Category: SHOWS

Anarchy’s Monarch: Scarlxrd at The Roxy

Rob Shepyer July 27, 2018

Arcing over the pond in a desperate fire bombing attack on American soil, the UK’s Scarlxrd landed at the Roxy Theatre to light Los Angeles up for his first American show. With only him and his DJ performing, it was almost like a showcase for us foreigners, to see what secret weapon the trap game had up its sleeves. Or, to use an even more ridiculous comparison, it was as if Goldenvoice used a cheat code to select the secret character on the menu screen and we were facing Noob Saibot for the evening. related content: Sleaford Mods Hit The Echoplex On Last Date Of First Ever U.S. Tour For those confused by my ramblings, Scarlxrd is a young, trap artist who’s sound and image have captured young people’s imagination and has garnered seals of approval from mainstream American taste-making institutions such as Noisy and Goldenvoice. What differentiates him from other artists in the game though, is the undisputed aggression and anger in his music which most trap artists only try to give the impression they can summon through their image. If trap and hardcore punk are on two opposite poles of a spectrum, Scarlxrd represents a point on that

OC’s Alright if you Like Saxophones: Psychedelic Furs and X at the Pacific Amphitheatre

Jessica Moncrief July 26, 2018

The Psychedelic Furs satisfied everyone’s nostalgia fix at The Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa last Thursday with support from The Fixx and X. What may have seemed like an odd bill melded together perfectly, reminding us that in the 80’s New Wave kids and Punks were cut from the same cloth. Some concert goers that I spoke with throughout the evening held the opinion that The Fixx played the best set of the night and that is saying a lot considering the energy and talent that X and The Psychedelic Furs played with. Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake were all in X-cellent form and garnered a reaction from the crowd that was fit for hometown heroes. related content: Burger Boogaloo 2017: The Ballad of John and Iggy They played all the hits like “Your Phones Off The Hook, But You’re Not”, “Los Angeles” and “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene”. Craig Packham of The Palominos joined in for a few songs playing acoustic guitar during “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” and hopped on the drums while D.J. played the vibraphone for “Come Back To Me” and “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts.” You don’t realize how familiar you are with The

A Handle of Jim Beam and a Joint: Weedeater at Union

Rob Shepyer July 21, 2018

Among the veterans of the stoner metal genre, Weedeater is the loudest, the stoniest, and the best. Often times the bands that come to mind when you say stoner metal are Sleep and Electric Wizard, I figure these people have never seen Weedeater live because once you do and headbang your neck off while every piece of your clothing vibrates and you nearly go deaf, you realize no band is heavier. After a Weedeater show, you won’t exclude them from any conversation about the power of live music. related content: Ascending The Holy Mountain: Sleep At The Fonda Theater The Carolinas aren’t heavily represented in metal but when they are, like in this case, they make such a huge splash that you immediately get a sense of the area. If the Carolinas feel like Weedeater, they’re a bold, down to earth, and toughened bunch. related content: Weedeater And The Obsessed At The Regent: Blaze It Up, Fool Dixie Dave, Weedeater’s iconic bassist and vocalist, is the perfect spokesperson for stoner rock. With the ability to drain a handle of Jim Beam and sip on cough syrup during his shows and only being enhanced by these substances, Dixie has develop super human

L.A.’s Best Festival is Sound and Fury (imo). Here’s Why:

Rob Shepyer July 19, 2018

There are many qualities that make Sound and Fury Los Angeles’ best festival. I will try to touch upon them all in this article and also review every band that played the festival and after shows. You will want to attend the festival after reading this and not because I’m novelizing the experience but rather, what actually takes place at Sound and Fury is so uniquely incredible that the only reason a fan of heavy music wouldn’t want to attend is because they don’t know the festival exists. So, consider this your introduction: Sound and Fury is a hardcore music festival that began in 2006 in Ventura, California. Hosting legendary sets by underground hardcore artists whether they be in warehouses or the back of a U-haul like for Trash Talk in 2009, the festival’s momentum kept growing and growing until moving to the Regent Theater in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, the festival had expanded to the point that it could upgrade to the Belasco Theater. related content: The Most Complete Sound And Fury 2017 Review On Earth Gathering bands from all around North America (and one from Finland) to perform on two stages in the Belasco or at various

