Media Blitz – C.O.P. – Thought Process – S.M. – Sonic Session – at The Mexican Cultural Center – Santa Ana, CA

Once again, some of Orange County's finest were brought together to provide a Punk Rock experience, and provide donations to a good cause. The event took place at The Mexican Cultural Center in Downtown Santa Ana, and started around 9PM. Media Blitz, C.O.P, Thought Process, S.M, and Sonic Session all played together on Saturday night.

 Sonic Session opened up the show, and once again set up a good display and good music to pit to. The floor at The Mexican Cultural Center is made of hard wood, and it was more slippery than usual. All the kids at the show were extremely prone to slipping, and as more kids showed up to engage in Sonic Session's pit, more and more kids were slipping out of control.

Some took advantage of the floor and purposely slipped and slid on the floor out of their own amusement, and others simply just took their shoes off to avoid crashing. Sonic Session covered Agent Orange's "Bloodstains" and covered it nicely. It was one of the last songs before their depart, and people seemed more than pleased with Sonic Session's set.

S.M went on after Sonic Session, with vocalist Cody Dillon sporting a purple sweater that I'm sure the entire crowd was envious of... I know I was! At the last show, S.M put on a great set, but since that time, S.M has gotten even better and much more exciting to see. S.M got a really good response from the audience, and their pit was pretty fun and full of energy. S.M covered The Exploited's "Sex And Violence" and they did an awesome job with their cover. S.M's set was well put together and pleasant to watch, these kids know exactly what they're doing.

 

Thought Process came third, and blew the crowd away. Their set included some fast paced songs that got everyone going, and slipping out of control. The pit was extremely packed, and people kept crashing into vocalist Ditch, and into the drum set. When Thought Process covered Adolescents' "Welcome To Reality", audience members seemed to have been struck by sudden adrenaline, because the movement shifted from the back to the very front of the pit, and people who had been bystanders the whole time, all shot straight into the pit. Thought Process was awesome, and their pit was pretty insane. The band showcased one of the best sets of the night, and were one of the best period.

C.O.P went on and only reassured the audience why Punk Rock is worth the mess and the trouble. C.O.P was impressive and raw, and had such strong energy that it was inevitable to face and be consumed by. The pit was pretty vicious, and the slipping and sliding just kept getting more and more out of control. Overall, C.O.P's set was quickly approaching and slightly becoming the pinnacle of the night. Their songs fueled the crowd and prepared them to go off at any given moment. Some blew up completely during C.O.P's set, but who can blame them? C.O.P was absolutely dynamic.

During the intermission between C.O.P and Media Blitz, Roman Candle, a group composed of an accordion and acoustic guitar, began to play a few songs to entertain and delight the crowd. Audience members clapped along to the songs and stood around encircling the band watching in amusement.

Once Media Blitz finally came and went into their places, vocalist Jason Schwartz notified us that a music video was going to be recorded during their set, and asked the crowd to cooperate and to try not to slip and crash into the camera equipment. Once Media Blitz began to play, the venue went out of control. A mob nearly always surrounded Jason Schwartz, singing along to every song, and the pit was a sloppy mess of fun. Media Blitz covered Black Flag's "Rise Above" and nearly caused the crowd to destroy the small venue. Media Blitz played late into the night, and it was almost 1AM when the band finished their set. The band ended their set with their popular rendition of Beastie Boys' "You Gotta Fight" and ended the night with a sense of satisfaction.

The crowd was somewhat small that night, but that didn't stop the kids from going off and bringing tremendous energy to the show. The Mexican Cultural Center managed to pull off another well put together show, and bring another Punk Rock night in Orange County into play. The show demonstrated how our combined efforts in OC enhance the Punk Rock experience here, and supply support for the bands that play. All of the bands did an awesome job in providing good times and good music to the youth of OC.

