Lo Desert Rock Show at The Viper Room

By Tracy Dietlin

This past Saturday, Phil Lacombe of CV Weekly and Mikey Doling (SNOT) of JaxxRock Entertainment put on the first Lo Desert Rock Show at The Viper Room in Hollywood. The show was a success and a good time was had by all. Five bands gave top notch performances.

Opening the show was Broken Machine from Santa Barbara (the only non- desert band) who offered up an impressive set of rock. I see big things for this band’s future.

Next up was Mega Sun who have become quite the fan favorite here in the desert over the last year. Tyler Ontiveros on drums, Jeremy Parsons on bass and vocals, and Chris Rivera on guitar, delivered a cohesive performance that wowed everyone. They never disappoint and that is why they won Best New Band at the 2018 CV Music Awards with Ontiveros also winning Best Drummer.

Throw the Goat, the desert’s favorite punk trio consisting of Brian ‘Puke” Parnell on guitar, Michael Schnalzer on bass and vocals, and Troy Whitford on drums, were at the top of their game and the crowd loved them. It was obvious why they won Best Punk Band at the 2018 CV Music Awards.

House of Broken Promises took the stage next and as always melted faces with their power  trio metal that includes Arthur Seay on guitar, Mike Cancino on drums, and Joe Mora on bass and incredible vocals. This band is as seasoned and tight as they come, which is why they won Best Metal Band at the 2018 CV Music Awards.

Closing the night was the infamous Se7en4 offering up in your face, no holds barred, punk rock. Frontman Nico Flores knows how to get the crowd going and always provides the audience with a high energy, physically entertaining performance. The rest of the band Steven Hall on drums, Trevino Martin on bass, and new member Chris Williams on guitar, were equally amazing. Se7en4 won Best Punk Band in 2014, Best Album for Let’s Get High & Fight in 2015 and Flores won for Best Frontman in 2016 and 2017.

Phil Lacombe: “This show meant the world to me. Being able to bring out some top notch bands from the Coachella Valley to Hollywood was insane. It was very accepted. Let’s do this shit again!!”

Mikey Doling: “Having come from The Coachella Valley, it was great to be able to bring up bands from my home town to rock The Viper Room. All the bands were awesome and the desert folks showed up to support! It was amazing to see. Now we are going to try to do another one. The world needs more Desert Rock n Roll!!”

All Photos by Brian Blueskye