Words and Pictures by GE 138. Jeremy got to my house as quickly as he could after work to get our pregame sesh on, and by pregame sesh I mean, a hard drinking session. We were both beyond hyped that we were going to see KISS tonight @ the Joint, and there was no way in Hell we were going to do it sober, so we started drinking heavy as soon as we got into the place. Every damn employee was adorned with KISS related tee shirts, and ever bar sported the KISS special drinks menu named after various KISS songs and albums, with titles like Love Gun, Animalize, Dynasty, Sonic Boom and War Machine, each one super strong and packed with alcohol, each one only $6, and each one a sickly sweet knock off of other well known drinks like tequila sunrise, brass monkey, etc. Gawd bless that Demon. There isn't an angle he doesn't miss. "You can't hide the hook." hahahaha Anyways, we pretty much blasted through every drink on the menu in under an hour, killing the time before the band was supposed to play by checking out their grand arrival by helicopter that was supposed to occur in the valet area directly in front of the Hard Rock, but it was running really late, so after a bit of standing around with everyone else outside waiting for KISS to make their grand appearance, we got bored and headed back inside to the nearest bar to continue drinking. After a bit we queued up with the other concert attendees to be let into the venue. They didn't search anybody or anything. Everyone and their Mom had a camera of some sorts. I toyed with the idea of bringing my camera to the concert, but thought for sure they wouldn't let me in with it, so I kept it at home. And besides, I wanted to have fun, and not worry about taking pictures. I just wanted to see KISS. It's been a while since I'd seen them. I was ready. Bring it! Our seats were like 7 rows back, center stage, but it didn't matter because each side of the stage was adorned with a huge monitor like set up, which went from floor to ceiling, so no matter where you were, you had a great view of the action. The show started promptly on time and KISS came out in a grand, spectacular way, of course, opening up with Creatures Of The Night, lights and fire and explosions and lasers shooting everywhere and that was it, opening night of the KISS residency at the Joint was off and running. Holy shit was it amazeballz! They went into Psycho Circus, a song I was strangely singing all day long, and then they played Parasite and War Machine before taking a break. Wow. Tommy Thayer was fucking killing it. Gene Simmons looked and sounded fantastic. Eric Singer had a clear vistalite drum set with blinking lights all around the edge of the shells, playing good but dropping sticks left and right, and Paul was definitely the weakest link on stage, hardly playing guitar and his voice was barely audible, but it didn't matter. It was KISS, and as far as the spectacle goes, the lights, the lasers, big ass video screens, the sound, with the explosions every 5 minutes, man, they were fucking killing it. I was loving every minute of it. KISS ran into a bit of a lull, playing some of their obvious hits, like Tears Are Falling (Ugh!) and I Love It Loud, but the little tribute they did to the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again video, complete with the little laser light/guitar interlude homage, made things worth it, and it must of been great for Eric Singer to play Keith Moon's classic drum line to that song with the lasers behind him like that, the lucky bastard. Click here if you have no idea of what I'm blabbering on about... LOL Lick It Up sucked, I Love It Loud dragged on for a bit, and if it wasn't for these amazing yet borderline deadly, potentially lethal drinks that Jeremy's friend at the bar was hooking us up with, I probably would of left, but as it was, I was having a fun time being wasted at a KISS concert. They did the single from their latest album, Monster, a song called Hell Or Hallelujah, and it sounded pretty good. Then during God Of Thunder Gene Simmons spit blood everywhere and flew up to the rafters to spit more blood everywhere, and I came in my pants and passed out. You see, this face right over here, has haunted me ever since I was a child. Seeing him peering down at me from the rafters like the worthless plebe that I am, cowering at the boots of The Demon, is pretty much how I wanna die, and it was the highlight of the evening for me. Everything else after this was just watery baby shit. Paul flew around during Love Gun, Black Diamond sounded sick, and then the music stopped and they gave away a house to some Veteran dude. They had some Veteran contest winners as part of the KISS Road Crew, and they were out there too, stealing time that KISS could of been playing music with. Then they had everyone in the audience recite the Pledge of Allegiance and I wanted to puke. Nauseating and Pandering. Whatever. Once they got going again, the band played Shout It Out Loud, I Was Made For Loving You, and Rock And Roll All Nite, and that was it, the show was over and again, I wanted to puke - both from the weak ass songs played and from all the sugar infused drinks I had been consuming all night. I think I went into a diabetic coma mid-concert and didn't even know it... ha ha ha On the way out, I bought lots of overpriced merch (of course) and followed Jeremy back to the bar to finish up the night. I remember going to Vinyl to see Jeremy's friend who plays guitar in the Sin City Sinners, and that's about it. Oh yeah, I ate some nachos at Mr. Lucky's. I know that because I woke up later that morning covered in a sickly sweet nacho infused vomit blanket. Fun night. ;-)
