Jennie - Stacey - Davey - Daren - Melissa (9/24/15 @ Downtown Pomona, CA)
A few months ago Marty Ploy gathered some local musicians and had them all meet up in Thomas Plaza in Pomona and play some acoustic music on the street. I heard about it, but for some reason that escapes me now, didn't make it. Apparently it went well because he did it again this time with Jennie Cotterill and Stacey Dee of Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Davey Quinn of Tiltwheel, Daren Gratton of The Haddonfields, and Melissa Zavislak of The Stupid Daikini.
My friend Kaylin and I raced up to Pomona after we both got off work and made it just in time for the 7pm start time. Problem was, we didn't see anyone around. I checked and double checked my maps to make sure we were in the right place when I saw Marty sitting by himself on some benches. We wondered over and he told us that "these things never start on time and people will show up eventually." And eventually they did! There were about 6 or 7 of us when they decided to start and Melissa began belting out songs, but eventually the plaza filled out with friends and passer by's. Anyway, Melissa's singing voice fucking slays, and her songs are all really good and catchy. I can not recommend enough getting into The Stupid Daikini. She also dedicated GFY to me again. In case you were wondering, it's a song about how she wishes this person dies in the most fucked up way imaginable. Sweet! Between every performer, we had about 15 minutes to cruise to the bar and grab a drink and get back. The second person to play was Daren Gratton of The Haddonfields out of St. Louis. I had never heard them before, and was pleasantly surprised that he was fucking awesome (The next day, I looked up The Haddonfields and they are tight. New fan.) We spent a little extra time in the bar on accident and missed Davey (always miss one!) but made it back for Stacey Dee to start. She played 4 songs, one of which was from her old band The Angry Amputees. This was her first time playing after coming back from some personal stuff, and it was most excellent. Glad to have her back in the scene. We skipped the drinks and waited for Jennie to play last. Just like her Bad Cop/Bad Cop sister, she killed it, playing some new songs she wrote and an old song that didn't make it for Bad Cop. She also played a song about going on a date in space, which mass appealed to my inner nerd. After a few songs Stacey joined her and they played some acoustic Bad Cop songs and everything was right in the world.
After working all day Friday, I made it home only to immediately pass out. I woke up at 8pm in a panic and jumped in my car and cruised down to The Tower Bar thinking I was going to be late. Apparently I can't remember about fucking punk time, where everything starts late and never goes on time. Duh. So I make it down to see Get Dead and Clowns in the parking lot playing dice and almost no one inside the bar but Will and a few randoms. An hour after I show up, the show starts and Western Settings takes the stage ripping through their set playing old and new songs. They rule, and you should watch them play basically. At some point during the set, Ricky calls out the dudes from Clowns for being Australian and how they have to do some shoeies during their set (P.S, A shoey is when you take off your shoe, pour a beer into it, and drink it. AUSTRALIANS!) and one of the guys immediatly rips off his shoe, pours his tall can of PBR into it, and pours it down Ricky's throat. It was... a thing that happened. Clowns were up next and were totally not what I was expecting. The played a high energy metal infused kind of punk, and the singer went wild. He chided the crowd about not moving much, ran full speed straight at some huge dude, and just jumped on him, finishing the song while the dude spun him in circles. I don't know why foreign bands have so much damn energy when they play, but us Americans need to take note. Shit's tight. You might notice that Get Dead is crossed out up there and that is because....
The Coathangers -
The reason I wasn't that sad I missed Get Dead in San Diego is I knew I was going up to LA the next night for the same show. My plan was to take the train up and stay the night at my friend Keri's new apartment, but while I was waiting in line to buy my train ticket, I was looking around at all the other weird annoying train people and realized, I have a fucking car, fuck this. And what do you know? It looks like Mormos smiled on me this day because there wasn't any traffic at all! Weird. So I made it to The Redwood in an hour and a half and was able to catch the first band, Flamingo Nosebleed. My expectations are usually really low for opening bands with kind of dumb names, but these guys were pretty fucking good. Minus the drunk asshole filming their entire set on his phone with the flash on. Hands Like Bricks played next and were also pretty fucking good. I realized when they were playing I somehow have never actually watched them play. I think it was a Western Settings situation, where I always kind of say, "eh, they play all the time, I'll watch them next time." I don't know, all I know is that I was wrong, like almost always. Bad Cop/Bad Cop was third to play, and it was good to see them back in action, still killing it and not missing a beat. They played through a lot of songs off their two Fat releases, Boss Lady and Not Sorry, including my personal favorite song of theirs I'm Alright. Get Dead was next. One of the speakers in the front broke, so when they started no one past the mid bar speakers could really hear anything except drums and guitar. Eventually, I moved to the audible zone and enjoyed them play through a bunch of songs off Bad News and a few that will be on their album they are currently recording. I did run back to the front for the song The Process, with lyrics like "where do I go when the whiskey's gone?" how could I not? Murderland played last, but honestly, I was tired and had a long drive back home so I left. Eh, they play all the time, I'll watch them next time....
Party.
