Millencolin – The Briggs – Black President – at the El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, CA

Ok, usually I'm the guy stumbling into a show when the main band hits the stage trying to save money by drinking in the parking lot till the headliner comes on, but not tonight. I really wanted to catch Black President live and get a glimpse of their new drummer. I'm a big Roy Mayorga fan and was pretty bummed when I heard he may not be drumming for Black President anymore so I was hoping to get some good news about him rejoining Black President. I got to the show a bit early, even with the tough parking around The El Rey Theatre, and managed to talk to their vendor personnel.


She informed me that Roy was no longer drumming for Black President. I was really bummed, but he has other commitments with the other two bands that he drums for (Amebix and Stone Sour), so he had to leave Black President. I wasn't sure how this would affect the band, but when they hit the stage, they did not miss a beat!! As you all know, it is tough to be an opening band because most people are usually just there to see the main bands and aren't drunk enough yet to really enjoy an opening act, but when Black President hit the stage, they awoke the masses from the very first song to the last!! Filled with energy, aggression and angst my hat goes off to them for getting the night started off with a bang!! You can tell they really have fun on stage and the passion oozes out and infected everybody in the crowd. They are a great band to keep an eye out for, so if you haven't seen them yet, catch them soon!! They play a lot of local shows in the L.A. area, so get to one soon. Oh yeah, their debut CD was on sale at the show for a mere $5.00, so I would suggest picking one up. Good job lads!!

Next up were The Briggs. I've seen this band numerous amount of times over the past six months, or so, and they were unbelievable every time!! Usually when they do not headline, they cut their playlist down because of time restraints but tonight, for some reason, they were able to squeeze in a lot of the classics as well as the new songs. These guys should be headlining big shows soon, so every time I see them I feel blessed that I can catch them at a smaller venue up front and personal. The Briggs never disappoint with their sing-a-long anthems and powerful guitar attacks.

They seem to have a great time and really get the crowd going with the personal interaction between, and during, songs. You can usually find one of their singers (Joey and/or Jason) in the crowd singing along with fans and stage diving during their sets. They really give it all they got at every show. The highlight was my personal favorite song "Not Alone", the lyrics to this song should be embedded on ev erybodys forehead reminding them that hey, their not alone. They ended their set with the fan-favorite "This is L.A.", where they invite everybody to come up on stage and sing-a-long to the song. It has become their anthem, and with this one song, like the magical wave of a wand, has really made this band complete. Great set, as always. I am looking forward to their next show with every bit of anticipation as the first time I saw them!!

Ok, so with two great bands down, Millencolin hits the stage!! Props to The El Rey Theatre for getting bands on quickly and not wasting time in between bands, they do a great job of that because, damnit, we want to see bands performing live, not listen to Bob Marley songs in the background all night!! Ok, so I had to do some homework on this band, you see your humble narrator (me) am usually into hard, angry, political bands that are usually screaming about Anarchy and Chaos, so when I knew I was going to this show, I had to find out why these guys were headlining above some of the fore-mentioned bands, so MySpace came into play, and I typed in Millencolin, wanting to see what the fuss was all about, that is when one of my co-workers turned around and said "what are you listening to, this is not you, these songs are way to melodic for the stuff you usually listen to", I had to agree, but decided to listen to them for the rest of the day, and after a while, they really grew on me. Melodic, but very smart and very catchy riffs that have you singing in no time!! I was happy to see that they had lots of energy and even more power behind their live set.

The crowd was amazing!! They knew every word to every song and sang along like a gospel of united souls at a church choir. The band were a very generous and humble bunch of lads that packed a power punch of fun and enthusiasm. Although this band has been around for quite a while, they gained a new fan here!! All in all, a great night of sing-a-long punkstrocity (ha, I made up a new word). All three bands delivered and did not dissapoint!! Moral of the story, have fun and support live shows like this one, remember music is all you got sometimes. Thank you Big Wheel for this opportunity!!
See you at the show-


Pete ^^PUNK4LIFE^^-
Guest Big Wheel Reporter
 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
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