Sun- Feb 22, 2009 – Reverend Horton Heat w/ Manic Hispanic – House of Blues Sunset Strip – Hollywood, CA

2 Night of Zero Boys – at 924 Gilman St. – Berkeley, CA

I heard the Zero Boys haven’t played in California since 1982, so when I found out they were playing only two shows in California, over 450 miles away from where I live, I gathered up the road dogs and drove up for a weekend of Frisco fun. (They hate it when out of towners call it Frisco hehe) Anyhow we drove up the night before the first show and stayed in a classy part of town referred to as the Tenderloin or more affectionately known by the locals as “Crackville USA”.

Zero Boys: DAY 1

The next morning we checked out Haight and Ashbury, China Town (yes I bought a hat that looks like Rayden’s from Mortal Combat) and made a stop at the respected establishment “The Lusty Lady”. After a fun filled day we crossed the bridge over into Berkeley to go to Gilman to experience the first night of two of the incredible Zero Boys.

Crucial Cause got the night started.  The start was a bit rocky but immediately they hit their stride and started playing songs off of their “Try Our luck” Ep like “Ridiculously Fast”, “Try Our Luck” and my personal favorite “Junkie”. They also played tracks off the brand new “Blood Money” Ep that is now available now at your local record retailer. They even played some brand new tracks that have a metallic edge to them combined with that great thrashcore sound that Crucial Cause plays so well.

Next up were the great Broken Needle who drove up from our neck of the woods. They opened with the new rager “Trash This Place” and blazed through tons of great LP tracks and a bunch of new songs from their upcoming ep. They really got the kids moving and seeing the kids sing along up there really got me pumped for what was to come in the next few hours.

Next up was ADT who seems to be a staple Gilman band due to the fact that almost every time I have played Gilman they have played with us. Metallic tinged D-Beat that still does not impress me even being on a huge D Beat kick at the moment. They played a set and I occupied my time with the loveliest of all ladies in Berkeley.

Next up was Black Fork. Never heard of them and to be honest did not have high expectations. There is something about the use of silverware in a band name that just does not sit well with me. I was pleasantly surprised when they started playing some well - executed rockin tunes with some angry female vocals that could be likened to bands such as Imperial Leather. The singer had good stage presence and they proved to be an entertaining band to watch.

Next up were the Zero Boys! I was wondering how this was gonna be but expected them to be great due to what I had heard from people who have seen them before. Right away they jumped right in to “Vicious Circle” which was the perfect opener. The crowd went nuts. Paul’s voice sounded exactly the same. That man has not aged in the throat department at all. With only enough time to readjust your junk and wipe the sweat off your brow, the Zero Boys were into “Aphetamine Addiction”. Followed by “New Generation” and “Dirty Alleys/Dirty Minds” and the classic “Civilization’s Dying”. I kept batting away my erection because they were playing their first Lp in their exact order! They kept up the momentum with more Vicious Circle tracks like “Livin In The 80’s”, “Drug Free Youth”, and a personal favorite of mine “Hightime”. They threw in a new one called “Rain” that caused my swollen member to become semi flaccid but all in all it was not bad. They did a few covers back to back, both being of more obscure Indiana bands. One band they covered was Dow Jones and The Industrials and it was pretty rockin. I tracked down some of their stuff online seeing as it would be near impossible to purchase and yes, I downloaded it and you should too. Great synth punk from Indiana. Anyways before I get sidetracked, Zero Boys continued on and I watched as my belligerent drunk friend Robbie caused a scene and we did the most aggressive freak dancing two straight men have ever done. He then proceeded to cover flyers with Tipper’s Gore stickers and thought it was hilarious since people would be tricked into thinking we were playing. Anyway, my attention once again was on the Zero Boys and they closed the set with the great tune “I’m Bored”. I was not bored however. Everyone walked out sweaty and smiling after going nuts for the Zero Boys and their epic set. End of night one and looking forward to night two.


Zero Boys: Night Two

Stayed at a friend’s house, not much sleep but hey I’m young right? Hung in Berkeley and headed back to Gilman for night two.


Due to the weather conditions I was forced to go inside on account of the rain. I knew literally no one and walked in while a band called Nuts And Bolts was onstage. 

Next up were some old dudes who get it, The Stitches. It had been so long since I saw The Stitches and was excited to see them again. I heard they were off drugs and booze, so of course I was skeptical as to how this would adversely affect their performance. I was wrong, they were buzzin and they played a set that might be one of the best I have seen them play. They opened with the opening track on 8 X 12, “Nowhere”. Perfect way to start a Stitches set. It was basically a greatest hits set, with Mike rocking the mic stand with ferocity and style. They played great songs off 8 X 12 like “My Baby Hates Me” and “That Woman’s Got Me Drinking”. They played their great La Peste “Better Off Dead” cover and went through tracks off of 12 Imaginary Inches and various Eps including “Automatic”, “Pick Me Up” (the anthem of road head), “Sixteen”, and closed with the great “I Just Want To Fuck” (a hidden track on the You Tear Me Out 7”) which at one point I was told they would no longer play. A great set from a band that is still great.