My friend Kaylin and I raced up to Pomona after we both got off work and made it just in time for the 7pm start time. Problem was, we didn't see anyone around. I checked and double checked my maps to make sure we were in the right place when I saw Marty sitting by himself on some benches. We wondered over and he told us that "these things never start on time and people will show up eventually." And eventually they did! There were about 6 or 7 of us when they decided to start and Melissa began belting out songs, but eventually the plaza filled out with friends and passer by's. Anyway, Melissa's singing voice fucking slays, and her songs are all really good and catchy. I can not recommend enough getting into The Stupid Daikini. She also dedicated GFY to me again. In case you were wondering, it's a song about how she wishes this person dies in the most fucked up way imaginable. Sweet! Between every performer, we had about 15 minutes to cruise to the bar and grab a drink and get back. The second person to play was Daren Gratton of The Haddonfields out of St. Louis. I had never heard them before, and was pleasantly surprised that he was fucking awesome (The next day, I looked up The Haddonfields and they are tight. New fan.) We spent a little extra time in the bar on accident and missed Davey (always miss one!) but made it back for Stacey Dee to start. She played 4 songs, one of which was from her old band The Angry Amputees. This was her first time playing after coming back from some personal stuff, and it was most excellent. Glad to have her back in the scene. We skipped the drinks and waited for Jennie to play last. Just like her Bad Cop/Bad Cop sister, she killed it, playing some new songs she wrote and an old song that didn't make it for Bad Cop. She also played a song about going on a date in space, which mass appealed to my inner nerd. After a few songs Stacey joined her and they played some acoustic Bad Cop songs and everything was right in the world.
DIY or DIE
Get Dead - Clowns - Western Settings (9/25/15 @ The Tower Bar, San Diego CA)
After working all day Friday, I made it home only to immediately pass out. I woke up at 8pm in a panic and jumped in my car and cruised down to The Tower Bar thinking I was going to be late. Apparently I can't remember about fucking punk time, where everything starts late and never goes on time. Duh. So I make it down to see Get Dead and Clowns in the parking lot playing dice and almost no one inside the bar but Will and a few randoms. An hour after I show up, the show starts and Western Settings takes the stage ripping through their set playing old and new songs. They rule, and you should watch them play basically. At some point during the set, Ricky calls out the dudes from Clowns for being Australian and how they have to do some shoeies during their set (P.S, A shoey is when you take off your shoe, pour a beer into it, and drink it. AUSTRALIANS!) and one of the guys immediatly rips off his shoe, pours his tall can of PBR into it, and pours it down Ricky's throat. It was... a thing that happened. Clowns were up next and were totally not what I was expecting. The played a high energy metal infused kind of punk, and the singer went wild. He chided the crowd about not moving much, ran full speed straight at some huge dude, and just jumped on him, finishing the song while the dude spun him in circles. I don't know why foreign bands have so much damn energy when they play, but us Americans need to take note. Shit's tight. You might notice that Get Dead is crossed out up there and that is because....
Wait for it...
The Coathangers - Birth Defects - Flames of Durga - Shady Francos (9/25/15 @ Casbah, San Diego CA)
About halfway through Clowns I split to the Casbah to go check out The Coathangers. I just found out about this band a few weeks ago and found out they were playing on this night. I missed Get Dead and Against Me! in Santa Ana I wanted to see them play so bad. And they did not disappoint. I showed up right as they went on, and they played for about an hour and a half of their garage rock inspired musical madness. At several different points, they all just up and switched instruments and still sounded amazing. All their voices are amazing, but there was something that stood out about the drummer's raspy lower pitched voice. Maybe it just resonated the most with the bearded whiskey swilling punk that lives in my heart. These are very talented women, and are a MUST SEE if they are playing anywhere near you.
Everything is blue like that one dumb song
Murderland - Get Dead - Clowns - Bad Cop/Bad Cop - Hands Like Bricks - Flamingo Nosebleed (9/26/15 @ The Redwood, Los Angeles CA)
The reason I wasn't that sad I missed Get Dead in San Diego is I knew I was going up to LA the next night for the same show. My plan was to take the train up and stay the night at my friend Keri's new apartment, but while I was waiting in line to buy my train ticket, I was looking around at all the other weird annoying train people and realized, I have a fucking car, fuck this. And what do you know? It looks like Mormos smiled on me this day because there wasn't any traffic at all! Weird. So I made it to The Redwood in an hour and a half and was able to catch the first band, Flamingo Nosebleed. My expectations are usually really low for opening bands with kind of dumb names, but these guys were pretty fucking good. Minus the drunk asshole filming their entire set on his phone with the flash on. Hands Like Bricks played next and were also pretty fucking good. I realized when they were playing I somehow have never actually watched them play. I think it was a Western Settings situation, where I always kind of say, "eh, they play all the time, I'll watch them next time." I don't know, all I know is that I was wrong, like almost always. Bad Cop/Bad Cop was third to play, and it was good to see them back in action, still killing it and not missing a beat. They played through a lot of songs off their two Fat releases, Boss Lady and Not Sorry, including my personal favorite song of theirs I'm Alright. Get Dead was next. One of the speakers in the front broke, so when they started no one past the mid bar speakers could really hear anything except drums and guitar. Eventually, I moved to the audible zone and enjoyed them play through a bunch of songs off Bad News and a few that will be on their album they are currently recording. I did run back to the front for the song The Process, with lyrics like "where do I go when the whiskey's gone?" how could I not? Murderland played last, but honestly, I was tired and had a long drive back home so I left. Eh, they play all the time, I'll watch them next time....
That was a rad weekend. I had to bring it back to earth Sunday as I just painted my stupid bathroom (Grey, not Purple UNFORTUNATELY). Also, I've been sick as fuck the last few days, totally got home from work yesterday at 4:30 and slept until I had to go to work today at 6am. Killing it.
Kenny Bojarski's birthday show is this Friday the 2nd at Pierview pub in Oceanside with The Dirty Work, Dead on the Wire, and Chamber Sixx playing. You, dear reader, should come and buy that dude a drink.
And I think that is all I'm doing until the crazy It's Not Dead Fest on the 10th.
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