-Stephanie M.-
Big Wheel music scene reporter

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews
 

 

Fri- Feb 27, 2009 – Angry Samoans w/
Johnny Madcap & The Distractions,
The Crazy Squeeze & Action 45 – The Knitting Factory – Hollywood, CA

Bombskare – Big Hand – The Amphetameanies – Roots System – at Studio 24 – Edinburgh, UK

We set off on our journey to Edinburgh to the Bombskare CD launch as they had finally got their album together “A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE”. The Scottish kings of Ska, whom I’ve followed for few years now (and even had them play at our wedding), had set up a ska night with the cream of Scottish ska.

ROOTS SYSTEM
Root system started the proceedings with a highly entertaining set including “Don’t Worry” which gets everyone dancing. When Kev the singer jumps into the crowd and joins them it is total mayhem!
The band was formed by 3 brothers in 1996 and they are fast becoming one of Scotland’s most entertaining Ska bands
Once they finished everyone was tired from dancing so it was time for me to do a spot of dj-ing and did 20 minutes of some nice relaxing rock steady music.
www.myspace.com/rootsystemska

THE AMPHETAMEANIES
Next up were The Amphetameanies. This ten piece band from Glasgow have been on the Ska scene for a number of years and are as tight as ever. They had the crowd dancing away on what was so far a good evening.
http://www.amphetameanies.co.uk/

BIG HAND
By now the venue was like a sauna, the walls were soaking and the roof was dripping water from all the heat coming from the 600+ crowd. Big Hand were up next, this 4 piece band always put on some of the most entertaining shows you will see. They fill the venue with energy and their music which can be described as a mix of ska/punk/rock/reggae. Phil the trumpet player bounded enthusiastically around the stage and the venue was totally jumping. All the crowd were dancing and soaking wet too. Unfortunately time was against the band, Big Hand wanted to play more but all the bands were only playing 30 minute sets.
http://www.thebighand.co.uk/home.php

BOMBSKARE

 

So it was time for who everyone was here to see - Bombskare had their intro CD playing and I was telling the guys how hot it was out there. The crowd was at fever pitch and went wild from the first trumpet sound from “A Fistful Of Dynamite”, the title track of the album which reminds me of an old spaghetti western tune. Every where I looked people were smiling, dancing and totally enjoying the evening. Andy the singer was doing his usual stomping about the stage. Colin was playing his trumpet like a man possessed, Scotty and Murray going great on guitar and vocals were on top form, as were the whole band. This was their night and these guys are one of the best ska bands I know, the way they play together and energy they put out into a show is second to none. They played six songs from their new album as well as some older ones, including their version of Toots and the Maytals “54-46” (which is the length of the album). After playing 80 minutes in what I can only describe as tropical heat, they came off exhausted but job done, successful evening.

 

www.myspace.com/bombskare

All the bands had played faultless sets, fantastic songs, great atmosphere, and a totally great night of the best of Scottish ska.

-Dod M.-
Big Wheel Overseas Correspondent

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews
 

 

Health – Abe Vigoda – Captain Ahab – Kyle H. Mabson – at The Echo – Los Angeles, CA

First up was Kyle H. Mabson. Mabson’s set was a mash-up / noise, knob-twisting performance. Think Girl Talk meets Black Dice, but without the fun of the former or the innovation of the latter. Mabson sampled lots of hip-hop and nu-metal, obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but it never really amounted to much and was over in about 10 minutes.

 

I was unaware of Captain Ahab before this show and was completely confused for the first few minutes of it. For those of you who, like me, have never seen them before Captain Ahab consists of two dudes, one long-haired bearded fellow who sings vulgar lyrics (example: “I’m rich as fuck/ I don’t give a fuck/ I know you want to fuck me / because I’m rich as fuck!” and “this is not my dick, but I’m going to suck it anyways”), while the second member strips down to his underwear and dances crazily. The music itself sounds like Ace of Base fronted by a crazy person. It took a few songs for me to “get it” but I warmed up to them and was pleasantly surprised by their clever arrangements and energy. As soon as they took the stage the crowd seemed to have tripled and was whipped into a dancing frenzy.

