![]() What a perfect weekend! :-) Friday night @ the Sand Dollar Blues Lounge was great! I played both sets without any problems, and my band mates almost had me feeling accomplished! LOL I don't know why we practice as long as we do, just to get up on stage and forget the basic fundamentals that we worked so hard on perfecting, but such is Life in a band. Technical difficulties and booze were definitely factors in every bands performance that night. Opening band The Nasty were a train wreck! The band is comprised of Rich and Ryan from Six Shooters To The Sky and 2 other dudes and the technical difficulties and piss poor sound made watching their set MAJORLY awkward. The silence after each song was deafening. Their performance wasn't very good. I don't think anyone in the place liked their playing, and that's being polite about it. Then American Buckshot played. Mistakes were made is all I'm saying. Then these lame ass attention whores, who were dressed up like zombies and whatnot, got up on stage and acted like they knew how to work the cat walk. It was awkward watching them also. Then the Vegascendents played. Again, mistakes were made! LOL Then Horror Business played and I was stunned stupid and silent. They were horrible. The drummer was playing the songs all wrong, they were playing the songs all slow and lethargic, they were missing the changes from verse to chorus, and I think they even played a few songs in the wrong key! I'm a Misfits fan - I know! LOL But all of that didn't matter, because everybody in the place loved them, and I was ashamed to see a few of my band mates enjoying them as well. Booze makes everything better, right? ha ha ha Oh, it was a fun time despite it all, and I really, really had a splendid night. Thanx to Danielle @ Nevermore Productions for putting it all together, and Thanx to Hawaiian Hot Dog for the delicious grub afterwords. ![]() Then Saturday, it was all about the Voodoo Glow Skulls @ the Bunkhouse. Whodovoodoowedo? FUCK YOU!!! ha ha ha They were pretty good once they got warmed up and used to playing outside in the cold Las Vegas night air. They were playing everything a little bit slow, but maybe that's just me. Playing slow worked for some songs, like Left For Dead, but really didn't for songs like El Coo Coi and Insubordination. And oh my gawd - they played Closet Monster! I haven't heard them play that song in a long ass time. I was giddy! It reminded me of how far these guys have come from their salad days, and I've proudly been there with them every step of the way. The Voodoo Glow Skulls are always a good time. Always. :-) The opening bands were an ecclectic lot, that's for sure. You had us, Aluminum Falcon play, and even though our set's momentum was killed by technical difficulties, I think we did OK. Time Crashers were in interesting concept but really bad musically. Travelers through time like Nikolai Tesla and Leonardo DaVinci form a band. Whatever. Burning Agrestic were really good, in a Taking Back Sunday / No Use For A Name kind of way. Shotguns N Gasoline might of been good, but you couldn't tell because of the shitty sound the soundman gave them. Their canned stage banter between songs schtick should go though. You don't need to remind the crowd every chance you get as to who you are. Some other really pro sounding band played after Shotguns N Gasoline, but they were too mellow and laid back sounding for me to dig though. Didn't catch their name. And then the Voodoo Glow Skulls brought it all down to a close, playing a pretty sweet set dressed up as the Village People. They didn't do the Y.M.C.A. dance though... boooooooooo. Ha Ha Ha They played a great set and I was glad to see 'em. Thanx to all the new friends I made that night, and to the old friends I caught up with, and fuck off to the Haters who were just making me el oh el. :-) ![]() And then there was this. That's a picture of the Captain flogging some chick with a whip while the Vermin played. Don't ask. Since my band mates were in no mood to go home yet, after the Voodoo gig they dragged me to the Double Clown, where the Vermin were holding court and where Pussykat Tattoos were celebrating their 50th Anniversary by throwing a Halloween party. As I walked in the Vermin were using the old ploy of 'Show us your tits and we'll give you a tee shirt' on the drunken girls in the crowd, and the sad part is that it was working. No where was that old cliche about Halloween just being an excuse for stupid girls to dress up like sluts more evident than at this cesspool on a Sat. night. Gawd I fucking hate this place. If it wasn't for the awesomely cool people I know who were there like Sarah and Jen and Darran and Shawn and Jesse and Tess, I probably would of been miserable. The Vermin were drunk and messing up songs left and right, covers included, and if it wasn't for a pretty funny drunken girl fight, involving Marianne from the Luv Taps, if you can believe