Rob Shepyer
Cruel World 2025 At The Rose Bowl: We’re Only Happy When It Rains
Rob Shepyer
May 20, 2025
Cruel World 2025 at the Rose Bowl was the fourth iteration of the festival, but some strange alignment in the distant goth cosmos caused a number of firsts in Cruel World history. Rain fell on Los Angeles’ goth community as they all gathered at the Rose Bowl for what music fans recognize as goth prom. Cruel World is much more than a goth fest, though—’80s music, metal, and punk all performed in gloomy Pasadena over the weekend. Never before did the concertgoers, wearing their finest layers of black, actually dress appropriately for the weather—until now. Some came to Cruel World to see Devo “Whip It” like it was 1980, some came to be in the palm of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand”, others came just to get a one-day vacation with New Order before “Blue Monday. Whatever the motivation, the festival once again found appropriate meaning in its name. This year it was cold and dreary, with imported London fog infused with LA smog. Most people prefer not to experience a concert drenched from head to toe, but as a departure from the brutal heat of previous years, it had some upsides. The rain forced many Cruel Worlders looking for shelter
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Oneohtrix Point Never at The Wiltern: Post-Post-Modern Music
Rob Shepyer
May 13, 2025
Oneohtrix Point Never at the Wiltern wasn’t an ordinary concert — it was a creative breakthrough into a new form we were all indulged in. I remember being in a film class about postmodernism and asking my professor what movement was supposed to come after. The professor’s answer was “hyperreality”, which — if you’re familiar with it from painting — is a style that almost perfectly maps onto the real world… almost. Although it’s a bit difficult to imagine what hyperreality looks like in music or performance, Oneohtrix Point Never’s show at The Wiltern was an experimental leap ahead of postmodernism, and either a sidestep from hyperreality or a pastiche of it. During the show, a live puppeteer mimicked Oneohtrix Point Never’s performance, with the puppet’s antics projected live on a screen behind OPN. Seeing the duality between man and puppet provided layers of meaning to OPN’s performance, making it an autobiography in the form of a concert. For those not in the know, Oneohtrix Point Never is the pen name of electronic musician, producer, and film composer Daniel Lopatin. His rise to acclaim came in increments before his signature sound became undeniable — notably when featured in Safdie Brothers
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How to Humanize an Alien: Parliament Funkadelic at Ventura Music Hall
Rob Shepyer
May 5, 2025
Thanks to Ventura Music Hall and George Clinton, Parliament Funkadelic was up until Monday, a bucket list band that needed to get checked off my list if I was really to consider myself a music junkie. Now, in a totally changed state of mind since seeing them perform classic songs like “Flashlight”, “Atomic Dog”, “We Got The Funk”, and more, I’ve been feeling this strange sense of nostalgia for a time I didn’t even exist in. That time I’m so fondly recalling through videos, images, and oral tradition was the seventies. At the time, pop culture was more colorful, vivid, imaginative, and real. Forced to create practical magic and effects if artists wanted to make concerts feel out of this world, groups like Parliament Funkadelic constructed UFOs that would land on stage and release a cavalcade of alien crazies upon the audience, all dressed and sounding completely unique from one another to create a funk jam session akin to stream of consciousness power poetry. It was in the seventies, back when a heavily dreaded George Clinton produced acid-inspired rollercoaster rides that ranged from metallic to soulful to downright religious, that Clinton and his band were at their peak-alieness. Today, as
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Swing Heil: Anti-Fascist Hardcore Punks Swing Kids Return to Los Angeles
Rob Shepyer
May 4, 2025
