In the name of love or INXS – too many houses

Residents in the Coral and Latigo canyon areas of the Malibu hills are in an uproar over U2 guitarist, the Edge’s plan to build five homes across a proposed area of nearly 1,000 acres on two key sites, one bordered by the spectacular Latigo Canyon and the other at Serra Retreat. Clogging up a majestic lanscape does not apply to "Rock Stars", why?

No For An Answer – Chorus Of Disapproval – Headfirst – at Chain Reaction – Anaheim, CA

While the legacy of late 80's/early 90's hardcore bands from Southern California is often overshadowed by the legacy of their East Coast counterparts, this show proved that many of these West Coast bands were worthy of a higher stature. The show, which featured some of the most prominent bands of that particular era, was a benefit for Genaro "Chicanito" Hernandez, a former World Junior Lightweight champion boxer, who is currently battling cancer. and none of the bands made any profit off of the venture.

By far the most lighthearted band of the night were Ice, who opened the show and vocalist Evan Jacobs appeared on stage dressed in a wig, clown makeup, and an orange correctional facility uniform. Throughout the set he made several costume changes and gave out crappy DVD's in gift wrap to members of the audience. After doing a cover of "Jenny" ("867- 5309") he revealed that under the uniform he was wearing a foam muscle suit and announced that it was a tribute to Micky Rourke. The band then went into "Metal Health" and a man made his way into the audience dressed in his own wrestling costume. Amidst the song the two of them had a mock wrestling match and after Jacobs "won" he returned to the stage and put on a championship belt.

Ice were followed by Blackspot and Headfirst, who both played hardcore with a much heavier sound and a much more severe attitude. Chorus of Disapproval (sometimes affectionately refered to as XChorusX) were definitely seen as one of the highlights of the night and I even ran into a friend who had travelled from Vegas via a rental car to see them. Their brand of heavy hardcore borrowed significantly from Judge and throughout their set audience members were singing along to every word. "Replacement," which is perhaps their most well known song was particularly well received, as well as their cover of DYS's "Wolfpack."

No For An Answer concluded the show with a set of classic West Coast hardcore anthems. They played with the same lineup that recorded the "You Laugh" E.P.- featuring vocalist, Dan O'Mahoney , guitarist, Gavin Ogelsby (bassist John Mastropaolo, and drummer, Casey Jones. They played several songs from "You Laugh" as well as a few songs from "A Thought Crusade," including "I Spy." Dan O gave a short speech making it clear that there were no financial gains for the band from playing this show and that the intentions of doing a reunion were to help out a friend in need. Aside from some mistakes made during "Without A Reason" which caused the band to start the song over, their performance was completely spot on and everyone in the audience seemed completely stoked.

Part way through NFAA's set John Mastrapalo and Casey Jones left stage and were replaced by "Big" Frank Harrison and Steve Insted on bass and drums to play some Carry Nation songs. This was clearly the high point of the night for many members of the audience as the response was massive. After Carry Nation played their short set, Matrapalo and Casey Jones returned to play a few more No For An Answer songs, including "Man Against Man," "Liar," and a cover of Agnostic Front's "Last Warning." Throughout the set Dan O'Mahoney was in good humor and at one point when he was heckled by an audience member he responded, "I was prepared for you guys to say things about me drinking, but I wasn't ready for any of this."

Overall the show was a huge success and everyone was smiling at the end of the night. No fights occured during the whole show and the atmosphere was great with tons of people reuniting with old friends and giving support to the bands and the cause. Hopefully there will be more shows like this with a positive vibe in the future.

-Ditch.-
Big Wheel Asst. Editor

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews
 

 

The Adicts – The Dickies – The Billy Bones – The Henchman – at House of Blues – San Diego, CA – March 22, 2009

The last stop for Southern California could not have been a better selected city than San Diego. San Diego, which is the last county to cross before reaching the border separating the United States and Tijuana, hosted the last SoCal Adicts show at the House of Blues. On Sunday night, The Henchmen, The BillyBones, and The Dickies all reached their final destination with The Adicts.

