All I can say about this column is I am giving you a ‘Warning.’
Two weeks ago, I had never heard of The Warning. Then I watched a video of three young girls doing a killer cover of Enter Sandman by Metallica. I am not a real hard-rock fan, but this was different.
You had a bass player who was 9 at the time, with a bass almost as big as her. You had a drummer who was about 11 and a guitarist who was about 13.
And they KILLED it. I cut them a bit of slack because their voices weren’t as powerful as Metallica’s, but this playing was bang on.
Let me add a couple of other notes about The Warning. They are Mexican, and they are sisters. The Villarreal sisters are Dany, the guitarist and usual lead singer; Pau, the drummer and apparently crazy one; and Ale, the bassist who holds everything together.
After watching their cover of Enter Sandman, I wondered what else they had on YouTube. It didn’t take long to find out. They had a newer version of Enter Sandman, with Canadian singer Alessia Cara taking lead vocals. They had a few other cover songs, and they had a lot of originals, most written by Pau.
They also had a lot of other stuff on YouTube that made enjoy them even more. There was a series of three videos, with each of the sisters walking us through the instruments they used on stage. Pretty technical, but there was one great comment on Ale’s video about her basses: “Ale talking for seven minutes without being interrupted by one of her sisters. That must be a record.”
They also have a few videos showing one of the sisters how to play her instrument, so Pau, for instance, shows Dany how to play drums. The love they have for their sisters shines through, as does their desire to truly help their sister learn the instrument.
Their best videos, in my opinion, though are the live ones from various concerts and shows. One I can’t stop watching is “Evolve” from the VMA Awards on MTV last year. A lot of the comments on the video mentioned how MTV seldom has hard-rock bands on their shows anymore. Whoever made the call to put The Warning on deserves a raise.
The video shows all three of them at their best, owning the stage and the audience. At one point, Pau commands the audience to start clapping to the music. The way she phrased it had one person commenting: “Half the crowd was clapping because they were caught up in the music. The other half were clapping because they were scared of Pau.”
And then she screamed.
Go and watch the video for yourself, but I will just say this: Prepare to go down a rabbit hole of videos – you have been warned.