Holy shit—that was a great concert last night. Today—the day after the show—I have a huge gouge out of my leg and I am exhausted, but extremely satisfied. I feel like I encapsulated everything that is great and inspiring and revolutionary about California rock in one show!
Dos is Kira Roessler and ex-hubby Mike Watt. Kira played on all my favorite Black Flag records (and she played a Rickenbacher, too :)) like Live in 84, Slip It In and Loose Nut. I’ve never been a huge Minutemen fan—I like them but I guess I like more straight ahead evil punk better—but Mike Watt is a musical immortal, for sure. And he’s now the bass player for the Stooges. Which might explain all the groupies who followed him around at this show. Ya know, women of a certain age. Sexy women. It was hot—Watt’s a stud.
Anyhow, Dos’ music is fluid jazz ripped out on two basses with no need for any other instrumentation. These two rocked hard without drums.
Widow Babies were, quite appropraitely, celebrating the release of their phenomenal new Mike Watt EP on Sounds Are Active. It’s the EP of the year and you should GET ONE. Now! Haha. This quartet does it all: they craft incredible songs, rock them out live wildly and weirdly, and they make the people in the audience go nuts. Congrats to the Widow Babies—they should really be proud of creating something with some substance in this era of disposable musical trends.
I Heart Lung was also releasing a new CD (on Asthmatic Kitty) and making a similar bid for rock significance. They achieved it with their Monday performance! With avant bassist Anthony Shadduck augmenting their gtr/drums line-up, I Heart Lung sounded like the missing link that connects John McLaughlin’s Devotion to Bill Laswell’s Last Exit to Greg Ginn’s Gone to the sounds of the future. The trio grooved and skronked cleverly through some intense musical workouts. The ultimate payoff? A balls-out guitar flip-out at the end. Wow. So good.
The Amazements were saying before they played “Oh shit we haven’t jammed for awhile…” No need to worry, though, these guys fuckin’ nailed it. Damn—how does this band keep getting better and better? This night, they took us on a guided tour of Captain Beefheart-land… with a gang of rabid chimps riding shotgun in the back of the bus. Ferocious, brittle, earthy, schizophrenic, musical… those are words that spring to mind. Oh yeah, and *awesome*.
NASA Space Universe is one of my all-time favorite bands. They’ve got the tunes, the style, and the will to smash the musical status quo. I contend that you could put them in a magic time machine and randomly send them to any era and they would still be shocking. That’s because so few bands go for it that hard—and execute so spastically and TOTALLY. NASA Space Universe…. Carnage rock if there ever was such a thing.
Destroy!
Okay, don’t be late for this Monday’s show… Our old and good friend Juiceboxxx is jamming first ‘cuz he has to leave and get right on his plane. Let’s support him, boogy to his music, and pour many Sparks down his throat so that he never forgets Los Angeles.
Then, we can enjoy the rest of the night’s music (Nondor! Nondor!!!) and swap Totally Mag! trading cards. Can’t wait for that!!!!
This Monday, October 20th
Sean Carnage presents…
TOTALLY MAG! MAGAZINE RELEASE PARTY!!!
with…
Juiceboxxx
I.E.
Tik///tik
Oscillator
Smoke Crack (from Fontana)
Whitman
Wonder Wheel
Band of Outsiders
Show starts **9pm** / all-ages / $5
Pehrspace—325 Glendale Blvd., in Echo Park
See you there?
Enjoy the photos—I sooo enjoyed this show!
Dos (Watt & Kira)!!!
Cupcakes… Yayy!!!
Widow Babies!!!
I Heart Lung!!!
The Amazements!!!
NASA Space Universe!!!!
WWW.SEANCARNAGE.COM
