Friends, whose opinion on music I once respected, stated publicly that The Objex "killed it" last night at their reunion show at the Double Clown, which I thought was appropriate since everybody in that band is a clown and nobody would give a shit about that band if it wasn't for the saggy double clowns on Melanie's chest. 🤣 Maybe I'm getting hung up on the phrase "killed it" because when I think of some of the bands I've seen "kill it" over the years, I just don't know how they can compare. The Germs in'79? Killed it! Black Flag in 1980? Killed it! Christian Death in '81? Killed it! (That gig still gives me nightmares) Dead Kennedys in '82? Fucking killed it! Slayer in '83? Killed it! Agnostic Front in 1984? Killed it!! The almighty SNFU in 1985? Killed it! I mean, I can go on and on! Siouxsie And The Banshees, Flipper, Minutemen, Misfits, Crucifucks, Nirvana, Green Day (with their original drummer), The Dwarves, The Who, Van Halen (they parachuted into the gig!), Stevie Ray Vaughn, Operation Ivy, Metallica, D.O.A., Beastie Boys, FEAR, U.K. Subs, etc. And I'm not listing these bands as some sort of credo building cool scene points BS or whatever, because I could care less what most of you out there think about me. I'm just saying that I've seen bands "kill it", witnessed performances that just left me with my jaw on the floor and unable to speak about anything except what I saw on the stage that week, and unless I missed something the unfortunate few times I had to endure the shitty mediocrity of The Objex, I just don't get the hyperbole. I  mean, short of blatantly ripping off Mötley Crüe, what has that band done that is noteworthy? Did they release some nominal piece of music that I missed? If The Objex had just another guy singing for them, would the simps even care? Would anybody pay attention to that band if they didn't have a slutty attention seeking whore fronting them? The answer is no, and that's a fact. Sorry not sorry. And how sad is it that the so-called Punk Rock Museum chose The Objex to perform at their "Afro-Punk" night going on there in a few weeks. What? Were there no other real "Afro-Punk" bands available? Does having a "Afro-Punk" poseur singing in her underwear make you an "Afro-Punk" band? Guess so if you're a simp. Were the members of the Bad Brains not returning your calls Punk Rock Museum? 😁 Are they not qualified to be one of those shitty tour guides there? Or maybe they refused to participate in your parade of the horribles? Ugh. That phrase "Afro-Punk" is soooooo cringe. Let me know when there's a "Mexi-Punk" night going on there, with taco trucks in the parking lot, or an "Asian-Punk" night with free ramen bowls for all, or even a "Italian-Punk" night with pizza galore! hahahaha Integrity is hard to come by nowadays, and you certainly won't find it at the Punk Rock Museum, just like you won't find a shred of talent in The Objex. Never had it, never will. Gawd, what happened to the music scene here? Where did all the good bands go? Phooey! I'm gonna go back into my cave and wait and see what the future has planned for the local music scene. It's gotta get better than it is now... doesn't it???

                                                                                                                                                                by GE 138.

     You wanna know the story? 🤣 Do you REALLY wanna know the story behind what happened to the Dive Bar? My first question to you is why??? hahahaha Why do you care why that place got shut down and kicked in the nuts? Well it's pretty funny what happened to that cesspool of a venue... depending on your opinion of what's humorous nowadays. Like, do you think that what happened to those billionaires is funny or not.  Of course, I'm of the morbid mindset that it is funny. I love all the memes, the jokes, everything, all of it, because when you play stupid games stupid things happen, and when you have that much money, and you choose to frivolously waste it on such asinine things as looking at an underwater graveyard, as opposed to feeding the homeless or making the world a better place, well there's a word for that, and I can kind of tie it all in to what's happening locally with the Dive Bar with one word, and that word is Karma. Karma for how that place shit all over the Local music scene for years, Karma for how they never paid local bands for playing there, and Karma for personally treating people and ex-employees like shit. Bad things happen to bad people, right? hahahaha I knew it was going to bite them in the ass eventually. Fuck them and fuck that place. It used to be a cool hangout, but something happened along the way to make it different. Something changed. I couldn't tell you what that thing was, but I wasn't alone in my thinking. Lots of us "old timers" stayed away from that place, because of everything I just listed, giving the customer base there a high turnover rate, to say the least. 😁
     But let's get back to what actually happened to shut the place down. That's what you're here for, right? Right! So "randomly", a police officer strolls into the place, asking to see the business license of the bar and asking to see the bartenders paperwork as well. Why? Who knows? So said bartender refuses to show the paperwork he was asked to produce, and pulls out his cellphone and starts filming the police doing their job, and we all know that the po-po's don't like being filmed doing their job, so BLAMMO! The police make a show of force at the place, and they shut that place down with the quickness, hitting the owners with a plethora of citations and violations and blah blah blah. I'm hoping it will stay closed forever, because that place sucks ass, but it probably won't. There are already legal eagle friends of the Dive Bar working behind the scenes on straightening out the paperwork and licking the boots of everyone they can in order to expedite the process, because if the recent Oakland A's thing didn't show it enough, the corruption in this town is rampant and obvious, and with the right amount of connections and the right amount of money, anything can happen in Vegas, even the Dive Bar coming back. The owners are telling everyone they'll be reopened on Monday. Let's wait and see how this plays out...

