Killer Hill, Tiger Sex, F-71 At The Redwood Bar, Saturday February 24th 2018

Alyson Camus|February 26, 2018

F-71, Killer Hill, Redwood Bar, Tiger Sex

Tiger Sex

The Redwood Bar keeps rock ‘n’ roll alive, and last Saturday night, die-hard rockers had gathered to see a genre that the mainstream regards as an extinct species. What? They could not be more wrong… the bar downtown LA seems to be the bastion of the genre, and Saturday night was no exception with three bands playing and raging their love for music.

First, Killer Hill gave their first show ever, although these men were certainly no beginners, as Dan Beeman on guitar and vocals and Dave Case on bass are also part of Helmet, an alt-metal band from New York, which found great success in the ‘90s and was signed by Interscope Records for $1 million in 1992! The music was heavy like a Pterosaur flight, and fast with accelerated guitar riffs, destructive drumming (by Pete Beeman) and hurling vocals letting escape some insane guitar solos. It was a cathartic chaos that may have landed between trash metal, black metal, speed metal or death metal, I am never sure of the differences. The music was deafening and abrasive, with piercing wild guitars, distorted bass and machine gun drumming, pushing the volume as if an arena-band had suddenly invaded the Redwood.

The next act had a moniker that could have exploded at your face like a herd of cats in heat, and there’s nothing more aggressive than cats in heat, right? When you name your band Tiger Sex you build a certain expectation before a show, and I should say that frontgirl Kelly Tiger Sex managed to keep up with the expectations and the appropriate feral attitude. She was a wild one, rehearsing all the theatrics of a punk rock legend, ignoring the stage, jumping on tables, drenching her hair in beer, rolling her back on stage and screaming like an enraged panther over the distorted sound of guitarist Kel Windd. Restless and untamed, Kelly was a sexy incarnation of the punk rock girl leading her band playing dirty garage rock as if it was 1973! They got even very bluesy at one point, had a loud song about prostitution, and of course, closed their set with a Iggy Pop song, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, which may have been a too-predictable choice? But that girl should definitely do a duo with Arrow de Wilde of Starcrawler, although they may end up killing each other.

The last band F-71 may have played after midnight but they didn’t let us fall asleep with their propelling guitars and genuine punk attitude. The music was rather upbeat and explosive like a rocket shot to space, with plenty of hair and arm action and fierce vocals, The band, formed in 2007 by singer and guitarist Tony and his young brother Dante on drums (with also Zach on bass), was going for the ‘70s garage noisy and aggressive punk anthems (even covering Black Flag) without any regard for what kids are supposed to like in 2018.

It was just another Saturday night at The Redwood bar, the bastion of rock and roll and all the styles this includes.

More pictures here.