Swing Kids have reunited. They already brought their abrasive, unhinged brand of hardcore punk to San Diego, and now, they’re heading up a few hours north to make a statement at Highland Park’s Lodge Room. Justin Pierson has always been political, even in his most oddball musical projects but when leading Swing Kids, performances become political strikes. Swing Kids was a band that came together with a purpose. Using the model of swing and jazz bands that performed under a specific ethical code, they fueled their hardcore punk with the collective fists of the Anti-fascist movement. SWING HEIL! They began in the 90’s when politics was perhaps less salacious, but just as disgusting and repressive. To counter the bombast and gall of the current administration’s messaging, Swing Kids have plugged back in. SWING HEIL! Swings Kids isn’t just a band, it’s a movie, and it’s a real life phenomenon during a time when the backdrop to music was institutionalized holocaust, racism, and propaganda everywhere to bury freedom of thought and spirit. Today, Swing Kids reunited at a strategic moment, where to combat a new fascism they contribute to the new anti-fascism. SWING HEIL! Take a look at the documentary they
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Beth Gibbons at The Orphuem: Outgrowing Your Own Creation
Rob Shepyer
April 23, 2025
Beth Gibbons at The Orpheum Theatre was more than just a showcase of new music, it was a showcase of a new Beth Gibbons for all Los Angeles to enjoy. When you think Beth Gibbons and Portishead, you think of a specific sound. An elevated, urbanized jazz that pairs well with a Bond movie, maybe, or you think of the trip hop moniker developed by her band and other English groups like Massive Attack. Beth Gibbons’ solo work, and especially her 2024 album Lives Outgrown doesn’t so much as develop on the song she help originate and cultivate though, it outgrows it with a new evolution in her artistry that includes influences from folk, psychedelic, medieval, and world music sensibilities. Driving to the Orpheum theatre on a drowsy Thursday evening, her new album gave my trip a surreal feel, making each beat of time pass by with more meaningful reflection, and each tree outstretching over the freeway walls more tranquilizing with the nature-vibes captures on songs like “Floating on a Moment” or my favorite on the album, “Whispering Love”. Skimming through the tracklist now and looking back on the show, I see both as a statement on identity, lost and
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Garage Rockers vs Skinheads vs Hardcore Kids: Rose Tattoo at the Whisky
Rob Shepyer
April 16, 2025
The Whisky ’25: Rose Tattoo’s First US Show Since ’83 When Rose Tattoo announced their first American show since 1983, not only could I not believe it, but I made sure to procure tickets almost immediately. This show would then get cancelled, only for the prospect of Rose Tattoo playing Los Angeles to dissolve and become a big question mark. Would the legendary Australian band ever play in America again? This is a pure rock and roll band that didn’t just go on to inspire Guns and Roses but numerous scenes throughout Los Angeles, from skinheads to hardcore kids to garage rockers. It would otherwise be impossible to see these three scenes merge into one audience. Even for a megaband like The Misfits, these groups don’t come together to mingle in such close quarters. So, when Rose Tattoo announced two new shows in LA years later and then finally hit the stage at Whisky-a-Go-Go on March 6th and 7th, all those scenes were present and pounding their fists for what must’ve been an awfully cold day in hell. The set ran the gamut of a slew of Rose Tattoos classics such as “Nice Boys” and “Rock and Roll Outlaw,” with
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T.Y. Ojai: Ty Segall at Ojai Valley Women’s Club
Rob Shepyer
March 4, 2025
With MTV’s Unplugged catalogue hitting Paramount+ recently, I’ve been on a bit of an acoustic kick. When a popular artist goes acoustic, it’s a sign of a deeper appreciation and commitment to their fans and music than standard touring, writing, and recording cycle an artist goes through. Choosing to go on an acoustic tour, like the one Ty Segall and King Tuff are currently collaborating on throughout California, presents a challenge to a musician that really tests their artistry. It strips them of all the bells and whistles fans expect from their songs and live show, forcing the artist to compensate with pure charisma and sonic bravado. Both King Tuff and Ty Segall exhibited powerful charisma as acoustic artists, taking advantage of the silence between and around their songs to amplify the meaning of every lyric and note. The result of which is that audiences that were lucky enough to catch these shows may not have had their socks rocked off like they would in a Ty Segall and The Muggers show, or a Witch (King Tuff’s metal band) show, but we did experience the full fleshed out power and message of Ty’s songs like no other fans ever have.