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Written by GE 138. Everybody had a bad feeling about this gig. EVERYBODY!! ha ha ha ha In hindsight, they were all right, of course, but it's funny how it all worked out that way. Whether it was because of bad promotion, from the bands playing, from the Promoter, whatever, or because it was on a Sunday, or because of nobody liking the headlining band Slaughter And The Dogs, which I get, because I'm not that big of a fan of theirs either, or because of the overpriced, Dipster infused venue, which nobody likes going to, having to pay for parking at, or paying $9 for a tall can of PBR to drink at, whatever the reason, there was nobody, and I mean NOBODY, at this gig, and even saying that is being polite. There was probably 10 people there tops, and that's including all the members of the bands that were playing the gig! LOL It's a good thing that nobody was there, because every band that played was terrible - mine included - and I think all of us in attendance came to the mutual conclusion that the less said about this gig, the better. Oh, and that practice is a good thing. Yup! :-) After the usual pre-gig BS of waiting around the Dojo for everyone to show up and load up their respective gear into their respective vehicles, and after me watching Bob and Jeremy argue about what would be the best way to load up the gear, Tetris style, we finally roll up to the venue and try to figure out what was going on with the gig, since the Promoter didn't bother informing any of us beforehand what was going on, much less who was going on, and in what order. We found out that Rule Of Thumb had dropped off the gig (lucky them), and that we were going on 2nd, after Baddpitt And Adam Crow, and before S.F.T., who had a new drummer they were breaking in tonight. He was wearing a cowboy hat. I decided it was best just to stay away from him... LOL We were all hanging around outside, smoking and bullshitting, like we do, when we heard the first band starting up their set. We all ventured in and I couldn't help but notice that the place was empty, and this bands music wasn't helping. That opening band Baddpitt And Adam Crow were terrible, a miss-mash of Hip Hop, Sunset Strip Cock Rock, and Swedish Black Metal, with a guitar player sporting full face paint make up and looking like King Diamond's bastard offspring. Their synchronized jumps, stage movements, and whipping around of their hair to the beat of the music was cute though. Not cute enough to inspire me to take pictures of the band though, as I just chose to stand around back and take in all the wonderment from afar. If it wasn't for every horny guy in the place drooling over the chick bass player, I don't think anyone would of been in there watching them play. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to be a dude. Rule Of Thumb dropped off the bill, and I envied them, because they were the luckiest band of the night. They didn't have to be at the LVCS with the rest of us drowning in awkwardness and shame. The Civilians played next and that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that. If you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing, right? ha ha ha SOME of us should pay more attention in practice by playing the songs the right way instead of mucking about and just endlessly noodling away on your musical instrument ad nausea. Just saying... ;-) There's video out there somewhere of the debacle, and I'd post a link to it on here, but I think the guys in the band just wanna forget it ever happened and put it all behind them, and for their sakes I'll just drop it and leave it alone. For the record though, my playing was fantastic!! LOL Once we were done embarrassing ourselves up there, I got off the stage as quickly as possible, letting S.F.T. get their gear up there and hopefully, salvage the night. Nope. Did not happen... heh heh S.F.T. and their new, cowboy hat sporting drummer, quickly set up on stage and launched into one of their newer songs, which was called Friday Night Marauder when I was in the band, and it wasn't good, and pretty much set the bar for the rest of their set. Pacing was wrong, lots of guitar mistakes, forgotten words, missed bass lines, man, it was just painful to watch. It took the band a while to settle in, and once they did, it didn't get much better. The drummer definitely wasn't ready to play the gig, and that's said from an insiders perspective. I know the material. It's sounded better. The band struggled and made the best of things, thanks to Carlos and his kindergarten jokes, and after a bit S.F.T. called it a night to a smattering of applause from those of us who stood around and watch them try to have a go at things. I think there was something in the air, or maybe the water, something somewhere, was just bringing out the worst elements in the performance of the bands this evening. Maybe it was all the cheap cocaine that was being done off of strippers asses backstage that was doing it? All that warm, flat Cristal champagne? I dunno, but surely, SURELY, Slaughter And The Dogs were gonna save the show, right? Right?? Uhhhm, no, they didn't. It took FOREVER for