The show began promptly at 7:30pm, and The Henchmen were the opening act. The House of Blues in San Diego is large in size, so near the beginning it appeared as though there were hardly any people. Even so, The Henchmen played their set diligently and even caused the small crowd to gather around and stir up a little excitement in the pit. Their set was done shortly after 8pm, and by this time, people were slowly filling the large venue up.


The BillyBones went on about 20 minutes later, and their crowd was especially enthusiastic. Many of the people were singing along and shouting along to Billy Bones' music, and many of them were also making requests, to which Billy Bones often smiled and asked back, "Oh, you wanna hear THAT one?" The band went on to cover The Animals' "I'm Crying" and worked up a lot of the crowd's energy. The BillyBones received great feedback from the audience, and provided a lively and rightfully satisfying set.

When the Dickies arrived on stage, it was already after 9pm and people in the audience were screaming out requests every 10 seconds. When Stan Lee approached the audience, a female's voice was overheard screaming, "STAN LEE, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!" Clearly, the audience was absolutely thrilled to see The Dickies on the stage and they were greatly anticipated. The Dickies commenced the set with 4 of their most well known songs, "Give It Back", "I'm Ok, You're Ok", "Paranoid" and "Got It At The Store". Upon finishing "Got It At The Store", vocalist Leonard Graves Phillips looked to the side of the stage and appeared concerned and ran off for a moment. When the funny frontman came back, he announced that their set had been cut short and their set was over. The audience suddenly went from extremely enthusiastic to extremely confused, and began to shout "ONE MORE SONG!" The audience caused a huge stir by stomping on the floor and clapping in unison screaming for the return of The Dickies. Unfortunately, the curtains on the stage began to close around the stage, and it was ultimately the end of the band's set. The set was done by 9:22pm.

Being so large in size, The House of Blues in San Diego began to finally become packed with people arriving to see The Adicts. And exactly being as large as it is, there also managed to still be enough room to breathe and move around. For the last time in SoCal, when The Adicts' low haunting intro music began to creep into the room, the audience knew that the band was about to go on soon. People began to push, but it wasn't as severe as the LA or Anaheim shows. The pushing was rather moderate, which was all the more convenient for everyone present.

When the curtains were finally drawn and Fiddle Dan was in the middle of the stage with a humble smile, the audience completely lost it. The Adicts' grand mad party had commenced. The floor was full of fans eager to sing along to every song, to which they did, and when the confetti and glitter hit the scene, it was as if every member of the audience had suddenly been granted one million dollars. People's eyes bulged out of their faces, grins took up the people's faces, and they were all hysterically laughing, screaming, or doing a combination of both.

The band played the same set they had played the last few shows, but it was extremely beneficial for the fans and the band. It was impressive to see how the band maintained the same energy and effort into the songs played that night just as they had the previous nights. The night was just as thrilling and mesmerizing as the night before and the night before that, and even the one before that one. The Adicts truly are deserving of all the love and appreciation they receive on behalf of their fans.

The band ended their set with "How Sad" and left the stage shortly after. As always, fans demanded their encore and sought after the enchantment that The Adicts never fail to impose over us. When the band came back, the beach balls were thrown out, and the band played two more songs, dismissing themselves and the night with "Bad Boy".

The end of their Southern California journey reached its end in San Diego, and it marked the success of the band's 5 shows in the region. San Diego greatly appreciated the band's stay, and it was a cheerful hello and goodbye on their behalf. The band exemplified and conveyed their great energy and stage presence throughout all of the SoCal shows, and it was utterly mind blowing to witness. Thank you and goodbye to The Adicts for gracing us with their presence here in sunny California. All of the enchanting times that their fans had indulged in hold true to the fact that The Adicts are an enigmatic force with powerful spells that we all love to fall under each and every time.

