 Anytime I get to beat up on drunk people trying to break into our tour van, it's a great time! LOL What a weekend! The Civilians completely played and slayed in AZ this past weekend, blowing the roof off of the Time Out Lounge in Tempe, and annihilating Kactus Kate's Saloon in beautiful Cottonwood. It was such a fun weekend, full of highlights and lowlifes, great times and scary rides, and good music and bad food. Oh, and Death. I saw some guy in front of me drift off the freeway going about 80 MPH and fishtail around a bit before flipping over sideways about 8 or 10 times. I assumed the driver fell asleep because it was like 6 in the morning when it happened. It was a bizarre ending for a fantastic weekend, and definitely a reminder of the fragility of Life. Special Thanx to James from Unstable Youth and Audri from No! Paradigm! for the amazeballz Cottonwood hospitality, and to their friend John for all the awesome BBQ grub. Thanx to Bo from The Industry for the gig in Tempe, Thanks to the suckers @ Guitar Center Tempe who switched out my cracked 19" crash cymbal for a brand new 20" crash and gave me $10 store credit for no reason... LOL, and Thanks to Mother Nature for the sideways snowstorm that made driving back to Las Vegas a white knuckle adventure in Patience and Determination. Thanks to Gizz from Kactus Kate's Saloon for straightening out that little assault and battery thing with the Cottonwood PD, Seamus from Traditional Ink for the hang time, and Thanks to Bob for helping out with my drum kit and for smoking all my cloves. :-) Thanks to Jeremy, Trueland, and Jeff for putting up with me, and Thanks to the FNG Matt for being such a good sport about the endless razzing and hazing we were giving him all weekend. He's gonna be the fucking new guy for a long, long time! hahahaha No Thanx to Filibertos for poisoning me, and no Thanks to Wes for not even showing up to our gig that was held at the place he works at! LOL  Everything is updated. I was gonna post some snarky, catty comment about how more than a few people in AZ told me that the previous bands they saw from Las Vegas, so-called "signed" bands, were shitty and sucked, but thought against it. No need to overstate the obvious, right? ;-) So instead, I'll just tell you that I finished editing the Pictures I took of Alan Six playing @Atomic Liquors a few weeks ago, and you can click here to check those out. I'd get to work on editing those Mapes pictures I took that same night, but after seeing all those incredible pics of them filming their video with Lloyd Kaufman from Troma Entertainment @ the Double Clown clogging up my Facebook feed, I'm kind of sick of seeing their ugly mugs. LOL Instead, I'll just leave you with a teaser video that Clay somehow filmed from the audience while playing drums on stage. Is there nothing that man can't do? ha ha ha Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go play some Xbox...
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 Well, I said it would be an interesting weekend, and it was. The gig on Friday was fun. It was my last gig with S.F.T. and we went out on a very high note. We sounded great, no mistakes made (I think), fuck, it was so good that I almost contemplated staying in the band. Unit F played to nobody, which was undeserved and sad, and Horripilation were kind of interesting in a, no bass player in the band kind of way. I couldn't stick around to watch Lambs To Lions, but I encouraged people to check them out, and as I was leaving I could see 3D6 unloading their gear from their mighty 3D6 mobile. I almost thought about sticking around to see them, but I was stinky, wet, and hungry, so I headed Home instead. Tyson took some pictures, click here to check them out. I gave the gig a write up, and you can click here to read that.  Saturday night's Vegascendents gig was a giant Drama filled clusterfuck. As much as those involved would like nothing better than to read on the website about the effect that their Drama causing antics had on me, I'm not gonna give them the satisfaction. Fuck off with that shit Pal. Add that to the fact that the opening Local band that weaseled their way onto the bill didn't play, and the other opening band from L.A. cancelled for some reason, and that Lambs To Lions had cancelled for some uber-lame reason, it all added up to there being a lot of down time and no bodies in attendance at the ol' Double Clown. I pulled into the parking lot around 11-ish and found parking right up front easily. Whatever. Vegascendents went from playing 3rd to playing 1st, and so we did, a couple of mistakes were made, people dug the shit out of us, and that was that. I packed up my shit, hung around for a bit, and then left. I don't really care anymore and quit that band right after the gig. Drama I don't need. I avoid it like the plague. I also like to play good, and am not so arrogant to think that I don't need to practice to play a gig. No regrets. It was fun while it lasted. :-)  Everything's updated. Pictures of H.R. playing at the Dive were posted, and you can click here to see those. From that same night I posted the pictures I posted of Strange Mistress, a very cool Alternative type of band kicking up dust Locally, and you can click here to check those out. They play Primus covers. Enough said. :-)Photos of the Hudson Falcons playing the Dive were posted too, and you can click here to check those out as well. There's too much Death around the Scene lately, and I'm wishing it would stop already. I heard that Jessy Girl's send off was a Beautiful one though....
