation, Mick Jenkins, brought his Pieces of a Man tour to the El Rey theatre for a sold out show with support from Stock Marley. The album of the same name as the tour was released in October 2018 so the city came out in force having anticipated this show for awhile. With old school, underground beats that highlight Jenkins’ loose, free, lucid lyrical flow, the fog and vibe at El Rey were of legendary thickness. Photos by: Rodney Campos Mick Jenkins Stock Marley

Trip-hopping into 2019: Tigercide at the Echo

Aria Silva-Espinosa January 10, 2019

It takes a day or two to get your bearings in a new year. It was hard to find the motivation to leave the comfort of my heated apartment but we headed out to The Echo on the second day of 2019, drawn by the allure of some dark, brooding electronic music to match the early sundown city vibe I’ve been feeling lately. Something about the residual Christmas lights still adorning a few random houses and the dying pine trees collecting on the sidewalks reminds me that the festivities are over and it’s time to come back to the usual grind. I needed a good show to start the year off right so the ethereal, trip-hop duo Tigercide seemed like an obvious choice for my first show of the new year. related content: Los Angeles On Mushrooms: Infected Mushroom At Exchange LA Before the show, vocalist Shexist and accompanist Saint Brended chatted amicably with us on the green room couches. Optimistic about the upcoming year but still feeling the pre-show jitters, Shexist inquired about the audience size. It’s hard to draw people out of hiding after the holiday season and even the biggest bands have trouble filling a venue when

Flowers and Oysters: Yasiin Bey at the Observatory

Jessica Moncrief January 9, 2019

I missed Yasiin Bey‘s set at Smokin’ Grooves over the summer and deeply regretted it, so when the opportunity arose to see him perform in an intimate setting like The Observatory, I was elated to redeem myself for one of my biggest FOMO moments of 2018. related content: Black Is Beautiful: Smokin’ Grooves Festival At The Queen Mary Before Yasiin made his way out, his DJ spun iconic songs that have since been sampled in modern day hip hop, Joe Simons “Before The Night Is Over”, which you may remember was sampled in Outkast’s “So Fresh So Clean”, was one of many. Perhaps to signify love and his soul’s active presence in creation, Yasiin prepared the stage by sprinkling rose petals all around it, he then spray painted the word “Oysters” on a white sheet as he began his set. During his first song, Yasiin Bey took one look at the two of us in the photo pit and requested for the house to dim the lights. The photo journalist in me accepted the challenge to “get the story” regardless of the lighting situation, however the human part of me struggled with the inherently dirty feeling of photographing someone who