[Concert review] Power Of The Riff 2013 kickoff w. Black Breath, Early Graves, Obliterations, Nomads and Creative Adult, Aug 9t '13 @ The Echo (Los Angeles, CA)

My fiancee and I happened to be in town for a wedding so we managed to catch this show after a day of hanging out with my family and childhood friends. I had managed to miss Black Breath pretty much every time they had played in Portland over the past year, and hadn't seen Early Graves with John Strachan on vocals yet, so I was fucking stoked for the show.

The Echo was a sweet venue, nice and small with a decent (and overpriced) bar. They even had really good vegan pizza from next door, which was rad because we hadn't really gotten a chance to grab dinner yet.

We walked in and caught the tail end of the first band, Creative Adult. I remember them sounding vaguely post-hardcoreish (good post-hardcore like Unwound or Fugazi), but we only really caught two songs. They had shirts for sale that had a framed space you could draw in with a sharpie (you know, to be a creative adult), which was amusing. Unfortunately for them, I their music wasn't my thing at the moment and I haven't checked them out since, and Black Breath had some sweet sweatpants so I went for those instead (they're super comfortable).

Nomads played next, doing a great job of the raw d-beat thing, but with three guitarists. I was sort of confused as to why at first, since nobody was doing anything fancy, but it actually made them louder and heavier than a lot of bands playing that style are live.
Obliterations were rad. Straight up sounding like a mix of Black Sabbath and Black Flag, they were also fronted by Sam Velde, one of the guys responsible for the Power Of The Riff fest and frontman of LA rock band Night Horse. This was totally different than Night Horse's bluesy hard rock, and definitely way more my thing. Riff after killer riff with Sam Velde howling over everything like a madman. I would have absolutely lost my shit over this band when I was a kid finding out about Black Flag, Descendents and Adolescents, I hope they stick around for a while.

Seeing Early Graves back in action again was fucking amazing. I had booked shows for both The Funeral Pyre and Early Graves (as well as their previous band Apiary) in Arizona for years, and this was my first chance to see them with John from The Funeral Pyre in the band as a full time member handling vocals. Everyone knows what happened, so I won't repeat it here, but it really made me glad to see my friends recover from a really shitty tragedy and coming back twice as hard. The 2010 LP Goner also got me through some seriously rough times, and the pain and frustration Early Graves are able to convey in their songwriting is as strong as ever on Red Horse. Simply put, Early Graves have always been amazing live. From the moment they hit the stage, The Echo was a full of the sound of pure hell. Sticking to songs off Goner and Red Horse, they proceeded to rain down fury on the crowd for the next 30 or so minutes. I circle pitted for the first time in years.

As tough an act as Early Graves were to follow, Black Breath managed to hold their own. I was pretty stoked to finally see them, since I had somehow managed to miss their Portland shows with Rotten Sound/Night Nurse and Mammoth Grinder/Spectral Tombs, so getting to see Black Breath play after one of my favorite bands was totally rad. I know people who aren't into this band, and they are wrong. Black Breath rule on album, and they take that and multiply the energy exponentially live. They opened with "Feast Of The Damned" and the venue went off. The rest of their set was a blur, partially because I was caught up in the force that is five longhairded dudes headbanging and cranking out song that sound like Slayer, All Out War, Samhain and Entombed's best work, and also because I was a few IPAs into the evening.


Also, on the way home, we got pulled over at a DUI checkpoint because cops are dipshits and couldn't tell that I smelled like alcohol and not everyone and everything in the entire car. Fucktards.
- Tony Howard

*** All photographs by Matthew Draper (used without permission - I will remove them if Draper or POTR disapproves of this). Visit Matthew Draper HERE. Full POTR Kickoff @ The Echo photo set HERE.