LYLVC
Amager Bio, Copenhagen - 2025
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
When Biohazard and Life Of Agony rolled into town with their much anticipated co-headlining tour, they had a third band with them to open the show. This band was LYLVC (pronounced Lilac) out of Raleigh, North Carolina, and it was a band I knew almost nothing about going in.
After a few opening words from Billy Graziadei (Biohazard), it was time for the music to commence.
“Copenhagen, how the fuck are you doing?!”
- Oscar Romero (vocals)
First song of the set was Barely Human, and the way it opened was with a spoken voice seemingly coming from an anime-like character talking to us from LED screens placed on the stage. Everything else was dark until the band came on just in time for the music to begin. Vocalists Oscar Romero and Alyse Zavala took centre stage, and they were flanked by guitarist Seth ‘Sketti’ Morgan and keyboard/guitarist Cameron Gillette on either side of them. I haven’t been able to find a name for the drummer, and I haven’t been able to find a bassist at all, so that hastily brings our little introduction to an end.
Straight from the start however, the band was going at it hard. Rarely have I seen a keyboard become as punished as that of Gillette, and I believe I heard a note of relief when he switched to his guitar a short way into the song - through the set, he went back and forth between the two instruments, swinging both around with the same ease as the other.
With all the energy pouring out from the musicians, it was still perfectly clear to everyone who attended who the frontpeople were - Romero and Zavala. They took turns addressing the crowd between songs, and during the songs, they were all over the place! Both of them were, independently of each other, down on the security fence to get closer to the audience, and Zavala was intermittently changing between dancing and throwing high kicks. Both vocalists were also actively seeking out a connection with the crowd, either by talking to them when possible, or just locking eyes with people while singing. Both also tried their best to get the crowd to sing along or clap their hands, both to, let us say, moderate success.
The musical style, self described as nu metal, with mostly rapped/shouted verses by Romero followed by catchy and hook-laden clean sung choruses by Zavala, in my ears not far off from a band like Linkin Park (a band they incidentally covered at one point during their set), was not one to immediately grab me - this just isn’t really my style, but man, I have to give this band top score for their performance! Opening for two such high octane bands as Biohazard and Life Of Agony must be a daunting task, and in lesser hands it would almost certainly be a fumble, but I was genuinely impressed with what LYLVC delivered to Copenhagen - it was just a shame Copenhagen didn’t have as much energy to give in return. With the hall around half full or maybe even less at the time, and uncommitted at that, a lot of people missed out on what was a great opening of the night.
Setlist:
Barely Human
XXX
Unstable
Crawl Space
Dangerous
Papercut (Linkin Park cover)
Perfect Drug
Into Nothing
After a few opening words from Billy Graziadei (Biohazard), it was time for the music to commence.
“Copenhagen, how the fuck are you doing?!”
- Oscar Romero (vocals)
First song of the set was Barely Human, and the way it opened was with a spoken voice seemingly coming from an anime-like character talking to us from LED screens placed on the stage. Everything else was dark until the band came on just in time for the music to begin. Vocalists Oscar Romero and Alyse Zavala took centre stage, and they were flanked by guitarist Seth ‘Sketti’ Morgan and keyboard/guitarist Cameron Gillette on either side of them. I haven’t been able to find a name for the drummer, and I haven’t been able to find a bassist at all, so that hastily brings our little introduction to an end.
Straight from the start however, the band was going at it hard. Rarely have I seen a keyboard become as punished as that of Gillette, and I believe I heard a note of relief when he switched to his guitar a short way into the song - through the set, he went back and forth between the two instruments, swinging both around with the same ease as the other.
With all the energy pouring out from the musicians, it was still perfectly clear to everyone who attended who the frontpeople were - Romero and Zavala. They took turns addressing the crowd between songs, and during the songs, they were all over the place! Both of them were, independently of each other, down on the security fence to get closer to the audience, and Zavala was intermittently changing between dancing and throwing high kicks. Both vocalists were also actively seeking out a connection with the crowd, either by talking to them when possible, or just locking eyes with people while singing. Both also tried their best to get the crowd to sing along or clap their hands, both to, let us say, moderate success.
The musical style, self described as nu metal, with mostly rapped/shouted verses by Romero followed by catchy and hook-laden clean sung choruses by Zavala, in my ears not far off from a band like Linkin Park (a band they incidentally covered at one point during their set), was not one to immediately grab me - this just isn’t really my style, but man, I have to give this band top score for their performance! Opening for two such high octane bands as Biohazard and Life Of Agony must be a daunting task, and in lesser hands it would almost certainly be a fumble, but I was genuinely impressed with what LYLVC delivered to Copenhagen - it was just a shame Copenhagen didn’t have as much energy to give in return. With the hall around half full or maybe even less at the time, and uncommitted at that, a lot of people missed out on what was a great opening of the night.
Setlist:
Barely Human
XXX
Unstable
Crawl Space
Dangerous
Papercut (Linkin Park cover)
Perfect Drug
Into Nothing
