Helmet at the Highline Ballroom

Page Hamilton

Born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Medford, Oregon, Page Hamilton moved to New York City to study jazz guitar. At first he played in avant-garde composer Glenn Branca's guitar orchestra and joined noise rock band Band of Susans but in 1989 he formed his own alternative metal band, Helmet. Helmet's second album, Meantime, sold more than two million records but the band dissolved in 1998. In 2002, Hamilton relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he joined David Bowie's touring band and began playing on film scores and producing music for other music artists. He periodically returned to New York to work with his rock band Gandhi, but the fledgling band never released any music. In 2004 he revived the brand Helmet with new personnel; the band presently consists of Hamilton, guitarist Dan Beeman, bassist Dave Case, and drummer Kyle Stevenson. Helmet has released eight studio albums, the most recent being 2016's Dead to the World.

Co-headlining at the Highline Ballroom tonight with Prong, the evening was a homecoming for both alternative metal bands, contemporaries who both started their careers with regular gigs at CBGBs. Helmet began with 1994's "Wilma's Rainbow," and followed with 1990's "Bad Mood" and 2016's "Bad News." The transition from the oldest material to the newest seemed seamless, with Hamilton's vocals and guitar leads harnessing and dominating the blazing sound. The music was hard, heavy, and blistering, but stayed far from metal clichés. Songs often were played in minor keys with drop-D or drop-C tuning for deeper effect, and Hamilton's heavily distorted and sometimes dissonant leads fueled the flames. The other three musicians supported the boom and crunch of the songs. Towards the end of the performance, Hamilton fielded song requests from the audience, reserving the biggest hit, "In the Meantime," for the evening's closer. Through Hamilton's leadership, Helmet provided an antidote to formula hard rock while preserving the scorching guitar-based rock of the most adventurous of the 1990s alternative rock era.

Visit Helmet at www.helmetmusic.com.