Author: Oliver Brink

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

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.

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

Show Review: The Faint, Choir Boy, CLOSENESS at The Roxy Theatre 05/08/19

“Like a cast shadow”

I don’t often make it down to the Sunset Strip in Rock and Roll West Hollywood. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that it’s expensive and the parking is absolutely terrible. However, I’ve a lot of fond memories of late night jaunts to The Rainbow Room for pizza, beers, and bitch sessions about freelance work with some close friends and it just so happens that the Roxy Theatre is right next door. So, of course I was going to make a trek out to street where rock and roll really cemented its place in popular culture to see The Faint and whoever is touring with them.

Continue reading “Show Review: The Faint, Choir Boy, CLOSENESS at The Roxy Theatre 05/08/19”

Show Review: Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records, Ministry, Cold Cave at The Teragram Ballroom 04/22/2019

I have to confess, I was completely in the dark about Wax Trax! Records, which seems criminal to me now considering my music tastes. So, what better way to learn the whole story than a documentary screening followed by a concert?

Continue reading “Show Review: Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records, Ministry, Cold Cave at The Teragram Ballroom 04/22/2019″

Show Review: SRSQ, Uniform, and The Black Queen at The Regent 03/28/19

“Maybe we could just…”

After a long work period it’s nice to have an evening to cut loose and check out some damn good music. It was this thought that ran through my head as I navigated through traffic on a Thursday night from Sherman Oaks to downtown Los Angeles to see The Black Queen perform at the Regent. It wasn’t too cold, though that may have been from all the traffic, and something in the air just said that tonight was going to be a good night for some dark and synthy dream pop.

Continue reading “Show Review: SRSQ, Uniform, and The Black Queen at The Regent 03/28/19”

Album Review: Ladytron – Ladytron

Of all the bands that I’ve been obsessed with over my life time, Ladytron was one that I came to on the later portion of their career. While I appreciate their first two albums, it wasn’t until the dark post-rock infusion of Witching Hour that I my ears suddenly perked up and I realized how much more there was to this band. Even then I wasn’t fully hooked and completely obsessed until Velocifero blew my head apart. To say that I’ve been waiting and anticipating a new Ladytron album since Gravity the Seducer was released almost a decade ago is an understatement of the century – at least in my household – so imagine how excited I was when all the rumors were confirmed by an e-mail from Pledge Music that they were in the studio working on a new album and then later when Spotify notified me that a new single – at the time “The Animals” – had been officially released. I lost my shit. Plain and simple.

Continue reading “Album Review: Ladytron — Ladytron”

Show Review: Ministry and Carpenter Brut at The Fonda, 12/20/18

“This is The Twilight Zone!”

It seems I’m developing a bit of a reputation for my love of metal music. Sure enough, most of my tastes gravitate in a heavy, guitar crunching, angry spitting, violent dancing, political attack that much of metal shares with the world. This is why it should come as no surprise that I leapt for the chance to see Ministry at the Fonda Theatre one Thursday afternoon. However, this was no ordinary metal show, for Al Jourgenson and his cohorts were sharing the stage with 80s horror synth revivalist Carpenter Brut – whom I’ve also become deeply enamored with over the past year since Leather Teeth was released – and newcomers Alien Weaponry from New Zealand.

Continue reading “Show Review: Ministry and Carpenter Brut at The Fonda, 12/20/18”

Festival Review: Adult Swim Festival 2018 (DTLA)

Adult Swim Takes Over The Row

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Coming off of a whirlwind Wasteland Weekend experience mere days before, I grabbed my camera and jumped right in to Adult Swim’s inaugural Adult Swim Festival. Taking place in DTLA’s The Row next to the now vacant American Apparel factory, the festival showcased Adult Swim’s animation and television series while musicians and comedians who have worked in some capacity with the company, performed back to back on two cat-themed stages across the long stretch of pavement from each other. The next two days were jam packed with non-stop entertainment featuring a plethora of artists that I was experiencing for the first time both sonically and visually.

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Show Review: Melvins, Boris, We Are The Asteroid at Echoplex 08/16/2018

It’s gonna get loud…

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It’s been a good bit of time since I’ve made it out to a show at one of my favorite venues in Los Angeles: Echoplex. While the lightning has never been the greatest for photography, the atmosphere and sound mixes have always made up for it and I’ve consistently had the most fun at pretty much every show I’ve seen behind their doors. Though, I’ll definitely admit that it’s sometimes hard to decipher their door times from show starting times and in this case I misread and ended up arriving FAR earlier than I ever have, but that’s just me griping. Even being in line about an hour and a half before opening couldn’t wreck my spirits. I was about to thrust myself into the noisiest room in Los Angeles. I was about to see Boris and the Melvins.

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Show Review: Steve Ignorant and Paranoid Visions, Modern Enemy at The Fonda 5/26/18

Revolution Songs The Whole World Needs

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Hardcore, Anarcho, Crust, Street, Pop: Five ways to describe various aspects of punk rock music — and that’s just five — of which I’ve happily run around in circle pits, been pressed against sweaty beer spilling individuals, and genuinely rocked my head off to in my life thus far.

For myself and a great number of friends who grew up in the ‘90s, punk provided a sense of community in a rural hippie town that was otherwise obsessed with reggae and country music — figure that out — where you could go 6 miles north where horses have the right of way or 10 miles south where meth seems to be lurking around every corner. It gave us an outlet for our anger and disillusionment in our supposedly sleepy little town in the Lost Coast. It should come as no surprise that by high school I was listening to heavy doses of Subhumans, Leftover Crack, Bad Religion, and Crass.

Continue reading “Show Review: Steve Ignorant and Paranoid Visions, Modern Enemy at The Fonda 5/26/18”