Unwritten Law at the House of Blues - Anaheim

I caught Unwritten Law over the weekend at the House of Blues in Anaheim. As has been our custom, we missed most of the opening bands, but sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on some potential up and coming bands, know what I mean? About a year and a half ago we discovered As Fast As, and it's always fun to find that band that you can love and keep in your pocket because no one else knows about them.

We did, however, catch the band just before Unwritten Law, The Dirty Heads. Most of the people at the show seemed pretty familiar with them, as the the band does hail from Huntington Beach. I actually saw these guys open for UL at the show right before Christmas at the Grove, also in Anaheim. Maybe it's just my recent mood of listening to Ben Harper, and Bob and Damian Marley, but I really like their sound. There is just something strangely engaging about a band with a look that's more befitting Lynyrd Skynyrd than the reggae/hip-hop sound that they have. At the same time, you could cut a scene from a late 80's to early 90's surf movie (think Point Break), and get an idea of what they look like. I'm not sure how many members are in the band because I'm sure that it has to be bigger than the 4-piece group that I saw on stage, but I love the duel set of regular drums coupled with the guy playing the set of bongos and hitting the cymbals with his hands. It's hard for me to listen to that kind of sound and not want to move. That was definitely the case for the girl standing to my left who looked like she was failing a dance-off sobriety test. Here's a sample:


As the crowd anxiously awaited Unwritten Law to hit the stage, the house music softened while the crowd roused in anticipation. The several hundred people were greeted by a skinny punker sipping on a beer alone on stage with a keyboard set-up. He took off his shirt to reveal an undernourished physique, sporting a distended belly sated by alcohol and not enough fruits and vegetables. To our delight he played a piano rendition of Teenage Suicide, hitting the pauses and climaxes in the song swimmingly. It was great. He finished his piece, the curtains closed and not too long later the headliners made their entrance.

They came out to a blackened stage and Scott's cigarette provided the only light as they manned their positions. Whether that entrance was planned or not, it was perfectly set. Seeing a band live really is about how much they can sell the audience on the emotion in their music, and these guys do it as good as anyone that I've ever seen. Much of their success has to be attributed to a lead man in Scott Russo that can carry the energy of the crowd on his back for the duration of the set. I think my favorite songs of the night were Shoulda Known Better which kills it live, but the Rest of My Life-She Says medley always tops it for me.

I wish there was somewhere I could find the actual playlist, but Unwritten Law's concert set is pretty standard, if you've ever seen them more than a few times. If you have the album The Hit List, then pretty much all of the songs that they play live can be found on there. My two main complaints with them live is that Scott tends to disrupt the flow of the show with too much talking and not enough singing, and their playlist is very predictable. I've been to five shows in the last two years and this was the least that he has talked in any of them, so I LOVED that part of it. The songs were no different, but that's not to say it isn't great to also know what you're in for. Just one time, though, I'd love to hear Harmonic again live, or ANYTHING from Oz Factor. He made the comment at the show that for the old-timers they would like this song, and then they played Lonesome off the self-titled album. Old-timers, really? That's from their third album. What about the people who first fell in love with your music with Blue Room and Oz Factor. I haven't heard Falling Down in show in so long. I think I've probably seen them about 15 times and they've never ended with another song other than CPK. I'm just saying...

In any case, you can pretty much guarantee a quality show from them every time they play. I love the customary rush to the front as the first song begins to sound off, and the girls who thought they wanted to be in the pit get dumped to the back. Scott has an amazing presence on stage, and I actually like them as a 4-piece band more than a 5-piece. It gives the lead more of a chance to shine and without that, I wouldn't have been able to see him hit himself in the head with the guitar during She Says. He really does define "cool" so well. My voice was hoarse about halfway through the show, my calves ached from the ebbs and flows of the crowd, but I never tired of soaking in their music. Below is a performance of Seein' Red.



By the way, I just saw posted on another site that Unwritten Law is coming out with a new studio album by the end of the year. Holla!