2/27/25 Show Review: "Betty at 30"- Helmet, Slomosa, War On Women at The Glass House in Pomona, CA

 

Still sad about Gene Hackman dying, I drove an intended hour or so (the "so" being the awful exit traffic delays around Riverside, but great mountain scenery) to the charming downtown part of Pomona -around W 2nd Street- where the often all-ages Glass House is. Lively murals AND $2 parking?! A nice medium sized room with good sound? Count me in. 

I was kicking myself still for missing the GZA show that Zulu opened, so I was not going to miss Helmet, Slomona and FINALLY see War On Women (whom I had been wanting to catch for about ten years). It was the 'Betty' album 30th anniversary tour. 

The venue is set up almost like an auditorium but with good sound, a wheelchair friendly side area, a bar and a nice if modest upper balcony where you can buy merch. It was different than I had imagined it in my head, but I liked the decent view of the stage from basically anywhere. 

War On Women from Baltimore were first as the room began to fill in. The dope thing about SoCal shows is that almost all of them that I go to have people up near the front of the stage for every band. The same was true here. 

Front person Shawna Potter is one of the most talented and engaging singers in punk, able to deliver important social themes with undaunted conviction to any crowd. She is whip-smart and commands the stage, leading the whole band to higher and higher energy the way it is meant to be. The whole band was locked in and delivered a killer, timely set. The pro union, pro trans, anti Fox news messaging was much appreciated by yours truly. I wondered if they would play their "This Stolen Land" track, with a fairly heavy slower riff or two in it, for the Helmet crowd. It is a bit longer though and as I expected they aimed for a larger number of mostly faster tunes instead. 

It was rad to see Helmet take out an outspoken feminist band on tour during such a fascist time, especially since I remember a feminist friend Perry who played with ICU and the Wharton Tiers ensemble being annoyed at the Helmet album name Size Matters years ago. 

My favorite of their set had to be a rumbling "Silence Is The Gift" from the Capture The Flag era, with great harmonies and a near post punk dissonance ringing in a call not to be silent. 

Slomosa, a stoner influenced band from Norway, were next. I think I maybe saw the singer pre show rocking a High Desert Queen jacket, which was pretty sick. I had never heard this band. They won the crowd over big time and had funny stage banter about how it was their first show in California ever and they had heard from Texas that we were communists. They also said something like all their riffs came from California inspirations, or some such. The band had excellent chemistry, amazing chops and big, fat and melodic Fu Manchu-esque catchy fuzzy giant caterpillar riff goodness. Also, a killer snare sound. I'd catch them anywhere again. 

Mighty Helmet finally took the stage and got right to business. Page Hamilton is one of the most innovative guitarists ever and remains a total thrill to watch do his patented thing. While Betty has zero skips, the opening power of 'Wilma's Rainbow' and the next three tracks after just kick so much ass, it still astounds. One of my all time fave bands of any genre. "I Know" hit especially hard, the measured pace and wood chopping disso-grooves not showing any rust. I'll always miss Stanier, but the current dude def had chops...especially on the difficult "Rollo". I also enjoyed Dave Case on bass immensely. 

I will admit that not having Page Hamilton play in a number of years I was semi startled to see his silver fox vibes. The same thing happens when I see Rollins as well, now. We just never really get used to our heroes getting older. He kind of reminds me visually now a little of if Pete Seeger decided he was really, really wrong about not letting Dylan play electric at the notorious Newport set. Well Page, I also think Pete would've liked "Sam Hell". All jokes aside, it is awesome to see Hamilton deliver these songs with such oomph at 64 and I was very grateful to reminisce on their impact.

#punk #groovemetal #noiserock #showreview #pomona #helmet #waronwomen #slomosa #socal