The local opening band wouldn’t have known it, but the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Label Society came out in full force Friday. The line for the sold-out show, wrapping around the House of Blues and down Sunset Boulevard, was so long that the first band was off the stage before most people got inside.
By the time the second opening band, Dope, took the stage, however, the floor was full, and there really was “No Way Out” as the pit started circling at their first song. Though no one got hurt, the pit began to resemble a heavy metal wrestling match on a beer-covered slip and slide, and the best seats in the house were the railing on the banister around the pit ““ close enough to be part of the action, while sustaining minimal bruising. The crowd reached fever pitch for “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” as Dope closed their set and the wait for Black Label Society began.
With red siren lights spinning and the crowd yelling “BLS,” the curtain onstage fell down and lead guitarist/singer Zakk Wylde took the stage in front of a wall of Marshalls with his trademark bullseye Flying-V guitar. Black Label Society ripped into “New Religion” in front of a sea of pumping fists and banging heads.
Driven by the heavy bass of John DeServio and the double bass of drummer Craig Nunemacher, the band churned out “Bleed for Me,” with the audience shouting along to Wylde’s gritty vocals. Guitarist Nick Catanese’s riffs locked tightly with the solid lead of Wylde over the relentless bottom line hammered out by Nunemacher and DeServio on “What’s In You.” From the crowd’s reaction it was obvious that everyone had helter-skelter ““ if not more ““ running through their veins.
The set slowed down for Wylde to perform a blistering solo on acoustic guitar before launching into “Blood is Thicker Than Water” and then “Hey You (Batch of Lies)” on piano. The wall between performers and audience was broken when Wylde pulled up his “brothers from the L.A. chapter” from the floor, even as his security told him to stop.
Even this hard-core crowd softened for “In This River,” a tribute to slain Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell. The walls of amps were covered with pictures of Dimebag that remained for the rest of the night, while the crowd shouted his name, which quickly changed to chants of “Rita” as his wife joined the band onstage at the conclusion of the song and thanked the chapter for their support.
The show lived up to the BLS credo of S.D.M.F. ““ Strength, Determination, Merciless, Forever ““ with Wylde showing why he is considered one of the last guitar gods (a title he would probably object to), shredding from E to E while squeezing out face-melting solo after solo, only slowing down to take swigs of beer. Beside solos in every song, he stomped out two full guitar solos during which the other members of the band left the stage.
The later of these two was a screaming solo that crashed into a metal version of the national anthem before the rest of the band took the stage to end the set with Wylde doing his best Ozzy-like vocals on the intense “Stillborn.”
But even then the night was not over. Making even a sold-out show intimate, a recording of “You Are So Beautiful To Me” played and Wylde crowd surfed, shook hands and greeted the family.
While the striking Viking-like presence of Wylde easily dominated the stage, he was humble and genuine. The stripped down set clearly showed that the night was not about rock star posturing, but about having a good time with family. When Catanese’s parents were brought onstage the crowd gave them a standing ovation; when someone fell in the pit, there was always a hand to help. But as Wylde said several times during the set, that’s what Black Label Society has always been about: family.
““ Kim Sanders
E-mail Sanders at ksanders@media.ucla.edu