Even if you haven’t heard Helmet on the radio recently, you’ve heard their influence; the New York quartet’s signature down-tuned, staccato riffing seeps into everything from Nine Inch Nails and Tool to Deftones and Pantera. With their minor-key melancholy, disconcerting grooves and dissonant guitars more apocalyptic than optimistic (and a dressed-down image better suited to a suburban kegger than a Sunset Strip celebration), this earnest outfit may seem an odd choice as a New Year’s Eve party act. But for anyone remotely interested in the past quarter-century of hard rock, even Helmet’s lesser-known songs are stuffed with warmly familiar (if sonically cold) musical motifs. Celebrating 25 years of making a uniquely uncomfortable and confrontational racket, Helmet could trigger NYE hangovers before midnight.

Wed., Dec. 31, 8:30 p.m., 2014
(Expired: 12/31/14)

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