If the Civilians pull this gig off, I'm gonna have to eat a lot of crow on this one! LOL I talked major smack about them and about being done with them but as always I'm the first to forgive and forget and give it a go again, because I love playing music with my friends, and I love it when it's done proper and I love it when it's done right. The band sounds great as of late! All it took was copious amounts of Hamm's beer and carne asada from Pepe's Tacos ($12 a pound) to get them to show up to practice, and it's been nothing but good vibes and productive happy times as of late. These guys are working hard at sounding good, and I'm pretty proud of them. The gig with The Real McKenzies is going to be fun! We're playing 2 brand new (finally) finished songs, a wicked Rock 'N' Roll cover, and the rest of the set is all killer no filler. We sound so good in practice it's frightening, which means 1 of 2 things is going to happen - either we're going to play fucking brilliantly, or it's gonna be a colossal train wreck of a mess up on the stage at Beauty Bar. Either or I'm good with. 😂

I didn't know who the guy was setting up his drum kit right next to me on the sidewalk in front of the Doll Hut last Saturday night. He had a Joe Strummer-esque cap on his head and a Big Gulp cup full of booze in his hands. Nice. We were drum nerding out on our respective sets, putting them together and talking cymbals and hardware and whatnot, and he made the oddest remark about being a really hard hitting drummer. Bob was within earshot and started laughing at his statement. This guy breaks cymbals!! he told him, he breaks through drum skins, and he seemed shocked to hear that was possible. He shook my hand and said it was nice to meet another hard hitting drummer such as himself and I was taken back at the arrogance on display from this guy. I laughed it all off and then he started clapping on me, saying that I probably wasn't really a hard hitting drummer, that it was probably the vistalite drums that made people think I was a hard hitting drummer, and Robert Headnoise heard him say that and he goes This guy goes through 4 or 5 pairs of drumsticks a night! If you can beat that then God bless. lol I was a bit irritated by the guy but we had to play so whatever. Good luck with your set. We should have a drum off in the parking lot after the gig to see who the hardest hitting drummer is. Uh huh... gladly I told him. See you after the gig.

So Headnoise gets done playing, and I'm outside trying to catch my breath while contemplating getting a Thrifty's ice cream cone from the door guy who's selling them, and I can hear Mad Parade playing a few yards away in the parking lot next to the Doll Hut Studio. They sounded terrible and I immediately figure out why - the drumming was horrible. Fast songs were being played slow and slow songs were being played too fast. I finished helping Bob stow away the gear and I grab my camera and head over to take pictures of the band and lo and behold who is the guy sitting behind the drum kit for Mad Parade? Yup! The loudmouth guy that I was talking to earlier! Joey the guitarist was apologetic, saying that Court Jester was never played as fast before in the history of the band, and attributing it to the fact that their drummer was punched in the jaw a few minutes before the gig started. I smirked and went back to where Bob was hanging around and was telling him about the loudmouth drummer guy getting punched in the jaw and Bob said he saw the whole thing go down - some guy apparently just randomly walked up to him of all the people that were hanging out in front of the Doll Hut and just wrecked him, leaving him lying horizontal on the pavement. Karma I guess. After Mad Parade finished playing I jokingly went up to the guy to ask him about the drum off and he just snarled Get the fuck away from me and jumped in his car and left... so, I guess I won by default!! hahahaha I love playing gigs in CA. Interesting way to end a night, that's for sure!! 😉

I'm all about that Drummers life ya know. 😎

Seems that now that summer is drawing to an end, all the "Dad Bands" I'm associated with are suddenly wanting to get back together and get out there and do something musically. This is the moment that being in 5 different bands at once comes out to bite me in the ass. I don't mind really, because most of these guys will barely do one gig before family commitments puts them back on the bench instead of being in the game, but I'm gonna enjoy it for as long as it lasts. These guys are my friends, my Brothers, and I love them all, so I'm ready to get on the plane once again and enjoy the scene and the ride before it gets too rocky and I jump off mid-flight. Let's do this! 😉

If I'm not practicing drums or watching Raiders preseason football, then I'm going to nostalgic Heavy Metal gigs with my friends. 🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽

Yeah, since the supposed Civilians practice didn't happen (big shock, right? 😂) Jeff and I decided to jam together for a bit before heading off to Vamp'd to see Armored Saint play. I haven't seen Armored Saint play since they opened for Metallica and W.A.S.P. at the Country Club in Reseda in '85, and Jeff has never seen them play before, so I kind of wanted to go, because I was kind of intrigued to see how the band sounded these millions of years later, and I kind of wanted to see who would come out to see Armored Saint on a Thursday night! LOL The place was packed! Opening band Act Of Defiance delivered a pretty solid warm up set, Heavy Metal 101, and after Jeff and I demolished a Hawaiian pizza of some sorts (yes with pineapple on it - get over it), Armored Saint came out and just killed it from the first note played onward. They did not disappoint. They opened up with March Of The Saint, one of the only songs I wanted to hear them play, and despite the bass heavy, echo ringing, bouncing around shitty sound system inside Vamp'd, the band sounded great. Armored Saint were playing their Symbol Of Salvation album in its entirety, not one of my favorites from them, but they did a good job playing the tunes from that classic album. Of course, original guitarist Dave Prichard was missed, but it was cool seeing Gonzo still behind the drum kit, and still whalloping the shit out of everything in front of him and around him. He's a hard hitting monster, that's for sure... heh heh When they were done with the album they played a few more tunes I wanted to hear - Win Hands Down and, of course, Can U Deliver, and that was that. The show was over, the crowd was happy and so was I. It was a good gig - I even bought a shirt! 😉

You ever been to Boron, CA? Well, neither had I until this weekend... I mean, I know a few borons in California, but other than that... hahaha
The gig this past weekend with Headnoise was fun as fuck! The drive to Bakersfield was interesting, to say the least, much easier than driving to LA, that's for sure, and having Bob as a co-pilot always makes things even more interesting than they should be, both in a good way and in a bad way. The venue was a giant hall or cafeteria or something, and we were given full backstage privileges including a kitchen staff at beck and call that made us all sorts of awesome foods and cookies and fruits and drinks and we wanted for nothing! I spent most of my time in the kitchen eating homemade cookies and drinking coffee by the gallon (Mug mug mug!), but I did manage to tear myself away long enough to watch some bands play... ha ha Doulos has this new drummer that's made them sound 1,362,964,189,673 times better than they already did, and they played a great set. I think they kept their mistakes down to single digits this time around. 😆 They keep teasing me about having recorded a 4 song demo a while back, but they won't give it to me to listen to for some reason... heh. Until We Die! just get better and better every time I see them with their Black Flag tinged musical onslaught. They remind me so much of Git Some that it's scary. Their guitarist Chuck just kills me everytime I see him play, and I'm not even a guitar guy, but he's a monster riffer who makes the most of his Marshall full stack. They're a great band - check them out when you get the chance. The Bedlam Saints were OK but then they started playing cliched Ska Punk covers and I tuned out real quick. Headnoise played a sloppy but energetic set. People dug it. Bob took pictures. Maybe I'll post them someday, maybe I won't. Afterwards it was all hug hug hug kiss kiss handshakes all around wanna go get something to eat? No? OK. I'm going home then! See ya last month! LOL Yeah, the Headnoise gig in Bakersfield was a happy fun time. Thanx to Nick and everyone with the Bruised Reeds collective in Bakersfield for the hospitality and excellent accommodations. Find a reason for us to come back. I'd love to play there again. 😉