Slaughter And The Dogs to get set up. All the bands that had played earlier, and the few punters who actually paid to get into this thing, we all stood around for what seemed an unreasonably long amount of time, just waiting for the band to begin playing, and after a bit they finally wandered onto the stage, and they didn't look happy to be playing in such an empty place. They looked like a group of weekend warrior type of Rockers, looking like the cover band you'd see in a Holiday Inn lounge in Medford, IL rather than the legendary Punk Rock band they were supposed to be. Wayne Barrett (Vocals) looked like a Blues Bros. for some reason, and Mick Rossi (Guitar) looked like a New York Doll. Strange, but Slaughter And The Dogs always did get labeled with as a Glammy type of band anyways, so the look fit. I think they opened up with You're Ready Now, but I'm not sure, but it didn't matter, because it sounded terrible. At first I thought it was the shit sound of the LVCS, but quickly realized it wasn't, and by the time the band limped into their 5th song, their cover of the Dolls Who Are The Mystery Girls, I had had it. I was pretty much done after that. The only ones impressed by the farce being perpetrated on stage seemed to be a trio of Punkette fashionistas, who looked like they were in town for Punk Rock Posing instead of this disappointing gig on a Sunday night, and Mr. Rossi seemed more than smitten by them, gawd bless his decrepit old heart. Oh well. Me, along with a good chunk of the crowd, slowly made our way to the exits, letting Slaughter And The Dogs finish up their set to whoever was masochistic enough to stick around, with those of us leaving silently hoping that no one ever spoke of this gig again. The less said about it the better. Phooey. For more photos of Slaughter And The Dogs, please click here. For more photos of S.F.T., please click here. Written by GE 138. After Civilians practice the other day, Jeremy asked me if I wanted to go see Prong with him. Sure, I said, and thought nothing more of it. 2 days later Jeremy sent me a text, asking me if I still wanted to go see Prong with him. Oh, you were serious about that? I asked him, and after a bit of convincing, Jeremy, Bob, and I, were off to the dreaded Downtown area to see Prong, mildly optimistic and ready for anything. After parking and taking the elevator down to Fremont Street just to take the escalator back up to the LVCS, we hung out with Larry from Life's Torment for a bit before meeting up with Jeremy's friend Kevin, who was road manager for the band. We headed off to that greasy ass pizza place a few doors down from the Beauty Bar (where I passed Danny walking along the sidewalk along the way) for some grub and then headed off to the tour bus to chill out for a bit. Prong's got some pretty cool people working for them, and everyone was super friendly to us. After all that shmoozing we headed back to the venue, and on the escalator up I could hear somebody thrashing away on the stage. I said 'Hello' to the promoter Tim and slinked my way into the cavernous venue that was practically empty. Damn. There were 2 diehards standing in front of the stage, and a handful of others looking mildly bored, sitting at the booths and tables to the side of the stage area. The band on stage, Rule Of Thumb, finished playing their song and I swear you could of heard a pin drop. It was silent as fuck, and only a few hand claps and cat calls broke the dead air momentarily. Damn it's quiet in here!, I said a bit loudly, and my words echoed around the building like I shouted them out. A few heads turned in my general direction... oh great. I just became "that guy". Captain Obvious. Rule Of Thumb didn't seem to let the lack of heads in the venue stop them from raging full on though, playing some heavy ass "Hardcore" music, and when they do, it always reminds me of bands like Helmet or Biohazard. I had a brand new Canon EOS Rebel SL1 to test out, so I took a few shots of the band while they played, not really digging the tunes they were playing, but I wasn't hating it either, ya know? The only guy I recognized from the last time I saw Rule Of Thumb play was the bass player Kenny, and his gruff vocals and thundering bass work lead the bands metallic head charge as usual. The drummer, who I swear looked like an Indian fresh off the Paiute Rez, helped out a lot with that though. Double kick player that was pretty good. Couldn't tell you much about the guitar playing, because, for some reason, I wasn't really paying any attention to him, but he seemed OK at what he was doing. The 2 guys standing next to me in front of the stage area seemed to be digging them, so what can I say? Rule Of Thumb have been around for a while now, and their performance tonight is the reason why they are. Pro act through and through. It sucks that you have to go to the outside patio area to smoke when you're at the LVCS. It's kind of like they don't want you to see the support bands play, because unless you're there to see a specific band, there's no incentive to go back inside and check things out. You can get drinks out there on the patio. You can get high and people watch on Fremont Street on the patio. You can watch this amazing dancer / DJ / personal Hero put on one Hell of a show while spinning some amazing 80's and 90's dance floor classics, all the while dancing and singing along to every song he played. The guy looks like Pugsly