Venue: The Wiltern
City: Los Angeles, CA
Set length: About an hour
Tonight’s Lineup: Cycle of Pain, Dope, Sevendust, Black Label Society
Pre-review note…Dusty and I showed up late to this gig, which I NEVER do, so we missed Cycle of Pain and Dope. I was bummed that I missed Cycle of Pain and I’d seen Dope a few times waaay back in the day when they played with Static (now known as Static-X) so I was okay with that part of being late. When we got there, the place was filled with the BLS brand. A HUGE turnout of SDMF’ers, but the setting just didn’t seem right. I call a gig like this at the Wiltern a “Corporate” gig, which is not my favorite type of show. I call it that because venues like these are great for some bands, like the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, etc. But for a bunch of beer-drinkin’ metalheads who like to get rowdy at shows, this place is just a little too nice with too many rules. Don’t get me wrong, the Wiltern has great visibility and good sound but it is just a little too polished for me. The Henry Fonda theater would have been a better setting for a lineup like this, or even The Palace (not sure if it is open anymore). Anyway, back to the gig…
I saw Sevendust many years ago when they played with Clutch at the Glass House in Pomona and I can’t say their music moved me too much back then, but they were okay. It could have been that it was my first time seeing Clutch, who are gods to me, so all else fell by the wayside that night. Okay, back to this show… We managed to see a few songs by Sevendust, including a Pantera cover of “Walk” – I think it was that song… And, if I’m not mistaken, they ended with an Alice In Chains song, which had the crowd going. Overall they sounded good and played hard, which the fans seemed to like so I have nothing bad to say other than the strobes were pretty annoying. The coolest part was when Lajon (the singer) was presented with an official BLS vest by Nick Catanese (guitar player in BLS). I don’t know the story behind this moment but Lajon seemed very happy and honored to get it. Anyway, as I said previously, these guys aren’t my cup of tea musically but they play their asses off and have stuck to their guns for many years so respect has to be given for that. As I always say, don’t take my word for it, go check ’em out for yourself and make up your own mind about the band.
www.sevendust.com/
All shots were taken from the balcony at this gig with a Canon G9. Not the greatest images but I posted them only to give a visual of what it looked like that night, not as a “hey, look at these great shots I took!”.
