That is unless you’re under 30, in which case you might be familiar with them.  A month ago, I wasn’t. That was when I was offered a free ticket to catch this band, The Warning, at The Warsaw, a concert club in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Since I had my own rehearsal that evening I couldn’t accept the generous offer but after rehearsal, I looked up what I’d missed.

Even though I’m a musician, I’m a greybeard and frankly more focused on discovering new music and contemporary artists coming out of the US, Europe, Japan and Africa. I wasn’t expecting it to come from just south of our border in Monterrey, Mexico. And certainly not from three very young and talented women, let alone sisters, taking on the sacred gods of Gen-X/Y Metal.  Holy Schnikes! They were the most powerful rock trio I’d heard since early Foo Fighters. They were performing their own song, “More”, live on MTV’s Video Music Awards.

I’ve always preferred live to studio recordings. Three of my desert island disks are live, all from the old Fillmore East. Watching a band perform live negates the Milli Vanilli Effect. These ladies weren’t only impressively tight musically but their physical performance was polished as well. That can only come from spending years on stage. They have a swagger that’s been missing in rock for a couple of decades at least. Live playing seems to be their element.  You’ll find very few videos of The Warning where they’re not performing as a band. No slo-mo running down the beach or pouting after a breakup text. They leave their drama on the stage.

One performance that demonstrates this is their live remake (not copy) of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. I’ve heard at least a dozen tributes of this iconic song but The Warning took it apart, re-engineering it as a half-time ballad, only giving the original its due homage in the song’s outro. To be honest, I prefer The Warning’s version to the original. Their use of dynamics is worth praise of it own, orchestrated to suck you into the silence only to slap you in the face.

The Ladies Villarreal Vélez — Daniela (“Dani”) on guitar, Paulina (“Pau”) on drums and Alejandra (“Ale”) on bass — have a colorful history that also managed to evade me on Youtube for a decade. I spend more time on Youtube than all other streaming platforms combined so how I missed them is a mystery. It’s testament to the depth of content on this provider: allegedly 14 billion videos! 95% of the new-to-me music I’ve found since 2015 or so was excavated from Youtube.

The Warning’s 2014 video of “Enter Sandman”, when the girls were just 9 through 14 years of age, went viral on Youtube. They found themselves invited to perform on “The Ellen Degeneres Show”, which kickstarted their professional career as an opening act for Foo Fighters, Sammy Hagar and the Circle, and Stone Temple Pilots. They’ve since gone on to open for Metallica, Muse and Guns ‘N Roses. Now they’re headliners and selling out thousand seaters, again managing to stay under my radar until recently.

Not satisfied with being just a copy band, they began writing their own songs.They turned out to be outstanding pop composers and lyricists as well. Among my favorites are “Sick”, “Evolve” and “Satisfied”. A lyric from “Evolve”, which has a very cool 7/4 ostinato, could be the motto for empowered women in the modern age:

I’m not in danger,
I’m the danger now.

So now you’ve heard of them too. Given their tireless international touring schedule, recordings, TV appearances and prolific use of social media you’re going to be hearing lots more from The Warning. By the way, the oldest sister is Dani and she’s just 24. Ale’s not even old enough to legally drink.