This makes me Happy - Clay from The Mapes playing his on-fire drum set last Friday @ Atomic Liquors... And so does this... call it Karma, call it Justice... Ex-wife of dismembered murder victim arrested This thrills me to no end... this same Green Day line up played U-Gene's in 1990, and that was the night I fell in Love with them. Them asking me and my Friends for our freshly smoked roaches after the gig was priceless!!! And this is what keeps me from killing you all... being a Drum Whore in one of my many shitty band projects... ha ha ha ha Tonight it's S.F.T. @ Adrenaline Sports Bar (the old Cheyenne Saloon) with 3D6, Lambs To Lions, Horripilation, and Unit F (from CA.), and then tomorrow night it's the Vegascendents @ the Double Clown with Unit F, Lambs To Lions (both again) and The Ex-Gentlemen from L.A. Should be interesting if anything... LOL See you at the gigs!! :-)
 Friday nights gig @ Atomic Liquors was majorly fun, despite all the attention whores and poseurs in cuts riding their kiddie bikes around. Sometimes I wish a real "Outlaw Bike Club" would just come to town and take all their cuts right off their Hipster backs. Parking was a nightmare, because everything Downtown was closed off for some sort of big event / population congregation, and walking along all the empty open spaces and hundreds of unused Port-A-Potty's reminded me of just how clueless the Downtown mentality truly is. I told everyone this, that the only reason why I even made the effort to go Downtown for the gig was to see Alan Six (or Sixx, depending on who you ask) and I'm glad I did. They were good - sloppy drunk but good! Lance plays catchy guitar riffs, I love Adrienne's voice, and watching Mr. Dave play drums reminds me of why I play drums - to have fun!! I didn't pay much attention to the Maxies when they played, I can't stand that snare sound the Drummer has, and the humor in the music and the schtick misses me, but the boys on bikes were going crazy while they played, so, whatever. Maybe I missed out? I liked that the Maxies seemed to spend most of their set time talking shit instead of playing music. ;-) And then the Mapes, oh The Mapes, set a new high in low, completely destroying the outside patio area where they played, and almost burned down the place in the process! It's never a good idea to allow drunken fools to play with lighter fluid with paper confetti all over the place. ;-) With all the flames and the food and usual fluids flying around, it was probably a good idea that this Mapes gig was held outside. It was definitely one for the ages, that's for sure. It was great seeing everybody, old Friends, new Friends, Enemies. Quite a fun night. What was up with that free crappy Coldcock Whiskey that was being passed around??? Yuck! I've been involved in pseudo-debates all day. BS about Punk Rock Posing, Local bands weaseling their way onto already overcrowded gigs, Promoters that keep putting the same 3 or 4 bands on every gig they do, and the validity of cover bands in the scene, if you can believe that. I find that I spend most of my free time involved in those conversations than in getting things done on the website. So much to do and not enough time to get it all done...
 I didn't know her as well as others did, and for a while I always got her confused with someone else, but to see the outpouring of Love for her, coming from all of her Friends and Family, is nothing short of Amazing. The recent passing of Jessy "Jessy Girl" Germeroth, of Bad Apple Tattoo, has left a huge void in the Local Las Vegas Music Scene, one that can never be filled, or ever be filled, and her impact on the lives and hearts of everyone she came in contact with is incredible to see. A life long passionate supporter of almost any and all types of Local Music, Jessy's infectious laugh and beautiful smile will definitely be missed at all the Local gigs but she will never be forgotten, I can guarantee that. Who's gonna drink all those Bud Light's now? ;-) I consider myself lucky just to have known her for the short time that I did, and to see my Friends dealing with this tragedy is just heartbreaking. My condolences to all her Friends and Family. Rest In Peace Jessy Girl. The song has ended but the melody lingers on...
There's a public celebration of Jessy Girls life happening on April 18th. Click here for more info on that. There's also a celebration of her Life happening on April 25th, featuring performances by Guilty By Association, Left Standing, and Battle Born, and you can click here for more info on that. |
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