High On Fire, Torche & Kylesa @ The Glass House, Pomona. 9/30/10.

I have a love/hate relationship with this venue. The Glasshouse has great sound, allows in’s and out’s and doesn’t hassle people about cameras inside. Unfortunately, because it’s a fairly large, flat venue, depending on the crowd turnout you might get stuck in the rear of the building staring at the back of some guy’s head. That and it’s in Pomona…which means a traffic plagued drive to barren town USA.  We left extra early to make sure traffic wouldn’t screw us out of seeing Kylesa. Turns out the doors didn’t open until a half hour later than advertised and there was another band opening the show also. Since we had about an hour to kill we headed over to a Mexican restaurant down the block to grub.  In our gluttonous delight, our fat asses missed the opening band Yeti’s entire opening set and made it to the Glasshouse as Kylesa finished up their first song (“What Becomes An End” I believe).

Kylesa was on fire this night. Their last headlining run through Hollywood was a muddled mess, plagued with sound problems and a fill in drummer. Tonight, the band made the most of their limited opening slot and rocked the fuck out. This was my first time experiencing Kylesa in a legit venue (their headlining off date at the Echoplex was sick, but the sound was shotty and their last gig at the Knitting Factory was just prior to the club shutting down…pretty dilapidated). The crisp PA and awesome sight lines (i.e. not ridiculously crowded) allowed me to be fully engulfed by the band’s set.  No really, I literally felt like I was in some kind of trance. Laura’s eerie vocals on “Running Red” sucked me in like the snake from The Jungle Book.  Kylesa’s dueling drummers, and addition percussion from Phil (guitar/vocals) and the bass player displayed throughout the night was the icing on the hypnotic cake. Heavy, trippy, rockin’ sludge metal…whatever the fuck Kylesa are, I love them.

Torche blasted through their set like a band possessed. I swear, the energy emanating from this band is beyond infectious. I heard some good things about these guys in the past but after I finally caught them live at 2009’s FYF FEST I was sold. Fat, monolithic doom riffs meets sugary rock’n’roll = AWESOME. It’s rare to see “heavy” type bands smile onstage, but Torche is one band who wears their enthusiasm on their sleeves.  I positioned myself dead center in front of the stage to watch their gamma powered drummer in action. For my good deed I was rewarded by almost taking a flubbed drumstick to the face(er, camera lens). It’s all good though. Torche rocked the house and dare I say, stole the show.

He puts the spring in Springfield.

AC/DC, Motorhead…High on Fire.  That’s pretty much the entire review of their set right there. Workhorse band who’s the best there is at what they do, and in this case it’s rocking out hesher style. Matt Pike is the “M” in metal alright? Sure, they’re kind of a one trick pony (stoner rock meets mid paced thrash with Lemmy vocals simmering above) but what an awesome trick it is. I’ve never proclaimed myself to be the biggest High on Fire fan alive and although I have all their records tucked away on my trusty iPod, I’m not the dude memorizing their lyrics…or even song titles for that matter. All I know is that in a live setting, this band kills. I stood off to the side of the stage as the long hairs tussled with each other in the make shift pit bobbing my head with a goofy grin on my face.  Why? I don’t know. It’s in my metal DNA or some shit. Like how fish thrive in the ocean, I enjoyed the hell out of my time watching High On Fire play.