May 7, 2011: The Happy Campers / Aluminum Falcon / Surrounded By Thieves @ Jake's Bar

I was running on absolutely no sleep for 2 days now. I had an Extra Strength 5 hour Energy Drink that remained untouched because I was just so out of it that I never even bothered to drink it after I bought it on the trip down there. We pulled into Lake Havasu in what seemed like a really short amount of time, and after settling in to the house where we were staying at, we headed off to do the touristy things like walking around and below the London Bridge, and, uhmm, walking around and below the London Bridge. LOL That's basically all there is to do there. It was kind of sad, because there was lots of empty store fronts all along the waterway, and most of the businesses were closed early, and on a Saturday afternoon. Seemed like the so called recession had hit this place pretty hard. The desperation was thick in the air. We had some grub at Papa Leoni's, an Local hot spot for pizza, where we killed the time watching the Hockey playoff game, playing video games and eating pizza and drinking beer with the guys from the Happy Campers who were already there when we arrived. They were planning a tattoo party for the first person who passed out, buying as many disposable rub on tattoos as they possibly could from a coin operated dispensing machine inside the pizza place, and the way they were talking about it made me feel kind of bad about whoever that person was going to be. Kind of... heh heh heh

Jake's Bar was a short trip down the road from where we were staying at. We pulled into the place well after Dusk and we were greeted warmly by the Locals, some of whom had watched our videos on YouTube and who were specifically asking for us to play certain songs, like Battlelines and As The City Sleeps. That was really, really cool. :-) The place was pretty spacious, with a big outside smoking area and a really small, awkward stage area to play on. The weather was gorgeous, with the Arizona desert breeze keeping things bearable. Everyone seemed nice, and they were definitely happy to see us. Go figure. 3 Las Vegas bands playing in Lake Havasu, without any Local support. This was going to be interesting. One of the Locals I was talking to told me that there was a Local band that was supposed to play, but that they wanted to play last, and the Happy Campers were already scheduled to play last, so the Local band said they weren't playing the gig if they couldn't play last, and they dropped off the bill. Band Scene Drama. You know I love it. hahahahaha Whatever. There was a good amount of people in the place by the time the first notes started emanating from the stage area. The Show was about to begin. ;-)

The first band to kick things off was Surrounded By Thieves. I'm sure they're one of Pulsar's fave Local bands, because they're 'Female Fronted'. ;-) They had the attention of every guy in the place, because the chick they had singing for them was pretty cute, and she could sing. Really well too. The music was very Bad Religion / Rise Against-ish, fast paced, poppy, Punk lite, really catchy good, and the guitar player was definitely the highlight of the band. A fast right hand and lots of moving around kept those of us not hypnotized by the singers see through shirt and daisy duke shorts watching what he was doing and playing and not to how the Singer looked and was bouncing around. Or maybe I'm a faggot, I'm not sure. She just didn't hold my attention for long but like I said, she could sing. That girl could definitely sing. The drummer was pretty good too. Lots of top work and cymbal splashes kept him working hard behind his kit. Tight and fast, and he wasn't boring, that's for sure. I like a good drummer. :-) The bass player was solid as Sears, playing simple, heavy down stroking riffs and supplying a nice thick sound to the band. I think he didn't want me taking his picture though... heh heh. He seemed to keep turning his head every time I focused in on him to snap a shot. I think he was anyways. LOL When they weren't being bashful in front of the camera, they all looked like they were having fun, which is always a good thing to see in a band. The Singer was working the crowd pretty good, and the crowd was eating up everything she was saying. The band musically was good, but there was just something about the singer. She didn't seem to fit in with what the band was doing. They played for a good amount of time, and after a bit they were over and done with, finishing up to a strong round of applause from the crowd for what they had played. I thought they were excellent musically but that Singer chick seemed to be in the wrong band, but whatever. Surrounded By Thieves were pretty good and definitely worth paying attention to if you ever get the chance to see them play.

We rushed Surrounded By Thieves off the stage for some reason, and once we set up people started coming in by the handful. Sure, it was an easy sell, because for Mike and Tyson, this was a homecoming reunion of sorts, but it also could of been because they were into what we were playing. We came out of the chute in full stride, giving them a pretty rocking set of some awesome punk rock tuneage. For some reason we played a couple of Descendents covers, which just made the crowd go even crazier and throw even more beer around. I think they liked us! LOL Fun stuff. :-)

After breaking down and packing away my gear, and after getting some much needed water from the bar, I bellied up to a table near the front of the stage to watch the Happy Campers play. I was kind of on the fence about seeing them after such a long time. I haven't seen these guys in years (I know it was at one of those 'Extreme Things' concerts that shitty Local radio station does / did / whatever) and was looking forward to seeing how the 2 newest members of the band, Chad from Battle Born and Brent from Betting On Tomorrow, were going to make the music sound. I'm glad to say that it worked out pretty good! The Happy Campers sounded great from where I was sitting. The songs were fast, catchy as fuck, well structured, and they had these 4 part vocal harmonies stolen straight from the Queen songbook that just seemed to make their songs sound even better than they already did. The boys were definitely in command of the situation, playing their catchy Punk Pop music to a small but enthusiastic crowd and keeping everyone in the place entertained while they were doing it. Pretty cool to see. The guy behind the Happy Campers, Issac, still looks like Mike Palm's cousin and is almost as good of a showman, getting into the music and trying to get everyone in the room into it too. I think that might of been why this drunk black guy passed out midway through the band's set. He was just standing there and then BAM! He wobbled a bit and just fell backwards on his ass. Some nice people helped him up and he just continued drinking like nothing had happened. Now THAT'S Hardcore! hahahaha I think the Drummer for the band is an original member too, but I'm not sure. In any event, he's a pretty bad ass drummer, doing these triple time double kick drum fills that pushed some of the songs pretty closely into Metal territory, but that was OK, because sometimes what Chad is playing sounds a bit Metal-ish too, so the 2 combined works. Chad is such a great addition to the band. Guitar shredding and Singing. Brent too. Together they've instilled some new blood into the entity that is the Happy Campers, and I'd be real curious to hear some new recordings from this line up. I only mention that because Issac kept saying they were gonna play a new song, but I couldn't even remember any of their older songs. LOL Doesn't matter, nobody cares, because the band rocked the fuck out of the place and earned every round of applause that they got. Good to see them after such a long time. They were good.

Jake's died down after a bit and then we all headed out to the only club that was open in town, to watch gay people dance and watch the Jersey Shore types frolic and try to impress and pick up on each other, all the while the Security guys kept their eyes on us because it was obvious we didn't belong there and we were sticking out like sore thumbs. Oh well. When last call came around we brought an end to the night by heading back to the base to watch Johnny Dangerously on Jeremy's iPad like device and get shit faced drunk until the sun came up. Then we drove home 4 hours later. Everyone slept but me. Yup. Grabbed some shitty Mexican breakfast burritos  and made the trek back to Vegas, where once I got home I finally passed the fuck out. I slept for days. :-) Lake Havasu was definitely fun, and I can't wait to go back and play there again.

For more Pictures of the Happy Campers, please click here. For more Pictures of Surrounded By Thieves, please click here.

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