I am soooooooooo in Love with Squeeze right now - even more than I ever was, if that's possible. They were incredible last night, basically playing everything from the Singles - 45's And Under release, with a few obscure songs that were definitely treats for us fans, stuff like In Quintessence, If I Didn't Love You, Heaven and Bang Bang from their very first album. My fucking jaw dropped as I haven't heard them play that song in like 30 years. Fucking Wow!!! In the early days, sure, but now, not really, as the band pretty much sticks to a give-the-people-what-they-want aspect of playing the Hits, although the band gets to stretch it's musical muscle on some newer, latter day material that's almost jam band, Rolling Stones like shit, but I forgave them for that little hippy-ish indiscretion. The crowd was tame, but the waitress service was fun, with the old folks in the crowd standing in nicely organized rows, allowing the waitresses to keep bringing me those splendid 32oz. drafts without any trouble. The more I drank, the better the band sounded. Go figure, right? ha ha ha There I was, a big dude in a Sharks jersey, jumping around and rocking out to Squeeze, singing along to almost every gawd damn song they played and just having the time of my Life in a crowd where there was seriously no one under the age of 30 in the place. Ha Ha Ha Ha I did not give a FUCK because sometimes it's good to be an old dude because you can appreciate the songwriting Genius of Mr's Difford and Tilbrook and the Music that they have created. The band was incredible. It was the same line up of players that I saw when Squeeze played the Crown Theater inside the Rio a few years ago (click here to see the photos I took that night) and like a fine wine, they've only gotten better with age. <3 Gawd damn do I love me some Squeeze. I bought all kinds of swag as I left the place. It was gaudy and all over-priced and I didn't care. :-)

Right before the gig I was watching the live feed on YouTube of Coachella 2012, and I gotta say, it was pretty sweet. I watched Jimmy Cliff's set, which was fantastic, despite the presence of that dooshbag Tim Armstrong in Mr. Cliff's backing band. It took me a while to recognize that Jimmy Cliff was doing a Rancid cover, but once I did... BARF!! ha ha ha I Can See Clearly Now was great, with the storm clouds off in the distance over the mountains, and, of course, The Harder They Fall, which is a Spiritual fucking classic. The set ended too quickly for me. The crowd seemed to dig it though, so that was good. And then came Madness. They sounded a bit ruff during the opener One Step Beyond, and they were missing Bedders on bass, but I gotta say, they sounded GREAT!! Suggs voice was in fine form, Woody is always on the beat, Chrissy Boy was playing Johnny Thunders riffs in between songs, Mike was pounding the keyboards in the back and Lee is just a madman, coming out dressed like some Chinese citizen from 1792 and just acting like the lunatic that he is, jumping around and up on the monitors, and mugging for the camera whenever possible. Best line of the night came from Chas, who said "I'm too old for this shit." LOL Second best was Lee asking the crowd "Does anyone have any drugs?" ;-) The highlight of the set was when they did Night Boat To Cairo, with the dual horn intro that sounded SICK, and that fucking crazy kid in the audience who was dressed up like the band were in the video for the song, crowd surfing with the biggest smile on his face while Madness played. That's what going to gigs is all about - having FUN!!! Oh my gawd I cannot wait to see Madness tonight. <3

If you're not going to the Madness gig tonight (I can't imagine why you're not though) there's other stuff going on. I had the date wrong about the Seriouslys gig @ the Motor City Cafe. It's tonight, not yesterday. If you're not going to that you should go to the Ignite / Guilty By Association / The Happy Campers / N.E. Last Words gig at the Aruba. Deadhand dropped off the gig because they don't do Pay to Play. Good for them. I couldn't be prouder. :-) And oh, I lost that video I shot of them doing Singing For You @ the Double Clown on Thurs. My iPhone took a shit, and when I took it down to the Apple store for them to fix it, they said they didn't know what was wrong with it, because it didn't show any signs of abuse/damage. It just couldn't be accessed, so I lost everything on it. Oh well. I got a brand new iPhone out of it, which will be majorly used tonight at Madness. I got Pigasus practice beforehand, so I'm gonna go try and get some sleep. These past few days have been AMAZING, and tonight is just going to be the capper of it all. It's always good seeing your old Friends. :-) Have a great weekend everyone. I know I am! Oh, and go see The People's Whiskey and the Hard Pipe Hitters tomorrow night @ the Bunkhouse!