from the Addams Family all grown up, with a shaved head and a shirt that says 'This is what Awesome looks like' written on it. Wow. I missed every other band playing because I, along with Jeremy, Bob, and a whole bunch of other people, were simply captivated by this guy. What a show. I wish I had taken video of him on the sly, because it was seriously that entertaining. You definitely had to be there to appreciate it. Apparently he's a regular there. I hope to run into him again sometime soon. :-) Our mutual friend Kevin was running around getting the Prong gear on stage all up to snuff, specifically the drum set which was pretty sweet. I don't like rack set ups but it was still pretty sweet. Didn't sound as good as I thought it was going to though, but whatever. The roadies finish up, including the guitar tech who looked lost up there, and the stage is cleared and the show is about to begin. Everyone in the place queues up towards the front of the stage area, probably around 30 in total, and the guys in Prong come out and people are pretty hyped on seeing them, which was cool. The crowd was small but enthusiastic. You could tell the guys in the band weren't happy with the turnout, but they did their best and launched into their opening number and they were off. The walls were rumbling. A few people were jumping around and headbanging. Cool. I've seen Prong a few times, the last time being in 1994 (?) at the Huntridge, and I thought they were OK. Like a Slayer-lite, not as intense or Satanic. More Black Sabbath than Black Metal. I missed them a few years ago when they played the same venue, but wasn't that worried about it because to me, Prong isn't one of those 'must see' bands. Sorry. Tommy Prong is an interesting dude though, and he's played with some heavy ass bands, Danzig, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails among them, so to see him thrashng away and growling into a microphone for his own band Prong was a cool treat. The band was touring for a new album, Ruining Lives, and they were loud and proud and laying a blistering wall of sound down on the LVCS and it's meager inhabitants, and they sounded good doing it. The bass player was throwing a hissy fit about his microphone for the first few songs, repeatedly knocking the mic stand over, and then the roadie would set it back up, and then he would knock it back over again, and then the roadie would set it back up again, and then he would knock it back down again. Whatever. Once he got that out of his system, Prong seemed to get comfortable tearing shit up and talking shit up. They lamented the crowd about nobody moving around, they made fun of the people who were just sitting there watching the show, telling them to at least head bang if they were going to just sit there being lame, and generally just put on a really good display of some manly ass man Metal, all meat, no filler. Prong rattled the windows, raging full on, and the longer they played, the more people got into what they were doing. Choice stuff. We made it about 45 minutes into the set before we had to leave. Not because Prong was bad, but just because everyone was tired and had to get up for work in the morning, and besides, there's only so much Metal us Punk guys can take, heh heh heh, so we left. Oh well. It was still cool to see Prong, if even for a little while. Good stuff. :-) For more Pictures of Prong, please click here. For more Pictures of Rule Of Thumb, please click here. Written by Colin Oscopy. I went out to Ventura the other day to check out the second year of Nardfest with my buddy Chris and his friends and let me tell ya, it was a Hell of a trip. At this years Nardfest, Ill Repute were the headliners for the night, and they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the album What Happens Next, and were gonna be playin' it in its entirety. I was pretty fuckin' stoked about heading up there. The line up was fucking killer. Got to see some bands I've never heard of before, like In Control and a few others. It was funny running into every single person I've met out there the previous year and catchin' up. The turnout for the show was fucking gnarly. Met some new people during the show like Bob from The Grim, who also gets down with another bad ass band called Glue Gun. We talked about getting The Grim back out here in Vegas with other Nardcore bands a little bit more in the upcoming future among other things. False Confession laid it down once again like the last time I saw em. They were supposed to play the Ill Repute show back during Punk Rock Bowling earlier this summer at the Dive Bar, but had to cancel 'cause Fred the guitarist fucked his hand up. I was told by IZ the singer that they are eager to get out here during the fall, so keep an eye out for 'em. Stalag 13 had people fuckin shit up, and told me they were gonna play the Double Down in the next few upcoming weeks but canceled because they found out what a fucking joke that place is. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Ill Repute started their set off with the A-side of What Happens Next, and then the B-side, and then onto other classic rippers off Land Of No Toilets. To sum it all up, I drove a few hundred miles to catch a gnarly show, got hooked up on some killer merch, and hung out with everyone I set out to. Wonder who's gonna play Nardfest round 3 ahahahaha...... |
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