Halcyon Magazine

Trigger Renegade photos by: Jen Z

Opening the show was Trigger Renegade, who brought a unique blend of mind-bending Fucking Champs-inspired dual guitar stacked ryffage and harmonized falsettos Freddy Mercury would be proud of. Despite their heavy Maiden induced storm at the gates, what really sets Trigger Renegade apart from the slew of long-hairs head-banging away at computer shreddery guitar hero riffs in their basement are their catchy choruses that reveal a secret crush on Cheap Trick’s melodic pop hooks that even chicks can enjoy. That and their epic riffs, which are pretty much the sonic equivalent to two valiant knights crossing swords to vanquish a dragon and victoriously rescuing some mega-babe maiden while standing on the highest peak of the highest mountain in the highest kingdom….well you get the idea. High being the key word. If you don’t know them, you can probably tell these dudes spend a lot of time smoking pot and playing video games because their stoner stabs at Dungeons and Dragons fantasy riffs kind of sound like a combination of all the parts in video games where you totally fucking win at the end. Oh and how cute are their triumverate of coordinated white Gibson Explorer/Flying V/Explorer battle axes?

Listen To:

“A.N.T,” which sounds like knights of the roundtable marching towards battle, readying their steeds, then breaking down the castle doors. The unexpectedly victorious dual guitar part towards the later part of the song is undeniably epic- and just when you think it can’t get any better, it does. The closing guitar riff before the outro seriously makes you want to drop everything you are doing, pump your fist high in the fucking air and follow these dues to the ends of the earth.

Next were Din Caliber, who, despite being a three piece, had a huge, layered sound and aural complexity most bands can’t achieve, even at double their age. Their most direct reference seemed to be voodoo child Jimi Hendrix himself- more obviously manifested visually in Alex Izenberg’s giant afro (reminiscent of Noel Redding’s), telecaster and heavy-blues propane drenched guitar licks in overdrive. Lurking below this 60’s, Cream vibe is also a nod to the more unexpected pop influence of progressive Beatle-esque sounds circa Revolver or Rubber Soul and beyond- apparent in odd time signature changes, triple harmonies, and undeniably catchy hooks.  These guys sound like many of these songs were written studying transcendental meditation at the temple of Black Sabbath instead of a dirty hippie ashram. An unexpected surprise, musician Damon Fox, from psychedelic/progressive band Big Elf, joined the boys on stage to play keyboards.

Listen To:

Their track, “Laughing Legba,” which starts with multi-layered vocals and an iconic guitar riff. The whole song sounds like Hendrix interpreting Seargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The track shares the name of Haitian Voudou saint of elocution, Legba, who stands at the crossroads and is believed to speak all human languages. What more could you want?

Montreal based Priestess then took the stage—with apparently their first Los Angeles show in two years. Their full-force precision attack assaulted the audience with a wall of sound that left no escape—their playing was practically a flawlessly precisioned military tactic. As commanding general of the troops, Mikey’s vocals reflected an amazing melodic, pitch-perfect assault. Their old-school metal influence (Priestess has toured with Early Man, Metallica, etc) is updated with incredibly catchy hooks and interspersed stacked riffage a la Thin Lizzy.. Maybe I am just a sucker for the creepy visual affect of having two long-haired, long-bearded wizard dudes who pretty much look alike flanking Mikey, kinda like two doppelganger hesher soldiers guarding their Queen.  

Listen To:

“Lay Down,” which kicks off with an undeniably catchy riff, double overlayed with a vintage organ sound, as if Uriah Heep ditched the abstract progressive ramblings and got straight to the fucking point and then threw in some Thin Lizzy style dual guitars. The entire song is like a black metal lullaby spell a sorcerer would cast on his dragon to make him stop breathing fire and eating maidens and shit. The affect on mortals minds is totally the opposite, however, you can’t help but bang your head and get swept away in this track.

Finally, the Binges closed up the night. The Binges play a beer-soaked brand of classic rock not unlike AC/DC. Their stomp-along, shout along dirty bar-room tunes are total rock n’roll party anthems. Sisters Mayuko and Tsuzumi hold down the fort with their insanely virtuosic playing. These girls, in their band tshirt, jeans and sneakers, no make up, no fucking around attitude seriously steal the show. They get on stage and mean business- Mayuko is like a tiny, Asian Slash, headbanging away and shoving her guitar in people’s faces with the bravado of any guitar dude. After two years of recording, it’s exciting they’ll finally be releasing their self-titled, self-released album. Congratulations dudes.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 am and is filed under Show Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.