Summertime in the LBC: This is Your Dad’s Hip Hop

Jonathan Reyes July 16, 2018

Most people read the first part then skim through for pictures of themselves so I want to say this before it gets ignored. The Game never took off his jacket in 100% heat and Ja Rule has those deep dick muscles. The second year of Long Beach-centric music festival Summertime In The LBC felt like it finally lived up to its namesake with the inclusion of the face of Long Beach hip-hop Snoop Dogg. Last year felt like NYC in the LBC with Wu-Tang and 50 Cent being the headliners but this year was like the west coast took back its territory, with that comes some great benefits like great weed everywhere but there was also a dude dressed like a cholo clown popping and locking around like tattoo flash come to life. related content: Summertime In The LBC: Love Letter To A City That Doesn’t Always Love Back Snoop Dogg performed Doggystyle in its entirety and as cool as it was to see its hard not to see its age. As fun as wondering when exactly the jack off hour is, when I listen “Ain’t No Fun” it makes me want to hug 93’ Snoop Dogg and tell him it’s ok to fall in love

One Friday Night in Hell Part 4: Os Mutantes at Union

Grace Dunn July 14, 2018

Beads of sweat, sans regret. Move your body to the voodoo rhythm of Bat Macumba on the most sweltering summer night in Los Angeles. I admit it felt too perfect a circumstance for the universe to combine this delectable lineup of Os Mutantes and L.A. Drones in the melting pot that is Union Night club. I remember looking up the show in advance thinking: “Why did a legendary sixties band choose a low key venue far out from the usual popular venues in LA?” I figured perhaps I haven’t explored the venue’s history enough to give it credit. I had been to Union Nightclub years earlier for a show or two, but never since. Either way, I looked forward to this because I missed their set back in 2013 at Carson Creek Ranch for Austin Psych Fest. Moving forward, I knew I wanted a refreshing night of music to dance and thoroughly enjoy movement with the musicians. I couldn’t foresee the added heat of the night making it almost unbearable to move even with the fans blowing into the audience. All I ever saw whenever I would visit the venue in the past was how rowdy the crowd was waiting for an electronic

One Friday Night in Hell Part 3: Lethal Amounts Presents The Zeros at El Cid

Rob Shepyer July 13, 2018

Let me give you a bit of advice, when Pure Trash is booked, you attend. The bands start late, around midnight when most of the shows throughout the city have already ended. Then with bands like The Zeros playing, you’d have to be a fucking idiot to miss out. It’s the ultimate goto destination for nights you never want to end. That’s where I wound up on this especially hellish Friday last week. After Show Me The Body, Twitching Tongues, and Vein then after Das Bunker’s Das Ich show at Los Globos. related content: One Friday Night In Hell Part 1: Show Me The Body, Twitching Tongues, And Vein At The Regent I made Downtown and Echo Park my bitch that night, cruising for a bruising and testing myself to see how hard I can party. After hardcore and industrial, the Zeros were the relief I needed, loose, raw and most of all fun punk rock that didn’t take itself too serious. Perfect tunes for Pure Trash. related content: One Friday Night In Hell Part 2: Das Ich At Los Globos The Flytraps opened up the night, more happily unhinged than they usually are, like they had a license to

One Friday Night in Hell Part 2: Das Ich at Los Globos

Rob Shepyer July 12, 2018

The second floor of Los Globos feels a bit like a bomb shelter. Claustrophobic, musty, crumbling. The perfect setting for industrial music. You want to dance among the urban decay. You’ll feel the music more. This hellish Friday night had taken us from a hardcore concert to Das Bunker at Los Globos where we saw all sorts of black clothed boys and girls dancing in a way too complicated to ever imitate. Mechanical yet fluid, industrial dancing can be meme’d and joked about but never replicated by an amateur. related content: One Friday Night In Hell Part 1: Show Me The Body, Twitching Tongues, And Vein At The Regent Inva//id was first to take the stage as the hungry dancers packed in toward the stage to get a good glimpse of the band shadows dancing under the strobe light. I had seen this group once before, last year at Das Bunker’s anniversary show, where Das Ich also played. They harken back the better days of Ministry’s Twitch era and early Skinny Puppy works back when it was still horror movie music you could dance to. Christopher Rivera’s grizzled vocal style gives every twist your body makes some kind of apocalyptic,

