Author: Oliver Brink

Oliver is a lover of film, music, theatre, and art. He writes and works out of Los Angeles.

Show Review: Amyl and the Sniffers w/Die Spitz at The Vermont Hollywood, 02-06-2023

“Freaks to the Front!”
Amyl and the Sniffers Destroy Hollywood

It’s been a good goddamn while since I’ve had any time to pursue my love for concert photography. Between my day job eating up my weekends and evenings and unresponsive publicists/promoters, it’s been a rather tough time to get the camera out of the bag and catch those thrilling performance moments to share with everyone. So, not only was it a delight to be able to catch Amyl and the Sniffers, a band I’ve been following for a few years, for the first time at The Vermont Hollywood,  a venue I’d never been to before, but to have my camera in hand for the evening was downright uplifting.

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Show Review: Boy Harsher and Troller at The Belasco Theatre (Los Angeles) 04/19/2022

“Take me down to LA, I wanna go down”

It’s wild to think that the last time I wrote a show review was in 2019. Here we are in the waxing and waning throes of a two-year-long global pandemic and while still testing regularly and waiting for information on the next COVID variant it seems like we’re beginning to move toward a new normal. There’s something surreal and strangely dystopian about going to a concert, let alone to a MinSynth one, but that didn’t stop the many, if any, from attending Boy Harsher’s return to Los Angeles.

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Podcast Review: City in Exile

Podcast fiends, here’s your new addiction.

Brendan O’Loughlin recently launched the inaugural episode of his podcast titled, City in Exile. It’s a document of the ever-evolving cultural capital of California, San Francisco, and more specifically, it’s  O’Loughlin’s love letter to the city he grew up with. San Francisco is also my favorite city in the country and watching it evolve, and seemingly devolve, from the place I used to escape to in my youth has been both mystifying and depressing, but those of us who pay close attention recognize that all things change and we find ways to recapture those ephemeral bits that made us fall in love with the city as it continues to change.

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Single of the Week: Personal Shopper by Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson is certainly no stranger to epics. Whether his work in the band Porcupine Tree with songs like the sprawling “Anesthetize,” or his solo effort about serial killer Denis Rader “Raider II,” he has proven quite the knack for epic songs, cycles, and albums over the years. It should prove no surprise that his recent single for the upcoming The Future Bites, “Personal Shopper,” shares this epic quality.

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Show Review: Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, At The Gates, Grand Magus at The Hollywood Palladium 10/26/2019

“It’s a regular fucking Swedish invasion, huh?”

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Metal. Metal. Metal. I spent 8 hours refabricating metal at work, so why not end the day at The Hollywood Palladium for a night of epic metal, fantasy metal, and melodic death metal? Thank you Sweden. We don’t deserve you.

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Show Review: GWAR, Sacred Reich, Toxic Holocaust, Against The Grain at The Belasco Theater 10/24/2019

“GWAR LIVES!”

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I have a death wish. A metal death wish. So it was clear that I had to work 9 hours and high tail it straight to Downtown Los Angeles for a night of total fucking metal at The Belasco Theater. The occasion? GWAR. Need I say more?

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Show Review: Subhumans, Neighborhood Brats, SMUT, Fissure at Echoplex 10/22/2019

“This is not an advert!”

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Sometimes, you need to get the hell out of the house and go to a punk show. Especially in times as trying as these, perhaps because of times as trying as these, it just feels good to go somewhere where you can yell and get all that pent up anger at a seemingly unstoppable corrupt world with a bunch of like minded people. So, I hopped on the scooter and puttered off to Echo Park to the surprisingly dark-lit Echoplex for a night of punk rock fury.

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Show Review: IDLES, Surfbort at The Wiltern 2019/10/08

 

IDLES, the unstoppable force, returns!

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I do not get out to enough concerts. I work in live theatre which means when I’m on a “show run” I’m locked in with only Monday nights off for the next two months of my life at a time, so I have to fit in whatever I can between plays. Therefore, it’s almost serendipitous that the first show I’ve been to since May happens to also be an IDLES show, this time at The Wiltern in Korea Town.

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Show Review: IDLES, Fontaines D.C. at The Fonda Theatre 2019/05/22

“If you don’t like cliches, fuck yourselves.”

As I get older, I have to admit that I really appreciate having a barricade to shoot photos from. I get that it’s not most audience member’s cup ‘o tea, but when you’re lugging around 5k worth of camera equipment it’s nice to not have to worry quite as much about being shoved around by rabid fans. This is one of the reasons why I tend to truly enjoy concerts at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. Continue reading “Show Review: IDLES, Fontaines D.C. at The Fonda Theatre 2019/05/22”

Show Review: Amanda Palmer: There Will Be No Intermission at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel 5/11/19

“There will be…. ONE intermission.”

I have to start by admitting that what I witnessed this evening is difficult to paraphrase. To do so would be a disservice to the intimacy and honesty that Amanda Palmer shared with us. While that certainly sounds like an excuse for laziness, I am being quite earnest. It’s hard to come to terms with it, but I’m at a complete loss of how to describe what I experienced in that giant ex-movie palace where I watched a woman tell her story armed with nothing but a Steinway grand piano, a ukulele, and a hell of a lot more bravery than I think I’ll ever know.

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