Review: Band Of Skulls @ The El Rey Theatre, LA


Band Of Skulls perform in NYC, March 2012 (Photo: Live4ever Media)

Band Of Skulls (Photo: Live4ever Media)




The decision to add a second weekend to this year’s Coachella Music Festival has turned Los Angeles into a virtual hotbed of artistic activity, as a good number of groups performing at the Goldenvoice juggernaut are killing time between desert sessions by setting up one-off shows in nightclubs throughout the city and its surrounding areas.

The end result is a weeklong mini-festival of its own kind, one more suited for those with shorter attention spans and longer fears of being trampled to death on a dirt-caked campground.

Southampton’s Band Of Skulls kicked off the week’s festivities Monday night with a headlining slot at the El Rey Theatre, displaying their usual mixed bag of blues rock bluster and pop-smart balladry. After playing their initial Coachella set just a day earlier, the trio still seemed alert enough to deliver an extended and more introspective version of what was unveiled Sunday evening.

The band is on the circuit to no doubt build upon the strength of this year’s ‘Sweet Sour‘, and they confirmed that from the start, opening with the stone cold slink of the title track before breaking in with the hollow-bodied drum bash behind the Led-heavy ‘Lies‘.

Yet surprisingly it was the songs off their 2009 debut ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey‘ that hit harder and in turn held the most attention. ‘I Know What I Am‘ was bookended with a blurry intro-outro sequence fit more for a psychedelic comedown than the television teen dramas it has been featured on, while the lovesick lament of ‘Cold Fame‘ came with an extra layer of weight that was missing from its low-lit recording, with guitarist Russell Marsden’s wild yelps carrying the tune in an uncharacteristically aggro direction.

The new material had its moments as well, particularly during the speed-metal interplay of Marsden and drummer Matt Hayward on the freight train rocker ‘You Ain’t Pretty But You Got It Goin’ On‘. not to mention the heavyweight riffage that poured from the peaking moments of ‘The Devil Takes Care Of His Own‘.

This being Los Angeles, NBC was on location throughout the night with a production crew in tow. Whether the cameras were centered entirely around them or included the solid back-to-back opening act combo of fellow Coachella refugees We Are Augustines and The Sheepdogs wasn’t altogether apparent, but judging from the crowd’s singalong reaction to closer ‘Impossible‘, it was obvious that the Band Of Skulls are more than ready for their close-up.

(Beau De Lang)




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