Periphery: The Juggernaut Of Progressive Metal Comes to Los Angeles

Periphery & Nothing More
January 22, 2014
House of Blues- Los Angeles, CA

As day 1 of NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants) came to an end in Anaheim, CA, on January 22, 2015, fans and family came to the House of Blues in Los Angeles, CA to enjoy the Progressive metal artists Periphery and Nothing More.
Hailing from San Antonio, TX, Nothing More brought tons of energy into their pleasing, 9 song set which began with Christ Copyright. The fans in the packed venue were jumping up and down and banging their heads with the melodies as lead singer, Jonny Hawkins jumped and ran around the stage, showcasing his impressive vocals. Following Mr. MTV, which was #12 on the Mainstream Rock Song chart, the band went into a bass solo where Daniel Oliver attached his bass guitar to a floor tom and started strumming it to the drum groove that Paul O’Brien supplied. Guitarist Matt Vollelunga lost his guitar and went over to Oliver and strummed along with him. And finally Hawkins joined the duo on bass, and began hitting the bass guitar with drum sticks while standing on the floor tom. The fans were going wild and loving every moment of this full band bass solo. The energy was brought down a notch during the intro to Jenny but picked up with the melodic and grooving chorus which fans sang along to. As the set was winding down the band performed Salem (Burn the Witch) where the band gave fans a fun treat. Matt Vollelunga and Daniel Oliver both put down their guitars and picked up drum sticks. They went to both sides of the stage and began banging on their tom-tom drums while Jonny Hawkins hit his floor tom. Following along with drummer Paul O’Brien, the band proceeded to do a quartet of a drum solo. As fans began cheering louder and louder, Vollelunga and Oliver picked their tom tom drums, stood beside Hawkins and faced their drums toward Hawkins who performed on all three drums. If the set couldn’t get anymore entertaining, the band concluded with This is The Time (Ballast) which charted #2 on the Rock Charts from their most recent album Nothing More which released in 2014.
With their double albums on the brink of releasing (January 27, 2015), Periphery and their fans were ready for an explosive set at the House of Blues. As strobe lights were flashing in the darkened venue and fans began chanting for the band, lead singer, Spencer Sotelo told fans from off stage that he was having voice issues so he needs the fans to help him out. He asked if they could do that and fans screamed back, reassuring Sotelo. One by one, the six member band came out on stage and dove right into Icarus Lives!, which was ranked #23 on US Hard Rock Charts in 2011 from their self titled album. As the light show continued and the members of the band were running around from side to side, the energy in the crowd never gave in. Fans got to hear five new songs from the new albums including Alpha, Psychoshere and The Scourge from Juggernaut: Alpha and Graveless and The Bad Thing from Juggernaut: Omega. Although the albums are yet to be released, fans were singing along to Sotelo, keeping their promise in helping him out, as they moshed and head-banged. As 8 songs came and went, the band ended their set with crowd favorite Scarlet. As the band members exited from the stage, drummer Matt Halpern stayed on stage and began pumping the crowd up, who were cheering for an encore. The band came back on stage and performed two encores which included Ragnarok and Masamune from the band’s second album, Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal. Cheers echoed throughout the room as the band thanked their fans and exited the stage for one last time. Those in attendance were lucky enough to pick up the new albums before the release date and enjoy the new (and old) songs live from the famous House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. And looking at how much the fans were enjoying the new material, it is safe to say that these albums will be a huge success for the band.
Review by: Nicole Lemberg