May 2018 | Music Junkie Press

Enjambre live at The Roxy, no opener, no warm up , just pure excitement.

May 16, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Hollywood) If you have never seen Enjambre play live your life is not be complete. That is a bold statement, but this is more than just a bold group of musicians who have been rocking fans for over a decade. Enjambre is an innovative band for the 21st century built on a solid foundation of hits that make its live performances pure, unadulterated excitement. They proved that at Hollywood’s The Roxy recently in one of the most astonishing performances I have seen in a long time. No openers, no warm-ups, no introduction – just one of the best Latin rock bands in the world delivering an incredible 19 songs and two encores over two hours of non-stop music in an intimate venue to a lucky 500 people who managed to get in. . I knew that this was going to be something special when I arrived at the club early and found that an hour and half before show time the club was almost full and there was a line. This [Read More]

CONCERT REVIEW: Szlachetka’s Heart Of My Hometown @ Hollywood’s Hotel Café

May 15, 2018

Written by Jessica Klausing Szlachetka (pronounced SLA-HET-KA) is out on tour in support of his new album release, Heart Of My Hometown. Rolling Stone Magazine praised the album citing Szlachetka as a ‘New Country Artist to Know.’ That was evident as many Angelinos packed into the Second Stage venue at Hollywood’s Hotel Café on Wednesday night. The music was Americana roots rock superb, the storytelling honed the heartland spirit, and with the added chemistry of Szlachetka’s full band— it was transcendence into musical nirvana. The minute Szlachetka crooned into the steel guitar opener “Algebra” the audience knew it was on a heartfelt journey. Bathed in blue stage lights and clad in a button up faded shirt and jeans, Szlachetka exemplified raw emotion and musical prowess. Delicate guitar strums coupled with rich, warm vocals. Electric guitars cranked up for the rock n’ roll road trip anthem, “Ready to Run Again,” forcing everyone up on their feet. Szlachetka followed with the titular, “Heart Of My Hometown,” which prompted many cheers from the audience. Szlachetka bids farewell to [Read More]

Bullet For My Valentine: Homecoming

May 11, 2018

Ticketmaster started out a series called Homecoming. Bullet For My Valentine are amongst the first featured. Watch their homecoming, Matt Tuck explaining what it’s like to play your hometown, go back to where they started out and what it was like to play the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, where the band themselves saw many of their own heroes play live. Check it out here: Bullet For My Valentine will be back at the Motorpoint Arena this fall, November 11, 2018 , one of two exclusive UK dates. Catch Bullet For My Valentine live. Lots of chances to do that in 2018, since they are promoting their upcoming record ‘Gravity’, which will be released June 29th. For a full list of tour dates, visit their homepage at www.bulletformyvalentine.com. They already released two songs of ‘Gravity’. Check out Piece Of Me and Over It and tell us, what you think about them. Make sure to follow the band on their social media for all the tour dates, news and info: https://www.facebook.com/BulletForMyValentine http://www.bulletformyvalentine.com/ https://twitter.com/bfmvofficial https://www.instagram.com/bfmvofficial/ [Read More]

Via from NAKURY: music that makes you groove and think…and maybe change.

May 11, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles) It is hard to know where to start when reviewing Via, the most recent album released by the Costa Rican hip-hop/rap artist NAKURY (born Natasha Campos). Usually you start with the music, but NAKURY is so much more than her music and this album is so much more than its songs, that even as you listen to her addictive music, you can’t help but internalize what she is saying as well as what she is singing. Nakury has been a model, a beauty queen, a dancer, and a graffiti artist. Today she is a rapper, a hip-hop poet, an event founder and producer, and an activist. At 28 she has lived what seems like several lifetimes and the wisdom and experience of those lifetimes inhabit the poetry of this huge, 16-song album. Released on the independent label LacteoCoasmico, Via fuses rap and hip hop in Spanish with boombap, backbeat, electroncia, and Nakury’s unique voice which moves easily from urgent highs to rap lows. Produced by Barzo, [Read More]

COASTCITY at the Echoplex in LA: language and musical divides disappear.

May 9, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan There is no other way to say it: COASTCITY blew away the Echoplex Thursday night. The Grammy-nominated multilingual Puerto Rican duo of Danny Flores and Jean Rodriguez brought pure fun to the spacious stage of one of LA’s best sounding clubs to an audience completely at home with the band’s parallel languages and music forms. They also brought a full band complete with horns. And if that wasn’t enough, they brought rapper Álvaro Diaz, who joined them onstage for two songs before his own set. The result was a solid set of ten songs – some new, some familiar – that kept fans clapping, singing and screaming “otra vez” for an encore (they got it, but more on that later). Flores flashed his mischevious grin behind the keyboard as they opened the act with a new song, “Countach”. Rodriguez moved back and forth across the stage, jumped up and down, called out greetings, pumped his fist to the audience and generally poured electricity into an already energetic room. Moving on to their [Read More]

MUSIC NEWS: Powerful and crowd-pleasing set by Myles Kennedy at Slim’s in SF

May 6, 2018

Myles Kennedy is out on his solo tour in support of his album, Year of the Tiger. The tour made a highly anticipated stop in San Francisco Saturday night at Slim’s. The venue was packed and ready for a great night of music. The night kicked off with a spectacular performance by Thomas Wynn and the Believers. Siblings Thomas and Olivia filled the venue with their powerful vocals that captivated the crowd. A couple of my favorite tracks of their set were I Don’t Regret, Heartbreak Alley, and the title track of their latest album, Wade Waist Deep. Check out some photos of their set: The crowd roared in excitement as Myles Kennedy took to the stage. He started the set off with one of my favorite tracks off his solo album, Devil On The Wall. Myles charismatic personality created an inviting environment, which had you feeling as if you were watching him play in your living room. He sprinkled his set with stories and anecdotes that were pure enjoyment for the crowd. Myles delivers [Read More]

TOUR NEWS: VISTA announces The Bloodlust Tour set for this summer

May 4, 2018

Alternative rockers VISTA have announced their first tour of 2018. They will be venturing out on a month-long 25 date tour. The Bloodlust Tour will take them across US Northeast, Midwest and South. More about the tour: “The Bloodlust Tour” will also feature Florida rockers Brightside as direct regional support for 8 southern dates, from 7/9 – 7/17. The band has teased that there will be new music played, an all-new set, new merch items, and a “Long Live” one year anniversary show in their hometown (Long Island, 7/19). Limited VIP packages will be made available in select cities via individual ticket link, which will be announced in the coming weeks. Since the completion of their last tour, “The Oasis Tour” in November 2017, VISTA has been in the studio with ZK Productions (Mayday Parade, Set It Off, Chapel) working on new material, although no official release timeline for new music has been announced. Check out the dates below: VISTA released their highly anticipated second EP LONG LIVE in 2017 and features their lead [Read More]