-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
 

Get the band’s latest CD’s

No System – Dead Bands Tell No Tales

Growing up in the Boston area Al Quint of Suburban Voice Fanzine was seen as a pillar of reliability. If you went to just about any show worth mentioning he was there and was always friendly and willing to talk to anybody. Local punks would say things like "I want to be Al Quint when I grow up." In a small scene where being twenty one and still into punk rock is considered a major accomplishment Al sticks out as the guy who not only started going to shows before most of us were born but has always stayed active, whether it was editing the only long standing fanzine of the region, booking shows, or DJ'ing at the local college radio station. For a long time what few people knew about Al was that he had played in two bands in the 80's. One of which was No System, which also featured Mike Gitter of XXX Fanzine.

What's strange about this record is not only did it just recently come out twenty four years after it was recorded, but the  recordings themselves were done after the band had broken up and with the members of PTL Klub (Boston shockcore mini legends) on guitar, bass and drums rather than the original members of the band. Regardless of the strange circumstances of this record coming into print the tunes here are very solid and in the vein of bands like the FU's, Negative FX, and early Jerry's Kids, who Al had covered in the early issues of Suburban Voice. In fact had No System been an active band in 1982 rather than a few years later perhaps they would be remembered in the ranks with Mike Gitter's XClaim records cohorts.

"Symbols of Hate" kicks things off with a hard rock inspired intro and then turns into a classic style Boston hardcore thrasher. The vocals throughout the recording have a cool reverb to them and while the quality is definitely lo fi all of the instruments are audible. For the most part everything here is pretty standard fast hardcore, but the pace does slow down to a mid tempo for "Industrial Robot." "Vigilante Song" brings Impact Unit to mind. The cover of Discharge's "Doomsday" is a nice touch and Al wrote some pretty in depth liner notes that may take some people longer to read than it would for them to listen to both sides of the six song record.

Band MySpace: www.myspace.com/nosystemhc

Record label: www.myspace.com/nowayrecordshc

-Ditch-

 

 

Music play list for the week ending March 22, 2009

Top 25  - In no particular order -

The Adicts - Song Of Prasie
Social Distortion - When The Angels Sing
Sonic Youth - Skip Tracer
Faith No More - Edge Of The World
Iggy Pop - The Passenger
Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles
Angelic Upstarts - I'm An Upstart
Ice Cube - Today Was A Good Day
The Killers - Chang Your Mind
The Selecter - Madness
The Damned - Smash It Up
The Specials - It Doesn't Make It Alright
The Dollyrots - Watch Me Go
The Cramps - Garbage Man
Frank Sinatra - Come Fly With Me
Insted - Live and Let Live
The Crowd - Right Time
Terrible Twins - Generation Of Scars
The Jam - Town Called Malice
Motley Crue - Live Wire
Silversun Pickups  - Lazy Eye
Bad Religion - Drastic Actions
Crystal Castles - Crimewave
Minor Threat - Screaming At The Wall
Anti Nowhere League - So What

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

 If you would like to sponsor our weekly playlist - Contact us

 

 

Copy and paste the above banner and link to your MySpace or website and stay up to date.
Add: myspace.com/bigwheelmagazine as a friend on your MySpace page.

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.

The Adicts – The Billy Bones – The Spooky – Informal Society – L.A. Groove – at The Key Club – Hollywood, CA

Round 2 at The Key Club for The Adicts was a night entirely different from the shenanigans of the first night at the Hollywood venue. None of the bands that played the night before played on Saturday night, and the crowd that the local L.A bands which played that night brought a fresh perspective and entirely different atmosphere to the show. L.A. Groove, Informal Society, The Spooky, and The BillyBones all joined in The Adicts' second round in Hollyweird.

The first band to play was L.A. Groove, whose fans felt that their set was not long enough that night. Although the band's set may have been considered short, the band's performance was thought to have been played well and with such a strong drive. The band's sound is mostly described as fast paced Punk Rock with Hardcore influences, and that night the band certainly did not fail in driving the crowd with their energetic music.

Second in the line-up were Los Angeles locals Informal Society, which brought a large crowd following to the show. Informal Society had much action from the audience in the pit, and their music was highly loud and dynamic. Informal Society's lyrics were politically and socially influenced, and the band's sound is best described as Street Punk Rock. The band drew great attention from the crowd and put on a very entertaining performance.

