Holy Wars (Gold-Diggers) and machineheart (Madame Siam)

Holy Wars was playing their final set of 2018 at Gold-Diggers. This is a venue that I'd actually never even heard about. Kat of Holy Wars mentioned to me earlier that it used to be a strip club. In fact, LA Weekly called it the best strip club in 2013. Now it appears to be a venue for DJs and bands. And based on the website, there is also a boutique hotel and recording studio in the building. From the outside, it doesn't look like much, but from the pictures on the website, a lot of work has been done to make things look classy inside.

The place was packed in with familiar faces such as Lauren Ruth Ward, Emma Cole, Kevin from Buzzbands to name a few. This night was actually the second time that week that I'd run into Lauren Ruth Ward. She yelled across the room to me, "We have good taste in music." Annabelle from MetronOhm and Michelle from Michelle Young and the Collection backed up Holy Wars for a couple songs. The night was a fun celebration of a part of the Los Angeles music scene that I so enjoy. Holy Wars, of course, killed it. I've said this before and I'll say it again, listening to Holy Wars is just so cathartic.

Holy Wars

Now I actually saw machineheart back in October. So I'm a little late in writing something up about the night. I saw the band a couple times in 2016. I first saw them at The Satellite. Then I later caught a truncated set at Music Tastes Good. They had these awesome pop tunes at the time. I noticed that they were playing a free show at Madame Siam and I knew I had to catch their set. Their music on this recent October night shifted more towards a rock sound.

It was actually an interesting set to watch. Madame Siam has a lengthy stage, but it is basically cut into three smaller stages due to pillars. So the way the band was set up, lead singer Stevie Scott was on one stage with the drummer while the bassist and guitarist were on the far left and right stages. Stevie actually mentioned how strange it felt to have her band mates basically playing close, but separate. I really do hope I catch them again in 2019.

machineheart