The Birth Defects At The Hi Hat, Friday August 11th 2017
The Birth Defects
We are so blessed in LA, we can see a million bands playing in small venues across town, just before they blow up and fill the Forum or any other giant place. Slayer was playing at the Forum a few nights ago, Dead Cross (fronted by Faith No More’s Mike Patton) at the Observatory and Metallica at the Rose Bowl 2 weeks ago, but thanks god for The Birth Defects at the Hi Hat last night! I mentioned all these heavy-weight bands because the Birth Defects are loud and as hard-rocking as any of these bands, no let me rephrase this, they sounded like hard rock heaven! All set long I had a big smile on my face and euphoria on my mind, so believe me, if you like punk hard rock with a hardcore undertone, you must listen to the Birth Defects.
They are a pure Los Angeles product though, they feature members of Bleached, Thee Oh Sees, and have a 2015 debut album ‘First 8 Mistakes’ produced by the unbelievably prolific Ty Segall. Meanwhile, singer Jason Finazzo is the perfect incarnation of a garage-punk-hard-rock frontman as his guitar leaves a taste of leather and dust after a raid of motorcycle bikers. They were playing late last night inside the small Highland Park venue, and all heavy rockers should have been there! Did they blow up everyone’s mind? Did they annihilate the place? Yes and yes, they were heavy rock virtuoso, Finazzo screamed high behind a wall of fuzz guitars, with metal monster riffs and insane accelerations. I don’t know what I loved the most about the band, probably their tight sound which would make you jump against the wall, or their look and dynamism on stage as their bass player had to be the most agitated musician I have seen for a long time! He was almost throwing his instrument to the roof, while Finazzo repeatedly went into psychedelic metal-charged assaults with a monster voice and a metal-punk tone ready to make the wall paint crumble. I haven’t barely mentioned the drumming, hard hitting as it should be, fueling the music with frenzy and exhilaration.
The Birth Defects redefine raw power, and this is not an easy thing to do when you come after so many bands which have been doing it before, they make you believe in a deafening and blistering sound that explode in front of your wide eyes. Plus, the Birth Defects are not just another band navigating between hard-rock, punk and hardcore, they have strong personalities and watching them on stage was highly entertaining, keeping you on the edge, between a bike speed-race escalading to a metal assault show, or a punk hardcore moshpit, and people effectively started to become agitated after a few songs, while the guitars were blending into an awesome cacophony.
The Birth Defects make a big and full sound, something you cannot totally make sense of at one point, an awesome ecstasy pill of rock ‘n’ roll.
Setlist
Dye Lesium
Bad Shit
Yolf
Drugs
Bricks
Hekter
Coward (I’m A)
Party Suicide
Endless Pain
I should Be Dead
More pictures here
