THE PRETTY RECKLESS Unleash Their Heavenly Havoc at The Wiltern Friday Night.

You know you’re out a ROCK show when….devil horns. LOTS of devils horns.  Photo by: Nicole DeRosa

 The Pretty Reckless are currently on their “Going To Hell ” tour, and the band unleashed their “heavenly havoc” at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on Friday night.

You may know frontwoman,Taylor Momsen as Jenny from the CW show, Gossip Girl, as I was. If you do, they you might have a pretty good idea of what she’s like, because as the seasons progressed her on screen persona changed to mirror what was going on in the singers life. So while she was a fresh faced, innocent girl who just wanted to be friends with Blair in season one, by season three she was a wild child and queen of the Upper East Side with black eyeliner to match.

Photo by: Justin Campbell

You could tell something electric was happening at The Wiltern, because there were plenty of half dressed teenage girls hanging around out front in all their mod rocker chick glory. And there was a lot of black eyeliner, of which Taylor would have been proud.

After a great set from Adelitas Way and Falling Through April, we were ready for the main act. Taylor. And yes, the three other talented dudes which include: Ben Phillips (lead guitar), Mark Damon (bass), and drummer Jamie Perkins that make up the rest of the band. Right when the lights came on, everyone in the theater screamed at the top of their lungs when they saw Miss. Momsen hit the stage.

The band started things off with the song, “Follow Me Down” then moved onto “Since Your Gone,” which had everyone in that theater going crazy and singing along. During the entire hour and a half set, Taylor and the band rocked out back and forth between songs from their debut album “Light Me Up” and their latest singles from their new album, “Going to Hell,“ which included: “Heaven Knows,” “Sweet Things“, “Dear Sister“, “Cold Blooded“, “Miss Nothing“,“Absolution,” and their mega rock encore, “Fucked Up World.”

 As tiny and slender as she is, Taylor is a force of nature. She is a legitimate rock talent. She has a great voice, interacts with the crowd, moves around on stage like she owns it and really does perform well. I enjoyed every minute of the Pretty Reckless‘ concert, and just wish it could have gone a bit longer.

 After finishing up “Going to Hell” the band left the stage and I can understand some fans in the crowd saying and thinking “What?! It can’t be over yet!!”… luckily it wasn’t. Right after about two or three minutes, drummer Jamie Perkins came back on stage by himself to show off his melodic madman drumming skills. I really liked the way it segued into the encore on a high note and you can tell the rest of the crowd did as well.

Now, I have been to a lot of concerts at The Wiltern, but I can tell you that this was one of the best show’s that I’ve seen there this year and its not exactly my most favorite of venues because of the size, but there was something about a classic and traditional ROCK SHOW that just made it for me.

To stay up to date with The Pretty Reckless, visit their website here