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MAY 1997 SHOW REVIEWS:
Looking back at this month over a
year later it's amazing that we made it out alive. This was the month that took
Safari from a local club to a national Punk Club.
click to jump:
MAY 3rd, 1997
BORRIS THE
SPRINKLER
AT THE DRIVE-IN
All Ages@ Safari Nite
Club
OK
this was one of those shows I was looking forward to. I had seen Borris play
Iowa City in the fall and just loved that whole Dickies-like sound and stage
show. I had heard much about At the Drive-In and the CD really didn't do it for
me at first but I was in for a little surprise.
There was some Ska show
before hand and all I remember was not really digging the whole moon-ska thing.
So by the time ATDI hit the stage I was about to fall asleep. They jumped into
their first song and put all trays in the upright postion. The club went from 0
to 60 in 1.5 seconds. They play a combo of I guess you call it emo but with a
great deal of darker emotions. To say they explode on stage would be a bit of
an understatement. Jumping twisting and ripping with Spainish style panamine
dance, that tells the story that hides between the lines of the lyrics from
beginning to end. Easy to say that by the end of their set they were my new
favorite band.
Rev Norb and the boys hit the stage next with their fast pace power Dickies like punk. Sure they're sloppy, sure they have dumb costumes, sure Norb is a geek, sure their songs are dumb but that's what makes them stand out. They brought out the old and the new and made their bathroom and PBR jokes. All the while Norb spinning on one foot and adjusting the helmet.
MAY 5th, 1997
THE PEECHEES
&
THE DRAGS
All Ages@ Safari Nite Club
I really didn't know how the kids would react to this one and it turned out they didn't understand it but couldn't help but enjoy it. This is the day I went out and bought Tito my Iguana. So we set up his cage and played with him while waiting for the show to start.
The Drags are a kinda Cramp like band with that even mix of Rock-a-billie/Phsyco-billie, Surf and Garge. Lots of fuze al Cramps. Hell they even did MIdwest Monster. For effect the had police lights going the whole time for that whole drag strip experience.
I think from the first time I heard The Peechees CD "Do the Math", there was no question, these guys and dolls have something. Rough guitar and whinny arty vocials in that garage way that I like. The started out with a large flag draped across the front of the stage and then dropped it and went into Pepper, then moved through a set of hits like Do the Math, Beer City and I could Have Loved You while Bob and Carlos did these chopy movements to the beat of the song. Meanwhile Christopher did a crazy dance and belted out the story with Molly who by the way is the best female drummer I had seen next to Mad Dog (The Leaving Trains) kicked out the engine pace. Even with a few equipment problems they held their own.
MAY 9th, 1997
THE
HUMPERS
THE LEAVING TRAINS
& RADIO
CAROLINE
All Ages @ Safari Nite
Club
OK is there one out there that doesn't
know who the Humpers are? If so leave cause you missed the boat. The night
before the show Mark called and asked if I could put him up and I sent him to
Brain's. He came in early with Cory from Nashville Pussy and we spent the night
talking and drinking and catching up.
Radio Caroline opened the show. They are by far the loudest band in DesMoines. A good mix of Stone like, Rock and Roll and southern rock. This may have been the first time I have ever seen them sober which makes a hell of a big difference. I listened out back while eating BBQ and damn did they sound good.
This was not the first time I have seen the Leaving Trains. The first time was way the fuck back in 87 or 88 at the URW hall. I think it was the Fuck the World Tour. They were like 3 hours late and we had to sit through 2 hours of the Hollowmen (pure hell) to see them. I remember being so happy by the time they showed that they could have sucked and I still would have thought they were the greatest band on earth. So when Eric Stoneb(Alone Booking) told me that the Humpers were touring with them I almost wet my pants. To add to this, their dummer is Mad Dog from the old Hollywood band the Controlers. She's been knocking around Hollywood playing with everyone since around 78. James came out and proved that a guy doesn't need to be pertty to wear a dress and worked through a set of songs that could only come from the trash filled streets and clubs of Hollywood.