One Friday Night in Hell Part 1: Show Me The Body, Twitching Tongues, and Vein at the Regent

Rob Shepyer July 11, 2018

Last Friday was when all this heatwave insanity started. I swear, bad weather in Los Angeles isn’t routine, it’s regional illness, like the flu. And with the temperature outrageously into the hundreds during the day, nighttime didn’t spell any relief for us with our without a sun to shine. A kid could be driven to do crazy things without air conditioning. They could find themselves getting into all sorts of trouble, trying to find a cooler place to hang. All the shows that were booked throughout the city on Friday ended up being havens from the boiling streets and so all the troublemakers were let indoors, to cause street havoc in the damn music halls. Weeks ago, Dillon and I decided to test ourselves on this outing and try to cover as many shows as possible. They were scheduled perfectly to hop between. The first of show of the night was fittingly hardcore at the Regent. No matter what happens there, the music would get our blood pumping to prepare us for any kind of band or audience we could come across that night. Code Orange’s sold out miniature festival of a bill featured enough amazing bands that I didn’t

Live Desolation: Khemmis at the Echoplex

Dillon Vaughn July 10, 2018

Performing an album in it’s entirety is generally reserved for bands with monumental releases; devoting a night to a single release shows confidence in the structure and integrity of the album as a whole and seemingly elevates the title and importance of the gig from a show to an “event.” Doubling down on the critical success of their previous releases, Khemmis performed their new album Desolation in full recently at the Echoplex for the first night of a very short run of intimate album release shows in LA, Chicago, and Denver. related content: Los Angeles Strikefest At The Regent: By Die-Hards, For Die-Hards Desolation was something I avoided listening to before the show as I wanted my first experience to be in a live setting. I had only seen Khemmis once before – at last year’s Psycho Las Vegas – and while a late afternoon festival set time doesn’t generally lend as well to showcasing a bands strength as a headlining set does, their performance was still something that cemented me as a fan and remains a highlight of the weekend. That being said, the LA event did not disappoint. Beginning the night with a powerful performance of Hunted’s title

Voluntary Electrocution: Le Shok at Alex’s Bar

Jessica Moncrief July 9, 2018

Le Shok has sent shock waves along the California coast since playing a secret show at Zebulon, performing at their official reunion at Burger Boogaloo and most recently, with a home town show at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach last Friday. The show was announced in conjunction with the “We Are Electrocution” group art show at 4th Street Vine, as well as a Burger Records repressing of their seminal album. With an all-star support line-up of local favorites such as Terminal A, The Tissues, and Assquatch, it’s no wonder many fans, myself included, were left scrambling on social media event threads trying to get our grubby hands on a ticket after the show sold out in a cool 4 hours. Promises of blow jobs and death threats for tickets littered the event page in the days leading up to the show, proving the loyalty and lengths people were willing to go to relive the punk nostalgia of nearly 2 decades past. For all of you that were fortunate enough to cop a ticket, enjoy relieving the joy and insanity of the night and if you are one of the sad fucks that didn’t make it in (like I almost was), here are some photos of

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones See The Next Wave Coming at the Regent

Janky Smooth Central Command July 7, 2018

Halfway through The Mighty Mighty Bosstones set at the Regent in Los Angeles, California, vocalist Dicky Barrett boasted that the band had booked two “new” ska bands as openers for the gig from two different countries- Mexico and the U.K. He went on to remark that we are now entering a “Fourth Wave of Ska Music.” This follow up commentary begged two questions: the first being whether or not we truly experiencing a “Fourth Wave” and, secondly, if so, is this something we should be celebrating? related content: Finally, A Ska Review: Less Than Jake At Teragram “The Fourth Wave of Ska” is indeed a terminology which is beginning to be thrown around lately. In fact, Angel City Records recently released a compilation of 24 current ska groups titled “Birth Of the Fourth Wave of Ska,” with a heavy emphasis on bands who pay homage to the soul, R&B, and Motown roots of the First Wave of ska born in the 60’s in Jamaica. If the Fourth Wave is to be defined by a return to ska’s 60’s roots, neither of the Bosstones’ opening bands would truly fit into the category. Mexico’s Los Kung Fu Monkeys would not only be disqualified by the