Zero Boys, second time around. At this point I’m in zombie mode trying desperately to hulk up for the Zero Boys set. They opened with a new song “Drive In” which if you have not heard it, check out their myspace, it sounds like it could be an outtake from the Vicious Circle session. Nothing better than a band that can still crank out great material. They continued to play tons of newer material that I was unfamiliar with. They played another great new song I did recognize called “High Places” which is another reason why I am excited for their new Lp, which will be out this Fall. The first half of the set was so different from the night before which I guess makes sense but because the crowd was so different it wouldn’t have mattered if the set were identical. Right when I was about to lose hope the drummer did a floor tom/snare build up and they went into “Hightime”. I was overjoyed. Then they repeated the night before by playing back to back Vicious Circle tracks in their order. They played “You Can Touch Me” and “Trying Harder to close out the night. I walked out half asleep and heard an encore from down the street. Yeah I’m a wiener but what it boils down to is that I came to Berkeley, I saw Zero Boys (twice) and I conquered.

- Davey F. -

 

 

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Music play list for the week of February 22, 2009

Top 25  - In no particular order -

Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
Zero Boys - Stoned to Death
Otis Redding - Tramp
Black Flag - Jealous Again
Blink 182 - Pathetic
Pink Floyd - Time
Rowdy Ones - Got you where I want you
Radon - King of your Shitlist
SLF - Barbed Wire Love
Deviates - One Day
No Doubt - Sometimes
Fugazi - Styrofoam
Blowfly - Girl Keeps farting in my Face
Husker Du - Real World
DRI - Marriage
7 Seconds - Committed for Life
Bjork - Hyperballad
Bouncing Souls - Gone
Dead Milkmen - Dean's Dream
NOFX - Dinosaurs Will Die
MIA  - Boredom is the Reason
Pat Benatar - Hell is for Children
Queen - 39'
Rabies - Mr. Raggsdale
Tim Armstrong - Wake Up

The above list are some of the top played songs amongst our staff this week.

 

This weeks playlist brought to you by: Flat Black Records

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Shows and events calendar for Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura, San Diego, San Bernardino, California and states all over the United States and the world. Complete and extended listing covering Punk, Indie, Rock, Psychobilly and more.

Shattered Faith – The Pegs – Killing California – DMF at the Gypsy Lounge, Lake Forest, CA

The trek down to Lake Forest was surprisingly stress free with not much traffic. Having never been to the Gypsy Lounge before it was nice to find out that the venue was pretty close to the freeway as Lake Forest can otherwise be a somewhat annoying town to drive in with its long stretches of nothingness. The Gypsy Lounge is a little more upscale than what I'm used to, with dim lighting, a backstage area for bands, professional P.A. equipment, multiple couches, and paintings of naked women everywhere.

There weren't a lot of people at the bar when D.M.F. went on but they came out on stage and the singer/guitarist introduced the band with a considerable amount of vigor, yelling out, "We're D.M.F.- Dirty Motherfuckers." By the time the band started playing a song about "fucking on a truck" a few things were clear; the first being that they were appropriately named and the second being that they are definitely a product of Orange County culture. The music was pretty heavy, at times even flirting a bit with metal and the back up vocals were solid. However needless to say the lyrics left some things to be desired, particularly in their song addressing "emo fags." Oh well.

Killing California came out on stage without much fanfare, but as soon as they started playing the intensity was turned up to ten. Their sound is a mix of classic rockers like Motorhead with modern bands like Zeke and the Bronx. The band's dynamic was perfect with everyone showing their talents but never overindulging. There was never a lull in the set and not much talking in between songs. Although they played a decent amount of songs, Killing California's set went by fast.

 

By the time the Pegs went on the bar had gotten somewhat more crowded, which was good news, as simply put the Pegs rocked. They maintain a classic Beach punk sound, borrowing from bands like The Crowd and early TSOL to create some snappy songs. The highlight was their signature song, "Day Glo a No Go," which pokes fun at the early Huntington Beach punk image. The Pegs definitely put on a solid performance and it would be great to see them play some all ages shows in Southern California.

Shattered Faith played with two out of three of their guitarists, including vocalist,  Spencer Barsch's son, Branden. The band played the songs a little slower than usual, but it was great to hear songs like "We Love America," "Right Is Right," "Another Day Passes," "Final Conflict" and "The Verdict." Spencer's stage presence was still commanding as usual and his vocals were consistently on the mark. Shattered Faith's song writing is unique and their music has always combined the melodies of English bands with the edge of American hardcore. They completed their set with a cover of the Vibrators' "Baby, Baby Baby," and then played a two song encore without ever really getting off stage.