Abe Vigoda took the stage next and played their brand of high energy, reverb-laded, post—punk. I really like these guys, and one thing that I appreciate about them is that for being such a young band they’ve really carved out a sound for themselves. Although I think their new EP (review coming soon) relies a bit too heavily on singing rather than shouting, the new songs are better, for me, live than recorded.

Lastly came Health. They played new songs that the singers of Abe Vigoda described as “really sad”. The vocals on these songs were more pronounced than on their LP, but the songs were still filled with glitchy electronics over frantic, tribal drumming. If anything they were less spazzy than previous songs. The closest thing I can liken it to is Drums Not Dead era Liars.

I respect what they’re doing, but there’s always been something that’s held me back from truly digging Health. They remind me of the Providence noise bands I was really into in college. Maybe I got it out of my system or maybe it’s that I’ve never seen them smile on stage. They always seem to be so damn serious, like they’re not having much fun. Either way they put on a good show. They are impressive musicians and their set was tight, even for new songs.
Thanks Echo for a good time!

 
-Erock-

 

More photos from this show can be seen HERE

 

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews

 

Punk Rock Karaoke – at The Rhythm Lounge – Long Beach, CA

Punk Rock Karaoke are a punk rock super group consisting of Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks, Bad Religion, Black President), Eric Melvin (NOFX), Steve Soto (Adolescents, former Agent Orange), and Derek O'Brien (Social Distortion, Agent Orange, Adolescents). At every show that they do audience members are invited to sign up and sing punk rock standards with this power house backing them up. Sometimes the results are impressive, and sometimes the results are just plain funny. At some shows they also have punk rock "celebrity" guest appearances but at Thursday night's gig the song selections were wide open to the audience. The show was free and the band members all appeared in matching suits and Rikk Agblue colored shirts.

Songs in the bands repertoire consist largely of songs from bands that Hetson, Soto, and O'Brien play in (no NOFX tunes), but also other classics from bands like the Dead Kennedys, Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, Sex Pistols, and Bad Brains. After audience members sign up for specific songs they are given photo copied lyric sheets to help them sing. My personal highlight of the show was joining the band to sing Agent Orange's "Bloodstains."

Overall it's safe to say that fun was had by everyone. The singers all had their punk rock dreams come true, the band was in good spirits, the venue was comfortable, plenty of drinks were bought at the bar, and the security guards were all relaxed. If any punk band is ever looking for a singer a Punk Rock Karaoke gig would be a great place to scout out vocalists.

-Ditch.-
Big Wheel Asst Editor

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews
 

 

Millencolin – Machine 15

If I had to compile a list of the top 10 bands that played an important part in my life, Millencolin would definitely be on that list. I have so many memories that associated with this band, not all of them good, but nevertheless, a part of my life and a gnarly band to boot. Machine 15, Millencolin’s latest full length album out on Epitaph records was one of the records that I was really excited to listen to this year.

I remember the first Millencolin album that I ever heard was Pennybridge Pioneers, which I can listen to back to back to this very day. Though Millencolin has not lost any of their flair for what attracted me to them originally, I do feel that there wasn’t a huge variance in the tempo of the songs on this album. Each song is very solid and reminds me of the old Millencolin I grew up listening to, just not as fast.

My favorite songs on this album have to be “Detox” and “Who’s Laughing Now, which have a very old school Millencolin sound. Some of you may be wondering “well fuck, do you like the album or don’t you?” The short answer is YES! I think is a rad album and I have already listened to it 4 times today. It just becomes difficult to size a record up when you are comparing it to another one that played such a huge part in your life. My recommendation: go out and buy this album and check these guys out live. They are on tour!
Get this record HERE

Band MySpace: www.myspace.com/millencolin

 

-Matt C.-

 

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