Dillinger Four – Riverboat Gamblers – The Arrivals – Toys That Kill – The Knitting Factory – Hollywood, CA

The last time Dillinger 4 played in Los Angeles was at Fuck Yeah Fest in 2005.  Those who were lucky enough to see it never forgot it unless of course they partied a little too hard.  It was chock full of nudity, insults, hilarity, an American flag mu-mu and a Motorhead cover. I was lucky to see them again a few years later in Las Vegas but Los Angeles remained untouched territory for the men from Minneapolis for four long years.

The day Dillinger 4 would play Los Angeles again came this week.  All day my internets were buzzing. Friends of mine from all different social circles were updating their spacebooks and mytwitters with their excitement.  “D4 is coming! D4 is coming!”  You could hear the Punks from miles around echo a collective, “yabba dabba doo” as the whistle signaling the end of the work day blew.

Let me begin by giving you my deepest regrets and apologies. It took me forever to fight Hollywood traffic and when I finally got into the venue, I realized that I left my camera at home and had to use my cell phone camera.  These will definitely not be the best shots you will see from the evening but hopefully, they will capture some of the thrills.

The show began with San Pedro’s own, Toys That Kill.  Guitarist Sean Cole remarked, “We’re from San Pedro where we wear our pants loose” It was the first of many tongue in cheek jibes at Hollywood we’d be hearing from all the bands that evening.  Toys That Kill played several songs I usually don’t hear them play live.  They played, “Something In This Earth”, “Puppies With Rifles” and one of my favorite TTK songs, “Bleeplines”.

After a few “deep cuts” in a row, the TTK fans started yelling for “Greatest Hits”.  At first, guitarist, Todd C. pretended not to understand them.

“Pregnant Racists?” he responded.  Later, TTK shut them all up with crowd favorites like, “Little Bit Stranger” and “Tied Up All Our Lace”.

Toys That Kill can really do no wrong in my book.  I’m a super-fan of theirs.

A funny anecdote:  About a year or so ago, the guys from Toys That Kill told me that I reminded them of Little Dave, the guitarist from the Arrivals.  At the time, I could see our similarities. We both had short dark hair with sideburns, dark jeans, dark t shirts, and black boots.  I took no offense to it and neither did he.  Little Dave has long hair and a bushy beard now so I think we look a little less alike but after Toys That Kill played, this drunk Punk took me aside and asked, “So dude!  You’re on next right”.

I replied, “I wish!”

And he suddenly looked forlorn and said, “You don’t play in that band anymore?”

Suddenly I figure out that this guy thinks that I am Little Dave from the Arrivals.  I had to explain to the drunk Punk that he was mistaken.  Then he clinked beers with me and now we’re buddies for life.

Ok back to the story…

The Arrivals came on next. The first time I saw the Arrivals, they were great but I didn’t know anything about them. All I knew was that Paddy, Dillinger 4’s bassist and head big mouth, played bass for them. This time, Paddy kept his mouth shut.

Little Dave announced who they were (The Arrivals...duh!), where they were from (Chicago) and that Motley Crue kicks ass (The Dirt is a great book).  They broke into, “Sorry for Saying I’m Sorry” and the crowd went crazy.  It is easily the Arrivals song that gets stuck in my head the quickest.

I was right underneath singer and guitarist, Isaac, as he belted them out one by one.  Tight is a word that gets used all too often in reviews but that is exactly what they were.  Chachi from Toys That Kill was having his own personal mini mosh pit and head bang time up front with me during, “Dangerous”.

They ended their set with the triumphant, “Last Lullaby”

Riverboat Gamblers came on next.  This would be my third time seeing them. I don’t own any of their records but every time I see them, they blow me away.  Then I walk away from the show wanting to pick up one of their records and every single person I talk to recommends me a different record to start out with.  Then I forget about them until I see them again.

It is virtually impossible to take a picture of singer, Mike Wiebe, on a cell phone camera.  He never really stops moving.  He is constantly jumping into the crowd, jumping off the drum riser and jumping from one end of the stage to the other.

The circle pit started at this point and both my hand and Mike’s hand came in contact with the broken beer bottles at the foot of the stage.  I had a tiny cut on my left palm.  He was gushing blood from his wrist and he looked like he really didn’t notice or care.  No time for first aid.  There is rocking to be done.

Mike did one last jump into the crowd and asked us all to kneel down and not worry about being cool and as the guitarist spelled out “G-A-M-B-L-E-R”, we all jumped up. They ended the song and now it was time for the legendary Dillinger 4.

So we wait for what seems like a long time. A bunch of people were getting texts and since I wasn’t there I can’t really confirm or deny any of this but the texts said something to the effect of Paddy was in trouble with cops or the security guards for taking his dick or balls out and showing it to people in an elevator or on an escalator.

We were freaking out at the possibilities. Four years since D4 played LA and it could be even more?  A Dillinger 4 show without Paddy (still cool but it would definitely be a let down)?

After a good long time, each member of D4 came out. Paddy came out last and looked noticeably flustered.

“So I got in some trouble” he explained, “We’re going to do as many songs as possible before they stop us.  I don’t know what happened. I took my dick out…”

They do three songs of their new album, C I V I L W A R.  The crowd pushed forward. I ended up with my nose to the floor of the stage.  It was near impossible to take a picture of the band while they played because the pit was so nuts.  Half the night I spent bracing myself on a monitor to keep from eating stage and broken glass.

After a few songs, Paddy seemed to be less flustered and back into his groove. He took off his hat to reveal a patchy reverse lopsided mohawk mange on his head. He took out an electric razor and shaved the sides of his head as he addressed the crowd.

Paddy’s little diatribes are one part drunken rambling but two parts inspirational. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not when he spoke about empathizing with Los Angeles natives who at the age of 18 find that all their friends are leaving their hometown as quickly as they can.

He talked about class war and explained that class war wasn’t necessarily something that crust punks were always spouting about but could be committed at a smaller scale seeing that most Los Angeles residents work in the service industry. Then they broke into “Floater Left with Pleasure in the Executive Washroom”

My favorite Paddy musing of the night was when he said that CDs are dead and so is commercial radio so “Punk rock won”
At some point, Paddy’s mic stand stopped working so he enlisted the help of Matt McCrackin, singer for Madison Bloodbath, to be a human mic stand.  Later he had Matt help him shave a fan’s head on stage to relieve him of his “ironic haircut”

I think it was during “Mosh for Jesus” that I witnessed a girl breaking a beer bottle over the head of one Los Angeles’ premier stand up comedians, Skippy Simon’s head.  We all ducked as to avoid the shrapnel of broken glass.  Skippy was left unscathed except for the fact that he kept shaking broken glass out of his hair. The bald kid next to him had two huge gashes on his cheeks.  Good move, lady.

When they played, “D4 = putting the ‘F’ back in Art”, the crowd swayed and sung along like a choir.  Dillinger 4 exited the stage.  Many encores at shows seem like pretend encores but it seemed like we really had to beg for them to come back and give us some more.  They busted out , “Let Them eat Thomas Paine” and “OKFMDOA”

Dillinger 4 delivered exactly what we were all expecting: a fantastic show that we won’t forget…unless we were partying too hard.   I hope we don’t have to wait another four years to see them again.

 

- Joe Dana -

 

 

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