Helmet at the Viper Room

At the Glass House show, Page had mentioned that Helmet would be doing a show at the Viper Room. After checking the Viper Room calendar, I found out the info and secured my ticket. The funny part was they originally had Helmet listed on the website and then later changed it to a bunch of question marks. I arrived just in time to see Year Long Disaster on stage playing a Wolfmother/Kyuss mix of stoner rock/blues. The intriguing thing about Year Long Disaster is they are fronted by Daniel Davies. Daniel happens to have quite the pedigree as his father is Ray Davies of the Kinks. Daniel was rocking a sweet goldtop Les Paul and the obligatory Orange Amp head and cab. Daniel had great stage presence and was giving it his all on stage. They will play with The Sword at the Troubadour in March. I missed It's Revenge as I went outside to talk to my friend Steve who runs Hollywoodmusic.tv. His crew were covering the whole night as they run a cool site that focuses on the L.A. rock and metal scene. Open Hand were up next and played an intriguing blend of math metal that reminded me of Cave-In(Antenna era) with keyboards mixed in for atmosphere. Helmet was up next and destroyed the Viper Room. In case you haven't been to the Viper Room before, imagine a band playing in your living room. This show also featured the debut of Page's custom ESP guitar that has a brushed aluminium finish. In comparision to the other shows I have seen(Glasshouse/Casbah) this was special in the fact that it was a very visceral in your face performance. Their set seemed like it was ten minutes. They eviscerated the crowd with a double barrel shotgun blast of "Milquetoast" and "In the Meantime". Kyle Stevenson's drumming was like clockwork overall and especially on those last two tracks. As most Helmet fans tend to be musicians.... Chino Moreno (Deftones), Ken Andrews (Failure/Year of the Rabbit) were in the audience. I implore you to attend the Jan 31st and Feb 1st show at the Troubadour. You will not be disappointed.