It's a big West Coast week for Volbeat as the rockers rolled into Los Angeles on Wednesday night (April 13) for a club show ahead of this weekend's set at Coachella. The band took over the legendary Roxy on the Sunset Strip for a crushing, sweaty performance that left audiences fully rocked.

Right out of the gate, Volbeat blew audiences away with the guitars, bass and drums of "Doc Holliday," "Hallelujah Goat" and "Radio Girl," sending reverberations through every last space of the Roxy. The band meant business, with singer Michael Poulsen only briefly addressing the audience in the midst of one song. After the heavy beginning, Poulsen traded instruments, bringing out an acoustic guitar and showing off some of his non-metal roots as he led the audience through the Johnny Cash classic "Ring of Fire." The vocalist even stepped aside for a bit, letting the crowd take over vocals.

That was the first of several covers in the setlist. The band would later tack on a bit of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Wanna Be With You" to part of a continuous run that included "Heaven Nor Hell" and "A Warrior's Call," and would also deliver an energized cover of Teenage Bottlerocket's "Rebound," their first performance of the track, in honor of late Teenage Bottlerocket drummer Brandon Carlisle. The group also used their set to drop a few nods to the late Lemmy Kilmister, with Poulsen telling stories about Kilmister doing a spot-on impression, and the band later attempting to take on a Motorhead track before it all broke down. The Volbeat singer could also be seen sporting a "Lemmy" shirt in honor of the legendary vocalist.

The set was a mix of old and new, with "Sad Man's Tongue," "Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood," "Maybellene I Hofteholder" and "Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza" satiating the band's longest-running fans, while "Lola Montez," "Fallen," "Dead But Rising" and "Lonesome Rider" hit home with those newer to picking up the band. And, as a good sign for things to come, the brand new single "The Devil's Bleeding Crown" from their upcoming Seal the Deal and Let's Boogie album received one of the bigger responses of the night. Finishing out the body of their set, the group hit a home run with the audience hitting a fevered pitch as they played "Ecotone."

After a brief break, the band returned for an encore that started with one of their biggest hits, "The Hangman's Body Count," and kept the spirits high through "Who They Are," "Mirror and the Ripper" and the show closing "Still Counting," with the latter track finding plenty of crowdsurfers and the occasional female lingering a little longer onstage before jumping back into the audience.

Volbeat are a tight band, equally as adept at delivering the heavy as they are working in punk, country and pop influences and making it all entertaining. It should serve them well with the eclectic Coachella crowd this Friday (April 15) when they take the stage at midnight in the Gobi Tent. The band is in the midst of a tour in promotion of the newly announced Seal the Deal and Let's Boogie album. See their dates here and pre-order the new album before its June 3 release via Amazon or iTunes.  Check out our photos from the show in the gallery at the top of this post.

Volbeat Rock "Ring of Fire" and "Sad Man's Tongue" at The Roxy

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