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JULY 1997 SHOW REVIEWS:
One of my biggest complants I've ever had with Promoters and clubs is that they don't put together events. That was what this month was for me, events. Bands that you may never see play again all on one day.
click to jump:
JULY 3rd, 1997
YUM YUM
TREES
& SWINDLE
All Ages@ Safari Nite Club
Swindle is a cute little band from San Diego which makes all the little 14 year old girls hearts go pitter patter. Sound wise their new school with just a hint of the old school/gutter thing. They played a good set and left all the girls heart broken.
The Yum Yum Trees are a trashy old school punk band from NYC. They put me in the mind of the Slits. A mix of driving and choppy rythems with a rough surface above. Some of the members were in Chasing Amy and if you look you'll see their stickers in a few scenes. They were great and I left happy after buying everything they had.
JULY 9th,1997
AGENT ORANGE
THE
BLUE MEANIES
& APOCALYPSE HOBOKEN
All
Ages@ Safari Nite Club
The first punk band I ever heard and the first southern California punk record I bought was Agent Orange's Everything Turns Grey. They had played here back in 88 with Underdog (remember those assholes) and the show sucked because the cops showed up and there was this fight. So, this was a feather in my cap and something I wanted to do. So out of the blue the booking agent for The Blue Meanies called me and wanted the date. At first I was pissed because I thought I'd have to dump AO because BM would make more money but after a lot of quick talking I got them to open.
This was the first time I saw Apolcalypse and I was blown away. The did this great cover of Little Red Riddinghood that blows the orginal off the map. I noticed that a lot of the younger kids didn't get their rough gritty sound but that's not surprising.
Ok another hint on booking, caught words. If your unsure of a show drawing enough throw words on like Ska. It may not fill the club completely but it will add about 50 people. I know that the Blue Meanies are not a ska band but they have a horn so that's good enough. I like them. They have this creepy anger to them that grabs you and shakes the shit out of you. Once again the Rudies didn't get it. It wasn't happy and they couldn't do the line dance thing.
Sure Agent Orange shut the door on the punk rock past a long time ago. Sure they talked all kinds of shit on punk and then sued the Offspring but I still can't get them out of my system. There's a deepness to those first records on Posh Boy that beats the shit out of most of the records that came out in the last 10 years. I mean these are the guys that wrote the sound track to my teen years with songs like America, Bloodstains, Everything Turns Grey, Breakdown, and Living in Darkness and brother and sisters they did them all. It may be Palm and a backup band but the music is just as fresh as it was when they took that 8-track to Rodney back in 79. So I got drunk and for just a little while closed my eyes and pictured myself in that parking lot back in 86 drinking Pabst, breaking bottles and slam dancing with my friends to the car stereo. It was that hopeless and that is great.
JULY 19th,
1997
BALLGAGGER
BACKWASH
& THE
HAVE NOTS
All Ages @ Safari Nite
Club
This is by far and away the best show we ever did. I broke a mike stand and hit Paul in the head within the first two songs. We destroyed them and it left me limp and wet. It felt good.
Backwash is an old school band from New Orleans that is filled with good people. They take me back to the mid-80s when bands just played and let everyone else figure out where they belonged and if they could sell records.
Ballgagger is kinda a Riot girl band from LA. Really rough but also good. Everyone said they sucked so they must be doing something right. Also they had 100% cotton t-shirts for $5.00. My kinda band.
JULY 19th, 1997
VALETINE
6
& RADIO CAROLINE
21 & Over
@ Safari Nite Club
This was a 21 & over show after an all age show. Valentine is a great band that I kept wondering how I was going to get people in front of. So I had them open for Radio Caroline. Which at the time had one of the biggest draws out of all the local bands.
Valentine 6 is a cross between late Birthday Party and the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds stuff. Dark mournful music with mixes of jazz. Their sound is like murder, ugly and beautiful in it own unchanged surreal way. They sould be doing the sound tracks to David Lynch films. The joy of the evening was watching people slowly move toward the music. Drawn by something deep within. Mission acomplished.
Radio Caroline wrecked all our hearing with their own view of the world. I think this may very well have been their high point. It was one of those nights where either your mood or the band's mood hits a higher point and this was that night for me and them. If they would have broke up that night, they would have lived in the stars. Now it seems they are taken for granted.
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