Archive for the Category »TERRORIZER MAGAZINE «
10 Aug 2012 - Morat
Category: A-Z OF ROCK N ROLL, M, PUBLISHED WORK, TERRORIZER MAGAZINE
Leave a Comment
16 Nov 2011 - Morat
WARBRINGER + LAZARUS A.D. + LANDMINE MARATHON
West Hollywood Key Club, October 3rd, 2011
Holy shit! What just happened there? One minute there was this petite looking girl on stage, all t-shirt and sneakers, and now there’s a rabid banshee, snarling and spitting and spewing rage. That’ll be Grace Perry, apparently channeling the ghost of Phil Vane, and her band, Landmine Marathon, have a few things they’d like to get off their chest. They are nothing if not explosive, a blistering assault that draws a clear evolutionary line to bands like Rudimentary Peni, Napalm Death, and Extreme Noise Terror. The new album’s called ‘Gallows’ and you need it.
Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Wisconsin’s Lazarus A.D. who sound like the perennial opening band: in the 90’s they’d have opened for Exodus at the Marquee, today it’s Warbringer at the Key Club, same deal, different year. It’s not that they’re bad by any means, great players in fact, but that wasn’t enough then, and it sure as hell isn’t enough now. Throw a stone off the roof of this building and you could hit a dozen bands who sound the same. Rehashed thrash.
But then, talking of perennials, California thrashers Warbringer have been earning it the hard way for many years now and this is their first ever headline tour, the first gig of the tour in fact. They have good reason to be pleased: the Key Club has long been metal friendly, but making the 600 capacity venue look busy on a Monday night is still no mean feat. Better still it feels like they’re ready for it, honed and toned, not a beat out of place, frontman John Kevill commanding the stage. There’s a good, solid set-list too, ‘Total War’ from ‘War Without End’ standing out as particularly vicious, but more tellingly the new tracks go down a storm, already sounding road tested and headbanger approved. 37 dates in 38 nights? No problem, Warbringer are ready to bring it.
MORAT
Category: A-Z OF ROCK N ROLL, L, PUBLISHED WORK, TERRORIZER MAGAZINE, W, WRITING
Leave a Comment
16 Nov 2011 - Morat
KYUSS LIVES + THE SWORD + CHUCK DUKOWSKI SEXTET + MONSTRO
Pomona Fox Theater, October 8th, 2011.
There are other bands playing tonight, and, on any other night, you would probably care. Monstro, for instance, open with some better than average stoner vibes, followed by Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag fame with his trademark bass sound, getting all experimental, if a little too shrill at times with Lora Norton’s vocals hitting notes that only canines can fully appreciate. Then there’s The Sword, from Austin, Texas, headliners in their own right, with their slightly derivative stoner metal, not a bad band by any means so long as you’re not looking for something life changing. Tonight it’s all just something to wait through.
And fuck, we’ve been waiting: sixteen years now, for those of us lucky enough to see Kyuss the first time around, a lifetime for those who didn’t. There is a palpable sense of excitement in the building, a charge of anticipation made stronger by the fact that this is, a near as dammit, a hometown show. Scott Reeder and most of the Garcia family are hanging out at the bar. Sky Valley’s not much more than an hour away. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a very special night. Kyuss are back in town. Kyuss Lives.
And in case you’re wondering, good doesn’t even come close. Good is an insult. Sure, it may not be the original line-up, guitarist Josh Homme having moved on, his sizable boots being filled by Bruno Fevery, but tell that to ‘Gardenia’ and ‘Hurricane’, the back to back openers. And don’t let the don’t hit you in the arse on the way out. This isn’t just good, it’s the sort of show that makes everything within a thousand mile radius of it, completely pointless. ‘One Inch Man’, ‘Thumb’, ‘Freedom Run’….there is no better place on earth than here right now. Mag-fucking-nificent!
MORAT
Category: A-Z OF ROCK N ROLL, K, PUBLISHED WORK, TERRORIZER MAGAZINE
Leave a Comment
23 Jun 2011 - Morat
QUEENS OF THE STONEAGE
Los Angeles, Wiltern Theater
Just behind the lighting desk in the little VIP area The Queen of England is rocking out to Queens Of The Stoneage. It’s a truly surreal sight, Dame Helen Mirren, eyes closed, fully absorbed in the music, anticipating every beat. Queens Of The Stoneage are that sort of band nowadays, fully integrated into the mainstream, the big rock show selling out two nights back to back. Half the crowd come for the hits and then text each other through the rest.
But tonight is a little different. Tonight Queens are playing their self-titled debut album in it’s entirety and that, in the States, means all the die-hard fans come out of the woodwork, especially since the album was never given a decent release in the US and has been out of print for so long. You have to know this one, and tonight the crowd (including Dame Mirren) knows every song back to front and inside out. For tonight at least, the bands is ours again.
Admittedly this is a very different line-up to the three-piece of 1998 when the album was released, but any worries that they might tamper with the classics is needless, as everything from ‘Regular John’ onwards through ‘Avon’ and beyond comes note perfect. Indeed, true to their word Queens literally play their debut in it’s entirety including the bonus track ‘The Bronze’ before they venture anywhere near the newer material for an encore. LA crowds may not dance much, but you’d be hard pushed to beat the roar of approval.
There’s a saying among the Mexican community here: ‘we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us’ and that holds true with Queens Of The Stoneage. Hearing their debut in this context it’s clear that Queens never really moved to the mainstream, the mainstream moved to them. They still confound at times, even to the extent of playing dull shows sometimes (though this is not one of them), and they still provoke a response. Of course it’s nice too feel like this is still out little secret and maybe tonight it is, but the reason Queens Of The Stoneage have hits is quite simple: they’re really very good indeed.
Morat
For Terrorizer Magazine.
Category: A-Z OF ROCK N ROLL, PUBLISHED WORK, Q, TERRORIZER MAGAZINE, WRITING
Leave a Comment
28 Apr 2011 - Morat
Anaal Nathrakh in Pomona, CA for Terrorizer.
Category: A, A-Z OF ROCK N ROLL, PUBLISHED WORK, TERRORIZER MAGAZINE
Leave a Comment