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Pentagram- Doom Ages Like Fine Wine At Ventura Music Hall
Rob Shepyer
February 21, 2025
Something about old age injects more gravitas into a doom metal musician’s art. Perhaps its being closer to the great beyond, that dark place from which inspiration comes from that we all join at the end of our days. Perhaps something about graying hair and wrinkled skin makes the purveyor of doom metal all the more convincing to an audience. Doom metal, is of course a genre about bleakness and sorrow. A long life devoted to that style of music must have experienced everything the world has to offer, so to come away with singing “doom to world” instead of “Joy to world” gives fans the assurance that this artist is the real deal, and they’re not just playing a character in a gimmick. Then of course, there’s pace. Doom metal is slow metal. Slowness and sloth are what some equate with growing old. Dragging your feet, letting time pass you by because it makes no difference. All these ideas are second nature to doom metal’s mournful verses and tones. Bobby Liebling and the boys in Pentagram have been around since the inception of doom metal. Playing this genre of music before it had a name. To them, it was
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Devastation on the Nation w/ I AM Morbid at Belasco
Rob Shepyer
December 29, 2024
When someone tells me there’s a death metal show tonight, I usually ask them what kind of death metal. If they tell me Morbid Angel is playing, I’ll definitely think about going. If they tell me Morbid Angel was just replaced by I Am Morbid, David Vincent’s version of the band, I’ve already bought my ticket before they’ve completed their sentence. related content: Morbid Angel at The Regent: A Lesson in Death What differentiates the sort of Death metal that makes a show worth going to for me is often times the vocal. Newly attuned listeners of the genre may consider it splitting sonic hairs to parse between different styles of guttural vocals but if I can understand the lyrics a death metal band is screeching out, then I consider the band superior in some respects. Nothing against the demonic belching of numerous Deathcore and Death Metal bands like Suffocation, that shared the stage with I Am Morbid at this show, but because I was able to understand David Vincent’s gregorian chants from hell, I was able to feel the gravity of his music. It simply sounded and felt more evil, powerful, and scary because the words had meaning. Devastation
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Earth’s Crust: CY Fest 2024 at the Belasco
Rob Shepyer
November 6, 2024
What does a typical LA punk want out of a festival? Given that Los Angeles is the most prominent live music hub in the USA, and the world, the average LA punk attends enough shows to make any given concert, no matter how badass, still leaving something to be desired. From my personal experience, that thing LA punks are left desiring from their scene is to have their minds, tastes, and boundaries expanded. I want to see something different, new. I want a band to show me something I didn’t think was possible. The best way to do this is by assembling bills with bands of various styles from various parts of the globe, and no festival has gathered more international acts in Los Angeles than CY Fest 2024. It was the World Cup of punk, with heavy representation from Sweden, Spain, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and so many more countries. Topping off the festivities, the USA’s contribution to the lineup came in the form of a rare Dropdead co-headlining performance before the reunion of Portland’s female-fronted crusties, Detestation. related content: Set The Animals Free: Wolfbrigade and Dropdead at 1720 With a few bands of the upcoming CY Fest 2025 already
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Music for Trees: PJ Harvey at the Greek Theatre
Rob Shepyer
October 25, 2024
PJ Harvey’s return to North America saw her playing songs off 2023’s I Inside The Old Year Dying, her most recent album, which for those expecting the heavy, knock around sound of Steve Albini-produced Rid of Me, were in for a softer, more ambient and touching treat. The album cover of this 2023 effort visual communicates the sound, a slender twig made whole by its shadow, the image is minimalist and fragile, similar to the music but the music has a fuller element, as if you’re riding a wave from start to finish of every song. Hearing this in the heart of Griffith Park, surrounded by giant trees on either side which create a force field so that the music is for only those in the theatre’s arms, gave the evening a sort of contact high we’d feel with every song. related: Dangerously Artsy- Geneva Jacuzzi at The Lodge Room You felt in these songs a primal connection to nature, which PJ Harvey embodied this night with her long white dress. For those that were itching to hear her more punk rock material, like myself, we had to wait a little bit but it was well worth it to hear
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Dangerously Artsy: Geneva Jacuzzi at the Lodge Room
Rob Shepyer
September 13, 2024
Geneva Jacuzzi‘s “Art is Dangerous” isn’t just the banger single from her most recent Dais Records full length album, Triple Fire, “Art is Dangerous” is both an affirmation of the intention to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable (a sentiment lost among more and more corporatized and bubble-wrapped, cookie cutter artists) and it’s also a reference to a timeless debate that transcends culture. Is art dangerous? Were Tipper Gore and the PMRC right all along? Can you ingest as much devil worship, pornographic, sinful material as possible without having your soul tarnished one iota? Can you play endless hours of GTA, shooting up civilians without feeding a subliminal bloodlust, can you listen to Radiohead without feeling lonely or binge-stream Slayer without losing faith? Far too many people in the current state of the world are beginning to veer toward answering “yes”. That art, is in fact, dangerous. Even though Geneva Jacuzzi is affirming that danger, I have to wonder if she sees it dangerous in the same way as a certain sector of extreme believers who’s rhetoric makes you think they desire a modern bonfire of the vanities. I say this because Geneva Jacuzzi’s performance for her album release
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