Hot dog! The Roxy was going off! .. I’m getting a little ahead of myself. The day started off like any other.. rolling out of bed at 8am.. Ooops too far back.. I pulled up at the Roxy at a little after 7pm and there was already a crowd at the door. Always a good sign, especially since the doors didn’t open until 7:30! I walk around the back of the Roxy and see Carcinogen lugging their equipment on stage. Cool beans. I have a little chat with the boys and get in the club on their guest list, not a penny spent! Thanks Carcinogen! Carcinogen is now set up and ready to play, so the lights dim, the smoke machine works overtime, and the announcer says, ‘Welcome to the Roxy. Please welcome Carcinogen!’ and the speakers blast Carcinogen’s heavy, tribal sound. Ryan, Carcinogen’s bassist is jumping all over the stage, Dan and Jeremy are both getting into the music while Collin is beating the hell out of his drum kit. Ever since coming into the LA scene a few weeks ago this band has been making quite a name for themselves. I wish they could have played for longer then 22 minutes, but there were 6 other band playing that night, so one of my favorite new bands to the area had to leave the stage.
The next band Bree 2000 was quick to set up their gear and leave the stage. They could have used this time more wisely, as you will soon see. So for 10-15 minutes nothing, the announcer asked the club if Bree 2000 would kindly take the stage, and a few minutes later they got on stage and started to play. Halfway through the first song, the drummer quits playing and yells “What the f*ck is this!?” He couldn’t hear the rest of the band from his monitors. The rest of the band also had this problem. They couldn’t hear each other. They could have used some of the wasted time in the beginning to at least do some sort of sound check. And maybe they could have played for longer. Bree 2000 is what you would call a rapcore band. After they got everything squared away, they started up again.
Thousand Yard Stare was the next band to play, and I had seen these guys play before, at the Roxy, at 7:30pm, in front of 4 people. This time it was a different story. The Roxy was packed! Since the last time I saw Thousand Yard Stare the band has grown musically and really had a good impression on me. The only drawback I saw was most of the melodic choruses came from the keyboardist. Obviously it was the singer’s voice, but it just seemed to take a little away, but this band did not disappoint me. Definitely check these guys out when you can.
Blah blah blah DedEx blah blah blah. What more can I say? Seriously, these guys freaking rock. There aren’t many bands that have the energy that they show on stage, the only member that sits still, (hehe) is the drummer, and what I mean by still is in the same 3 foot area. From Dirty catching air, to Keith bouncing all over the stage, raw power. D-Hauz’s powerful vocals, along with the rest of the band kept the Roxy moving. At one point the stage was full of people dancing and helping DedEx sing. Truly amazing. “Are you ready to greet the Machine?” If you think you are, go see DedEx! If you don’t like them, I’ll refund your money. (Offer valid only when hell freezes over since you’ll love them!)
Now the headliner MUGG took the stage with their first headlining show. Channel 11 News was on hand to film the event, and MUGG and the Roxy didn’t let them down. All kinds of stuff happened, lend me your ear, or eyes and I’ll tell you. MUGG starts it off with two new songs. The crowd goes nuts, MUGG goes nuts, it was a nut festival! MUGG played old favorites like ‘Stutter’, ‘Baby Ruth’, ‘R Rated’, and some not so old songs like ‘White Trash’. With MUGG’s permission I’ll have a video clip up on this here site ASAP! During MUGG’s intense set a fight breaks out, like I said, Channel 11 got quit a show of what can happen at a show. I just hope the show isn’t depicted as “What goes bump in the Night in LA” or something similar. I think just about everyone wanted the fight to be stopped, MUGG since a fight made them end a show early before, and if it would have happened tonight, I’m sure the packed Roxy wouldn’t have been to pleased. Needless to say, time passed, tempers calmed, MUGG played on. During MUGG’s last song, before the encore that is, the stage was packed with people helping sing ‘Stutter’, or just dancing. D-Hauz from DedEx was on hand to help, as were members from Stricken and Thousand Yard Stare. Ryan from Carcinogen was crowd surfing throughout the dominant MUGG set, later quoted saying “It [MUGG’s set] was so powerful you just had to.” I will have to agree with ya Ryan.
There were two bands playing after MUGG, but since it was now a tad past 1 in the morning, and I had to get my sorry butt to work at 8, I thought it best to make a quite exit and slither on home.
