A Night With The Wildhearts

Sunday night The Wildhearts played at the Keyclub in LA. The Keyclub has quickly become my favorite venue out in LA, great sound system, clean club, and we always seem to have a great time at that venue.

I first learned about The Wildhearts when they opened for The Darkness in Atlanta. I had heard the band name but had never heard their music. Ever since their performance than night I've been hooked.

Ted, a friend of mine from college came out to visit this weekend so I took him out to the big rock and roll show on a Sunday night along with Darian. Before the show we grabbed a quick bite at the Rainbow Bar and Grill hoping for a celeb or rock star sighting. We didn't see anyone we knew but saw a couple of people that looked like they could be somebody. After the fact I realized that the bass player from The Wildhearts, Scott Sorry, was sitting at the bar while we ate. After a quick dinner we made it over to the Keyclub around 8:30.

First band up was Locke And Load. The bass player and guitarist looked the part, although the guitarist / singer struggled with the lead guitar parts. The drummer was a guy named Richie Rivera who I had previously seen with a band called Touched. I'm not particularly fond of his playing although he was probably the best musician in this band. With all of that said the band pulled the best stunt ever. I was up at the stage and the singer asked me to hold my right hand up and make a right "devil horn". Then he had all the people on the front row hold up their fist and the person on the far left made the left "devil horn". So instead of a typical \m/ horns up it looked like \mmmmmmmmmmm/.

Second band up was Liars N' Cheats. Music was much better than the first band and they came off as a GnR inspired band with a modern rock and roll look. They kept throwing out cds during the set so I was able to listen to the one Ted caught. They were much better live than on cd. This is a band that if I see playing again I may actually check out. The highlight of their set was the end when the bass player destroyed his bass and the drummer trashed his drumset. The first time I had ever seen a non-headliner destroy their gear. Very rock and roll!

The final band of course was The Wildhearts. These guys rarely play in the US so it was nice to see them out in LA. The crowd knew a lot of the lyrics so it was nice to hear a great crowd rocking out and singing along to nearly all of the songs. Considering how hard it is to find their cds in the US I was surprised to see how many people knew the material.

The opening of the set with Greetings backed with Vanilla Radio w/ the great chorus of "Where's My Elvis" couldn't have been any better. The band was extremely tight and were jumping and running all over the stage. CJ, the guitar player stayed on his side of the stage, but Scott and Ginger were ripping it up like they were in an arena.

Other highlights included Weekend, Someone That Won't Let Me Go w/ the audience singing the guitar riff, 29x The Pain and I Wanna Go. I Wanna Go had the crowd chanting just like on the Tokyo Suits Me live cd. The band didn't disappoint and neither did the crowd.

The set had no encore, after I Wanna Go the band left the stage and after several minutes the house lights came on. Crowd was hungry for an encore but we will just have to wait until next time.

The Wildhearts
October 21, 2007
Keyclub
W. Hollywood, CA

Greetings From Shitsville
Vanilla Radio
TV Tan
Caffeine Bomb
Everlone
The Revolution Will Be Televised
O.C.D.
Nita Nitro
Suckerpunch
Destroy All Monsters
Sick Of Drugs
Love You Till I Don't
The Hard Way
Weekend
Rooting For The Bad Guy
Someone That Won't Let Me Go
29x The Pain
My Baby Is A Headfuck
I Wanna Go Where The People Go