Then came the main event. Of course, not on time. Mainly because Mark over slept and we had to call Brian's mom and have her wake him up. There was talk of kicking him out by Billy and Scott but nothing came of it. The last delay was Billy couldn't get his guitar case open. So at around 8:27 they set the club a blaze with Plastique Valentine and went on attempting manslaughter with Make-up, Mutate with Me, Wake up and Lose, Sarcasmatron and Apocalypse Girl. I had to wave them off stage 8:55(this was an all age show and the law states that anyone under 21 must be outside the bar by 9pm). Leaving everyone wanting and wishing for more but that's showbiz.
MAY 11th, 1997
NIL8
IMPALER
& ARTICAL DEBRIS
ALL AGES @ Safari Nite Club
Every once and awhile, you get a bunch of bands that don't fit, bugging you for a date. This was one of those dates. I think Ames' 35" Mudder played this show too. Their a Rage Against Machine rip off and are pertty much lame and boring. Artical came on and proved once again they need to work on getting better but weren't half bad.
Impaler is a metal band and was a bit of a joke for me to put them on this date. They needed a routing date back from Lawrence so I booked them as a favor to Brad. They used to be a big deal opening for all the big metal bands in the 80s. They have all kinds of props and stuff like the Chain mike stand and all that cheese stuff. They did a stripped down show with a few flash pots and some 80s metal. I just sat at the bar and laughed away.
NIL8 is no more and that is really too bad. They had their own sound which in thi day and age is rare. They take Punk and sprinkle in funk, rap and metal. Tghey pull it off cause the stay with the root. The lyrics are very witty and inventing and their stage presence is such that it has a comic feel too it. I had seen them a number of times before but never really connected with them until that show. They give you the feel of sitting and watching old reruns on TV with the sound turned down. All the while there's this guy with Dreds hopping and telling all these stories in rythem to the stereo. They lead us through Land of the Lost, Dominatrix, Blood on the Saddle, Old MacDonald's Straight Edge Dilemma and Yombie Slut.
MAY 23rd, 1997
SOCAIL DISTORTION
RED 5
& AUTOMATIC 7
ALL AGES
@ Safari Nite Club
This was and still is to this day the biggest show I've ever promoted. My day began around 11am with load in. You see SD tours with it's own PA. Think of it, you tear down the house system and then load in a large system and set it up and then tear it down load it out all in one day. All you've heard about Mike Ness being an asshole and hard to work with isn't true. Of course, him hanging out in the bus all day helps. We sold 500 advance for this show and had at least another 50 or 70 that either sneaked in or worked the show. The joint was packed to the point where dew collected on the walls from all the sweating. SD's rider asked for Solvent Green (you'll only get it if you've seen the movie Solvent Green. Remember "Solvent Green is People.") and I had Shawn running around town looking for Solvent Green.
Automatic 7 openned with their kinda early SD sound. I watched about 3 or 4 songs and they were quite good but I really didn't have the time to check them out properly. They did do a cover of The Clash's White Man in Hammersmith Palias in which they screwed up the lyrics a little but no the less a good cover.
I don't remember much of Red Five other then they had a girl in the band. I wasn't really that inpressed but maybe if I wouldn't have been all stressed out I would have dug them.
Now for Social Distortion, They gave everyone what they came for. Playing for close to an hour and a half. A little of the Mommy stuff like Telling them, 1945, and Mommy's Little Monster. A little of the Epic stuff to round the set out with Ball and Chain, Story of My Life, Bad Luck, and Don't Drag Me Down. Most of the time they were playing I was busy running around checking on the crowd outside and all those fun promoter things like answering the same questions over and over. I did enjoy though what I saw and heard.
After the PA was loaded out, we all sat in the back and patted each others backs. We had no fights, no one had gotten on stage (the only club up till then that had done that on that tour) and we did something no one said we could do. Shows like that can kill you if you let it.
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