Early to Man, Early to Rise

Went to the End on Tuesday night to check out Early Man, Priestess and The Sword. Actually, I was expecting to miss both openers by arriving around 11:15pm, but to my surprise, Priestess had just begun. Their name and album art impart an inaccurate goth motif. In actuality, they have kind of a Hellacopters/Motorhead thing going on - swaggering and riff heavy. The lead singer's got all the trad rock moves down pat. Oddly, his chubbiness doesn't really ruin the illusion of stardom, but lends itself to real patrician charm. Best part of the show was the mid-set drum solo. I can't think of the last time I saw a real, in-the-flesh drum solo since Phil Hanson went on for about 10 minutes in H-W's 9th grade talent show ("Paranoid," maybe?). What was initially ironic became increasingly awe-inspiring. The drummer knew it, too. Cool that real metalheads were there to give their deferential devilhorns in appreciation of the rawk.

Early Man wheeled their stunning Orange stacks onto the stage in short time. In fact, part of Early Man's appeal was the simplicity of their set-up. Drums, Orange Stacks, Two Guitars, Two Tuning Pedals, Bass Stack, and Bass. As pointed out by Tinobeat on the MBB, it's cool that they relied solely on the overdrive of the Orange Amps to get that incredible sound. Incredibly charismatic they were not, but enough to make it a memorable experience. Upon first hearing their recorded output, I thought E.M. was merely a joke by some N.Y. hipsters, albeit one that I found pretty funny. The joke was on me, though; listening to the record, I've realized how much metal I really do like. I mean, it wasn't so long ago that I was checking out Kill 'Em All from the Santa Monica Library. The show was split between your died-in-the-tatoo-ink metal heads (pressed against the right-side of the stage not reluctantly expressing their approval for everything awesomely done) and button-wearing hipsters. Musis was enjoyed by all types, though, and not smirkingly appreciated. Arrangement-wise, all songs were pretty straight adaptations from the album, but what would you expect? That was more than enough. Also, the lead dude really held his own vocally on "Death is the Answer" and "Four Walls."

I think I'm going to Supergrass next Wednesday, but pictures may be impractical. Until the next report . . .

- RIDY