 

More photos from this show can be seen HERE

-Ditch-
Assistant Editor

 

 
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Dr. Dre Day with Old Man Markley – Pussy Cow – Horace Weitraub – Stab City – at Blue Star – Los Angeles, CA

For the past three years, my friends and I have celebrated the birth of Dr. Dre at an event known as Dre Day.  The idea was stolen from a club in Minneapolis.  When I first read about it, I thought that it was a damn shame for Los Angeles not to have our own Dre Day celebration.  After all, Dr. Dre is Los Angeles’ native son.

It started off simple enough.  My friends and I just hung out at my house listening to Dre produced music and watching movies starring the great Dr. Dre.  That year we decided that the next year, we would make it even bigger.

The second year was everything we imagined it would be.  We had bands do their own takes on Dr. Dre songs and had The Chronic photo booth where patrons could replace their own heads in the classic album cover.  We passed out several stickers that featured classic lyrics on them.  Our Dre Day show became a much talked about event that year.

This year, Gabe (aka Horace Weintraub) and I decided that we would celebrate Dre Day at a bigger and better venue, The Blue Star Café. The Blue Star Café is always good to us and we knew that they’d work with us.  If you have never been there, you should know that the Blue Star is an outdoor venue.  This left Gabe and I constantly worried that it would rain that night.  There was a light sprinkling as I pulled up to the venue but other than that, it was clear skies.  I didn’t notice it until that night but the combination between the outdoor venue and the barbed wire added something to the general ambiance.

Last year, all the bands we had playing were Punk bands with the exception of the closing hip hop act. This year, our bill had a much more diverse line up.

The opening act, Stab City, usually plays a dirty style of rock n roll.  They started by cueing an ipod up with Dr. Dre instrumentals that they then rapped over.  Guitarist, Sailor, was in all black with his head covered by a Chicago White Sox hat.  Bobby, the drummer, assumed the part of Snoop Dog in their first cover, Deep Cover.  Bobby had the words, “Deez Nuts”, scrawled across his stomach.  Bassist, Dan, was in a bright sparkly yellow shirt which depicted a hip hop version of Nintendo character, Mario.  He was the perfect Dre to Bobby’s Snoop.  The ended the cover portion of their set with, L’il Ghetto Boy.  Sailor picked up his guitar towards the end of that one and added a few licks to the song.  Then they launched into what Stab City was born to do: Rock our pants off.

After Stab City, it was time for our annual Eddie 40-hands competition.  This years contestants were Ryan Scumbag (last year’s loser) and this girl named, Alex.  I made sure they both had a ride home before duct taping their hands to 40 oz bottles of Miller High Life.  The winner was announced following our second act.  Ryan won but Alex was incredibly close to winning herself.  Ryan won a Gangsta Rap Coloring book and Alex won a cassette single of Nuthin but a G Thang.

Next was Horace Weintraub.  In my opinion, Horace stole the show that night.  If you’ve seen Horace before, you sort of knew what to expect but many people there had never heard music like this or seen it performed live.  Think of Horace Weintraub as the silly version of industrial artists, Babyland. Their first Dre cover, Nuthin but a G Thang, was recited by a computer.  Horace would tell the audience to “Stop Talking” in between songs.  3D glasses were passed out and hilarious songs were played.  The second Dre cover, Nigga wit a Gun, had the support of three female back up singers.

Next was my band (Pu$$y Cow). I took some time to recite the lyrics to all of our covers next to my car seconds before it was show time.  As soon as I hit the stage, I realized that I was pretty drunk and nervous.  I was dressed as if I was sponsored by Dickies.  We dedicated our set to Lux Interior.  While Lux probably wasn’t the most avid Dre listener, I felt that Lux was a fan of showmanship and that every band playing that evening had showmanship coming out of their ears.  The songs we covered were Still D.R.E, The Next Episode and California Love.

Luckily I only messed up one lyric in all of those. Chissum changed the lyric in Still D.R.E from, “Representing all the gangstas all across the world, hitting the corners in them lo los girl” to, “Representing all the gangstas all across the land. I’m wiping off boogers down in Disneyland”. It was a classic Chissum move.  We pretended to end our set and then kicked into California Love.  We called out all the neighborhoods of the band and the crowd.

Old Man Markley is a bluegrass band made up of members of some of Los Angeles’ finest Punk bands. They started their set with a corn rowed Annie singing the Eazy E classic, Automobile.  There is nothing more charming than a girl reciting the smutty lyrics of Eazy E.  Every member was dressed to the nines and every song was beautiful.  Their washtub bassist, Joey Balls, led them in a sped up Forgot About Dre ho down.

After the whole thing was over, it started to rain.  A perfect ending to a perfect night.

See ya next year, bitches!

- Joe Dana -

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 

                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews
 

Video courtesy of Smash
 

Sat- Feb 21, 2009 – Reverend Horton Heat w/ Manic Hispanic – House of Blues San Diego – San Diego, CA

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