     "It was 20 years ago today..." 🤣🤣🤣 Sorry to quote that hippy dippy Beatles song, but it really WAS 20 years ago today, tonight actually, that this legendary gig starring T.S.O.L. The Dirty Babies, and The Loud Pipes, went down in the parking lot of the Rio Hotel And Casino, both in celebration of the Las Vegas Mercury's birthday, and as a celebration of the Kodak Rock X-Posed photography exhibition that was going on inside a huge white canvas tent filled with elitist snobby people, crazy cool photos of various Rock And Roll godz doing their thing in front of famous Rock photographers, various free drinks galore, space heaters, and lots and lots of yummy food, all punctuated with Local scumbag musicians and their friends doing their part to take full advantage of all gratuities being given. I don't remember it being as cold outside as it is now when I'm writing this, 33°, but it was definitely chilly, and there was definitely something in the air, a sense of 'us against them' kind of thing, one, because it was a weird place for a show, and two, we definitely didn't belong on the bill... heh. We were dirty Rock 'N' Roll kids. We were waaaayyyy out of our element. 😁

     We had to get there early for soundcheck, waiting around with everyone else while T.S.O.L. went through the motions they've done a thousand times before. I've known those guys forever, from back in my California daze, and we all hung around together while the general public was let into the standing room only area directly in front of the rental stage. The Loud Pipes had a bit of a buzz going at the time for only playing all ages shows, so that the kids here in town would have something to do and a place to go, because Vegas, just like now, doesn't give a fuck about the kids in this city, and The Loud Pipes offered a band they could get behind and support, exposing the kids to some good music to check out, and giving the kids a place to go and hang out beside the local park closest to their homes. That was us in a nutshell, and we had quite a few fans and friends in attendance, including future influencer and promoter Pulsar, supporting his JNCO pants and extra large wallet chain, who braved the weather to see T.S.O.L. and us play a gig together. Roxie had booked us as direct support to the headliners, and somehow she got The Dirty Babies on the bill last minute, playing directly before us. They were soooooooooooooooo fucking good, playing a set filled with future legendary tunes like County Jail, Up All Night, Driving Me Mad, and Stash, which they always played for me... heh One of the other opening bands, Split Second, from CA, got the kids going with some very Emo Pop Punk sounding songs, and the other opening band, Red Means Go, played some very adult sounding alternative college rock, which bombed horribly in front of a bunch of young kids and old Punx who just wanted to hear some good music obnoxiously played. The Loud Pipes were all that and more. And we were more than ready to play. To paraphrase Beetlejuice, It was now showtime. The Loud Pipes were primed and ready to hit the stage. 😎

      Our set was filled with loads of stuff breaking. Drum sticks, guitar strings, bass heads, cymbals, tuners, you name it. I don't remember how I got it, but I got a cassette recording off the soundboard of The Loud Pipes set that night, and I've shared it with a few people, and everyone that's heard it says it's very Punk Rock sounding. To me, it sounds like Motörhead but with cleaner sounding guitars, Turbonegro with a major Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers attitude permeating throughout everything we played. Right before we started someone got on the microphone and admonished the crowd about circle pitting or dancing around in general, saying that it wouldn't be tolerated and that they would kick you out if you dared to dance, so of course in between every song we're encouraging the kids to break the rules and dance around ha ha. The in-between songs commentary is priceless, much too much to get into here, but I gotta say The Loud Pipes of that time were a vicious sounding monster of a band. We played a bunch of songs we never recorded, songs like The Loud Pipes Anthem, Jenny Won't Go, and Skate Or Die. With Dan 45, future Unfair Fight frontman extraordinare, up front on vocals, all lyrical content was basically about fighting and skateboarding!! hahaha Jesse and Pitt layed down this crazy mesh of interwoven guitar noodling that was rooted in like The Allman Brothers Band and Thin Lizzy, playing their leads thick and fast and precise,  feeding off each other, all supported by Roxie and I, the hardest, thickest rock solid foundation ever laid down in the valley of Las Vegas.  In her I had a solid competent bassist that could keep up with me and feel what I was throwing down thunder wise. We were earthquake proof. We were untouchable. ❤  This show was the public debut of future masterpiece Insurrection, freshly written, and we closed the set out with our "hit single" Out Of Time. We later fond out they threw A LOT of people out for dancing around while we played. Oh well. Seemed pretty ironic for a "Rock 'N' Roll Show" at a "Rock 'N' Roll Photo Exhibit", which featured, gasp! 😲 Pictures of kids dancing at Rock 'N' Roll Shows... tsk tsk.

