XTRMST
January 29, 2015
Roxy Theater- Los Angeles, CA
After years of talking amongst themselves about a Straightedge, Hardcore project, Davey Havok and Jade Puget, best known for their roles in AFI, have finally done it. Their project is called XTRMST. Starightedge is a philosophy that the duo have adopted from a young age and have adhered to throughout their lives. “It puts us at odds with 99% of the people around us, which was something we embraced. It seemed natural that this crucial ideology would find a musical expression,” XTRMST explained. Havok and Puget teamed up with DJ Steve Aoki and his label Dim Mak to release their self-titled album on November 17, 2014 and after all the positive feedback, the band announced their first show for January 29, 2015 at the Roxy Theater in Hollywood, CA. The show sold out so quickly, that XTRMST had no other choice but to add another show for the following night in Orange County, CA.
The lights dimmed at 10:00pm and the audience pushed in tighter toward the stage. As the band members walked on stage one by one, the crowd become more and more rowdy. XTRMST wasted no time and went straight into Conformist, which the band recently released a music video for. The crowd exploded upon hearing the guitar and drum intro and soon burst into a mosh-pit that stayed active throughout the entire night. Song after song, Havok had the crowd in the palm of his hand, commanding them in every which way. The fiery guitar playing and deafening thuds from the drums only added to the aggressive (the good kind) crowd. The energy continued for crowd favorites Dirty Nails, Words For the Unwanted and three Minor Threat covers, Straight Edge, In My Eyes and Filler in which Havok brought out Steve Aoki to help him out on vocals. Filler had to be one of the only times that cell phones came into the air to record or snap a photo. It was nice to see people enjoying a show, rather than recording it all to show their friends.
After less than an hour of heart racing cardio, Havok took a moment to talk to the crowd. “If you’ve been counting, you’ll know that we don’t have much left. There will be no encore because we have no more songs to play.” The crowd laughed as Havok thanked them for coming out and as the band went into their final song of the evening, Exterminate which resulted in bodies flying from one side of the venue to the other. Several fans jumped on stage and ran at Davey, grabbing the mic and screaming along with him just before they jumped back into the sea of people. The night was short but it was powerful. What XTRMST did in less than an hour is something many band’s cannot achieve in a two hour set, let alone during their first ever live show. With this being their first show, we can only wonder what other tactics they have in store, should they decide to tour, which we definitely hope they do.
Review by: Nicole Lemberg
