Revolver Golden Gods Awards | Los Angeles | Review | Pics
By Team JamBase Apr 26, 2011 • 2:55 pm PDT

2011 Revolver Golden Gods Awards :: 04.20.11 :: Club Nokia :: Los Angeles, CA
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After an hours long outdoor ceremony, music fans and musicians filed into the relatively new theater. The luxurious Club Nokia, which offered a perfect setting for the event and a state of the art sound and video system, may be the best live music venue in Los Angeles. The nearly four hour long show alternated between awards presentations and live music performances. The evening’s festivities began with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) appearing onstage with a boombox and leaving it on a stool with Justin Bieber’s “Baby” feebly blaring from the little speakers (this was the extent of Grohl’s participation). As metal fans began to boo, the show’s host, Chris Jericho, appeared, towing a bright red baseball bat. Answering the crowd’s cajoling, he proceeded to bash the box to tiny bits. “Are you ready to fucking rock and roll?” the former pro wrestler and current contestant on Dancing With The Stars screamed.
Then, he launched into a heavy metal medley with his band Fozzy. The band of talented rockers did a surprisingly good interpretation of metal classics’ from Black Sabbath, Dio, Ozzy, Iron Maiden and more. After a twenty minute set, Jericho began the first awards presentations. With a persona akin to a young David Hasslehoff, his goofy style somehow seemed to work, placating the crowd and acting as a buffer to the heavier participants over the course of the evening. As the show proper began, a pattern quickly emerged with mostly older metal rock legends, presenting awards to mostly younger metal heroes of today’s music scene. There were exceptions like the Best Live Band award going to veteran German primal scream metal gods Rammstein and Mötley Crüe winning the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award. The latter award was hosted by Dio’s widow, Wendy, and Ronnie’s former band mate Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath/Heaven And Hell fame. Dio, who was honored at last year’s awards, died shortly afterwards. The army of veteran award hosts and presenters kept the audience guessing as to which ones would actually join the live performances to jam.
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Fans politely sat through the legions of award and video presentations, highlighted by the Dio Award, an 80-year-old William Shatner receiving the Honorary Headbanger Award, and the many awards that headliners Avenged Sevenfold received. But the live performances were the real reason that the music fans sold out the marathon event. The next performance featured England’s hottest new metal band Asking Alexandria. They were joined by veteran singer Sebastian Bach at the end of their set for the Skid Row classic “Youth Gone Wild.”
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A somber moment came when there was a video presentation, much like the one at the Oscars, of the fallen heroes of the past year, including Ronnie James Dio, whose spirit seemed to loom large over this year’s event.
Metal fans remained remarkably well behaved throughout the long and sometimes lethargic process of creating an awards show for television. However, energy levels soared for the final set of the evening, and judging by the crowd’s reaction, it was clear why most people were in the audience this night. Even before they began their set, the members of Avenged Sevenfold had the fans screaming with excitement. Members of Alice In Chains presented the Affliction Album of The Year Award to the young metal mavens, and then their live set was introduced by Lars Ulrich and Rob Trujillo from Metallica. A frenzied crowd screamed their approval as the band exploded in a fog shrouded haze with the roar of a jet engine.
An ear-splitting set had fans screaming the lyrics and dancing to every minute of their idol’s set. Frontman M. Shadow, who also took home the award for Best Singer, mesmerized the crowd with his piercing voice and mercurial stage persona. Towards the end of the set, McKagan returned to the stage to join the band on a cover of Guns N’ Roses’ “It’s So Easy.” Later, Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul came out to lead the band on a Pantera classic, “Mouth For War.” But the band’s own song “Bat Country” drew the biggest cheers of the night, cementing Avenged Sevenfold into the forefront of metal music today. From Alice Cooper to Avenge Sevenfold the axe has been passed.
The Revolver Golden Gods Awards show will be broadcast on VH1 Classics on May 28th.
Continue reading for lots more pics from the 2011 Golden Revolver Awards…
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