     T.S.O.L. then played and mopped the floor up with every band that had played before them. They were sooooooo fucking good, playing in support of their Divided We Stand release, as well as their Disappear album which came out a few years before. Songs like Terrible People, Fuck You Tough Guy and Sodomy were played in between the hits like Man And Machine, 80 Times, Silent Majority, Property Is Theft, and, of course, Code Blue. Jack was his usual magical, charismatic self and Ron was playing through the very same amp set up he used to record the Dance With Me album, which is probably why they sounded so good. I vaguely remember the official after party (I stole a tool box full of booze), and I definitley don't remember the party after that. Hell, I don't remember how I got home but I do remember playing this gig 20 years ago today. It was quite a proud acheivement at the time, a prestigious feather in the cap of The Loud Pipes (one of many to come) and this T.S.O.L. gig is just one of many long forgotten about "Legendary" gigs that Las Vegas is famous for, like the NOFX in the desert gig, or the Operation Ivy gig in the desert outside of Stateline. If you were there then you know, and if you weren't you'll never understand. Words will always fail to put into importance how magical this gig was, but at least I tried!! 😁

     I'm nervous, like really nervous. Nervous and scared. I was never scared of anything before, but then I lost my leg and now I'm scared of everything - of falling down and hurting myself, of looking stupid while walking around, of fucking up my leg while playing drums, or even of dying old and alone, all new fears to me, all fears that are now a part of my daily life. Whatever. Tonight I put all that bullshit aside to pay tribute and honor to my brother, my bandmate, a man that I'm proud to say meant the world to me, because without him telling me that we were gonna get to the finish line, without Tyson's constant reassurances that everything was gonna be ok, that I was gonna walk again, play drums again, and that things were gonna work out for the better, I wouldn't even be alive, much less able to play 2 sets at his memorial gig tonight. It was all because of him. Everything good with me was because of him. Everything. Every morning when this monster straps things on and screws things together in order to face the day and put forth the fallacy of being normal and not handicapped, I'm reminded of Tyson and just how lucky I was to spend the time with him that I did. Thousands if not millions of memories, stories, and shared moments. Amazing. Truly an Honor. I didn't have to play the gig tonight but I wanted to play this gig tonight, if you can tell the difference. There was no way I was gonna miss out on playing this thing. No fucking way.

     So yeah, then there's this gig I've been talking about. The personal drama, the bad luck involved, the bad breaks with the planning, the lazy, pettiness of some band members playing and not playing the gig, I mean, fuck, it's enough to make you pull your hair out and scream in frustration!! God bless Janoff for putting up with it all and putting things together and making it all work out in the long run. It's been nothing short of a miracle. At first I wanted nothing to do with the gig, not ready to think about playing drums again, much less without Tyson, who always asked me to play drums in all his various projects, which is funny, because when I auditioned for the Vegascendents, like, about 15 years ago, he didn't like me or my drumming! The bastard! 😆 Jeremy convinced him to give me another chance, and the rest, as they say, is history. So here I go. Again. For Tyson. It was always for Tyson. Every project he could think of doing, he'd include me as the drummer. Aluminum Falcon. Minor Threat cover band. Beastie Boys tribute band. His Protocol Zero solo project, which started out as some Beardcore project but evolved into a really tight, cohesive musical force to be dealt with. Believe me. I have the recordings to prove it. 😎 All these things that Tyson wanted me to be a part of, I never got the chance to tell him 'thanks' for including me in all that, those creative, fun times and amazing memories of the places we went, songs we created together, and the millions of laughs and smiles we shared and indulgd in, both on stage and off. Yeah, I never gotta chance to thank him for all that, for everything really, but I will when I see him again... 

Le sigh. 💔​

The fact that people I know are getting excited for this shit just makes me sad. 😢

​Welcome to fucking Vegas. 🤮