When the time came for The Spookys to go on, the venue was packed and already becoming out of control with anxious people. The band came out dressed in attire that would make Glenn Danzig proud. The band had a sound that clearly distinguished them from the previous bands which had played earlier, and which was similar to the horror punk sounds of the Misfits. True to that statement, the band went on to pay tribute to Danzig, and dedicate and play the Misfits' "We Are 138". The pit for the Misfits cover was perhaps one of the most intense and heavily filled mosh pits of the night. It was incredible to see so many individuals beating the living sense out of one another as tribute to the song. The Spooky's set was unique and impressive to watch, and they were definite crowd pleasers at the show.

The BillyBones played 4th and joined The Adicts once more in their SoCal journey. The BillyBones entertained the crowd with their charisma and dancey Rock-N-Roll '77 tunes, and brought the cheerful feel good times to the table. The band played a set similar to the Anaheim show, but played with as much, if not, more vigor as the previous show. The band covered The Animals' "I'm Crying" and brought the house down with their cover. The BillyBones once again were creative and enthusiastic, and put on one of the best sets of the night.

Saturday was yet another night of experiencing an overcrowded venue filled with people screaming wildly and pushing one another forcefully in order to attain a better view of The Adicts. It is always that brief waiting period before Adicts that the crowd goes insane and neurotic, and it is always a sight to see. Simply watching the crowd's anxiety and inability to contain their excitement is enough to make you FEEL their overwhelming anticipation.

Once the tease began upon the band's low eerie introduction, the crowd's energy reached its peak and foreshadowed just the kind of show we were all about to endure. Fiddle Dan approached the stage with his violin, and the confetti followed shortly after. Monkey arrived on stage and the crowd's energy intensified. One more, the presence of The Adicts caused the audience to fall under a spell, and it seemed practically impossible for them to ever be able to escape from it.

The theatrics of the band are perhaps one of the most exciting and fulfilling speculations to take part in and experience. The massive amounts of glitter, confetti, and other magical decorations that fall around you make you feel like you're a part of something so colorful and beautiful, but also make you feel sorry for whoever's responsible for cleaning it up right after. Nevertheless, the feelings and sensations it arouses causes you to feel like you're in a fictional story. A story filled with lively yet chaotic music, and brilliant colors that grab at you and take firm hold of you. An Adicts experience is the closest thing you'll come to a child-like fantasy.

The band played their set as diligently and forcefully as before, and kept the crowd pleased throughout the entire time. During the song "Bad Girl", Monkey explained to the audience that the women selected to go on stage would have to behave because of incidents on stage the night before. The women on stage went on to behave as well as they could for Monkey, and they entertained the audience with flirty dances with each other and Monkey.

Near the end of the set, guitarist Pete announced that it was Fiddle Dan's birthday that night, and he provoked the crowd to sing "Happy Birthday" to Dan. The audience lovingly sang happy birthday to Dan, and Dan graciously bowed in gratitude. Pete also said that he had joked the night before that it was Monkey and drummer Kid's birthday, but that he had been joking and we had all been duped. The audience didn't seem to mind the fib and they laughed and cheered away at Pete's friendly jokes.

When The Adicts bid their farewell, the audience appeared heartbroken over their departure. When the band came back with their encore and beach balls, the floor went into a riot and maintained a vicious circle pit just for The Adicts. The band finished their encore with grace, and ended their second night at The Key Club.

The second round at the Key Club was far different from the first night, yet just as powerful during The Adicts' performance. The band has such a powerful presence that it causes everyone to become completely infatuated with them. The last night at the Key Club was fun in every sense of the word, and a great dismissal from Hollywood on behalf of the band. Regardless of where the band plays, their ability to astound and amaze audiences is a quality worthy of such recognition and respect, that it's no wonder they've already earned and received it from their loving and dedicated fans; a wonder all on its own.

-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
 

Get the band’s latest CD’s

« Previous Page — Next Page »