Why is it that everything happens gig wise at once here in Vegas? It's either like there's nothing going on, or there's all sorts of shit going on. Ugh! It gets a bit frustrating at times, but I guess that's how it goes. And what's with bands sending me the flyers for their gigs the day before or the day of their gig, asking me to put it up on the website, and then getting pissy at me when I don't. Fuck you! To promote a gig properly, you can't just make a Facebook invite page and spread a flyer around on there. No wonder you guys bitch about how the Scene sucks because there was only 10 people to see you on a Weds. night. Jackasses. Oh well. Anyways, the fun tomorrow is @ First Friday, of course, and that kicks off with the Seriouslys and Stagnetti's Cock playing in the parking lot of Talk Of The Town, my 2nd favorite strip club in town. ;-) What's up with the band Stagnetti's Cock? Why does everyone talk shit about them? And more importantly, why should they care? LOL The flyer says the gig starts @ 10 pm, but I don't know how that's possible, if it's really a First Friday event kind of thing. 10 o'clock is when most things are shutting down, not starting up.

If that gig is not Punk Rock enough for you, then this one definitely should fix that dilemma! LOL Also on Friday night is the 2 year anniversary of Ecophagy Records, a Local D.I.Y. record label / Distro that you should all support and buy stuff from. The people that run that label don't like me, but that doesn't mean I can't give props where props are due. :-) Like I said, they're having their 2 year anniversary party tomorrow @ Yayo Taco and Life's Torment are playing, and a bunch of other bands I know nothing about are playing as well, bands with names like Gravehill, Zoloa and Seas Will Rise. It's also the debut of a Local band called Vihan Rytmi, which is apparently Swedish for "We Kick Ass" or something. The band features Larry from Life's Torment  and Adrian from Alarido, a band that broke up waaaaayyy too soon IMO. If you don't catch Vihan Rytmi @ Yayo Taco, you can catch them and Seas Will Rise and Zoloa playing later on that night @ the Double Down. It's a pretty shitty thing to do, play 2 different gigs on the same day, but since it's the Double Down, who gives a shit, ya know? LOL Fuck that place.

And if this is not enough for you to do on a Friday night, the Burning Man people are, of course, burning a woman somewhere downtown, and  N.E. Last Words are playing @ 8 Ball Bail Bonds, and I.D.F.I. are playing @ the Motor City Cafe with a couple of shitty loser bands, where 90% of the crowd will be outside tweeking and drinking. Plan your night accordingly. ;-)

And then there's Saturday. Start off by watching 2 Troma movies @ the Sci-Fi Center (Demented Death Farm Massacre and Redneck Zombies), and then get your ass to the Cheyenne Saloon for the Authority Zero, S.F.T. and Surrounded By Thieves gig.  That is going to be fun F-U-N!!  And I'm happy to say that S.F.T. has their original drummer Darryl back. :-)

And then Sunday it's all about Lagwagon / Nothington / Cobra Skulls @ the LVCS. You can get your tickets by clicking here. What? You haven't heard about that gig? Well don't worry - not a lot of people have. Hopefully people turn out for it, because all the bands are good, but if not, too bad. Promotion people, promotion. It's not a bad thing, I swear.

I probably won't go to any of these gigs though, because I'm planning on attending the Wedding of Tess Fosburgh and Jesse Nabers, Super Photographer Extraordinaire on Saturday. To see this guy so blissfully happy and content with his lovely Lady Tess has truly been a trip, to say the least. They say that there is a perfect match out there for everyone, and I'm glad that these 2 found each other. Congratulations to the both of you. May your Future together be nothing but Goodness.

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