Monte Pittman

Live at The Whisky a Go Go

West Hollywood, CA

December 21st, 2017

Review and photos by Travis Baumann

Monte Pittman is a multi-talented artist who has played guitar with everyone from Madonna to Prong but his real strength lies in his solo material.

With grounded roots in the metal community, his song writing runs the gamut of rock inspired accessible acoustic tracks to heavy hitting, doom filled metal anthems that at times, have a touch of industrial sensibilities.

His last two albums, "Inverted Grasp of Balance" and "The Power of Three", both on Metalblade Records, really pulled me into the fold so I was excited to see him perform at the classic Whisky a Go Go venue on the Sunset Strip.

I really had no idea what to expect as these two albums are much more than standard singer-songwriter solo efforts, the latest featuring the addition of powerhouse drummer Richard Christy of Charred Walls of the Damned and Iced Earth fame, as well as Billy Sheehan on bass guitar.

For this show, Monte was playing all by himself on stage. He had several amps, his foot pedals, and several guitars. He started the show with his acoustic guitar and kicked off the set with what he called "The Four Horsemen".

He utilized a looping pedal to build upon his own playing by thumping his guitar body and looping those sounds into the percussion element and did likewise with the rhythm guitar sections, creating the illusion of a band with just himself in a few short strokes! It was impressive right from the start, and was quite a lengthy, moving song that also showcased his other strength, his vocal abilities.

The set covered a lot of ground from there. He hit acoustic ballads, a cover song that I did not recognize, and eventually moving to the first of two electric guitars. He mentioned that this guitar was a new found friend and for this song he utilized a backing track that started with the gurgle of a bong hit, accesenutating the theme.

He then moved to his primary (and signature) electric guitar for the remainder of the set which really got into the doomy, gritty strength of his last two releases.

He touched upon many of my favorite songs such as "A Dark Horse", "Away from Here", the epic, "Before the Mourning Son", and probably my all time favorite of his, "Missing" all from "The Power of Three" as well as a number of songs from "Inverted Grasp of Balance" including the awesome "Panic Attack".

He played for over an hour and half, starting early and extending past the allotted set time, giving those of us in the audience a heartfelt and intimate show. It was a great performance and I look forward to seeing him again. He was an all-around personable entity with imense taltent and a great experience for music lovers overall.

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