that, then I think the Double Clown experience would of been a total bust... LOL Life's Torment, who had played with Phobia earlier @ East Side Joe's, were setting up their gear to play another set for whomever was still standing, but the guys and I left to go grub at Felipito's before calling it a night. Thanx to all my Friends and the new faces I became acquainted with in the parking lot, and again, fuck off to the Haters who were in full effect at that dump of a place. I'm Teflon people. The fact that you think I give a fuck about you is the funniest thing ever. I wasn't gonna let any of you pathetic fucks ruin my excellent weekend - Nope! :-) There's lots of stuff going on this weekend, but these two are the one's that get mentioned first. Go figure. ;-) Tonight @ the Sand Dollar Blues Lounge (it's no longer the Bikini Bar, as it reverted back to it's original name a few weeks ago) it's a Zombie vs. Survivor Halloween party where 2 bands I'm in are playing - the Vegascendents and American Buckshot. I've been busting my ass all week with these 2 bands, in a futile attempt to get them to sound in any way or semblance as being listenable. ;-) Tomorrow night @ the Bunkhouse another band I'm in, Aluminum Falcon, is one of the zillion opening bands playing with the Voodoo Glow Skulls. Whodovoodoowedo? Fuck you!! With both gigs it's always best to get there early, either to partake in some delicious drink specials or to actually check out the opening bands... heh heh
Then as an option, you have these 2 fine gigs that couldn't be more of a contrast in musical pallets if you tried! LOL For the downtown Hipster trash you have the mellow, laid back sounds of Crazy Chief, who are playing at the Beauty Bar tonight with Spindrift and some other bands who's members are sporting beards I'm sure. And then tomorrow, you have fucking Phobia tearing a new asshole to your skull @ East Side Joe's with Life's Torment and I.D.F.I. It's a homecoming of sorts for Life's Torment, who haven't played here since Larry and Bob moved away to L.A., so if you're going to the gig, say 'Hello' to them for me and check out what should be a dreadfully grindful gig. Get it? See what I did there? Dread? Grind? ha ha ha For the dressed up Halloweenies to the clueless Hipsters to the Skakaa kids or the crusty Hippy Punx who smell like patchouli, there's something for everyone to do this weekend. See you at the gigs! :-) I'm trying to catch up on things. Check out this amazeballs new video from the Fat Dukes Of Fuck for a song called Cigarette, off of their incredible Honey From The Lips Of An Angel release. It was made by the same guy who did the video for the Demon Lung song Lament Code, which you can click here to watch if you've forgotten how sick this guys video work is. You haven't lived until you've seen a puppet dressed up like a priest having sex and taking the virginity of some other puppet with big boobs, doing drugs, sniffing panties, sitting around naked with his puppet dick hanging out, smoking a cigarette, and getting snowballed. That, my friends, is just good ol' wholesome American entertainment right there! LOL This video is fantastic. Definitely NSFW... heh Local malcontent Karl Bakla turned in another Show Review of a "Punk Rock Show" that he went to a few weeks ago, the Rise Against / Gaslight Anthem / Hot Water Music concert @ the Joint. Click here to read it and check that out. He's going to be going to FEST soon, and I encouraged him to turn in some sort of Scene report or Show Review or something. I'm hoping he does, because I'm a fan of his demented writing style. <3
I got a bunch of stuff I'm sorely slacking on, stuff that's just piling up and creating a log jam here on the website. I'm sure no one noticed but I changed the look of it again, thanks to a recent Weebly update. New Pictures of S.M.D. added - click here to see them. Band practice is killing me, and a certain girl is too. Wouldn't have it any other way. C'est la vie! :-) OK, so let's get back to business, shall we? First off, there's this going down tonight @ the LVCS with a quiet, soft spoken band called the Melvins - perhaps you've heard of them? They're at the tail end run of a 51 States in 51 Days tour that has them getting into all sorts of shenanigans on the road, and if you haven't been keeping up with them via their on-line tour diary at Spin magazine, then you've been missing out on some interesting experiences and interactions. George Thorogood? Really? ha ha ha Click here to catch up on it if you're not already. Also, tonight is Dale's birthday, so bring him lots of gifts, because he likes that sort of thing. ;-) I don't know who the other idiots are listed on this bill, well, except for the 2 idiots I know, Jenn and Rex, and I don't know if they are opening bands or just boring sets of DJ spun music that plays in the background while everyone stands around bored, but the Melvins gig tonight should be intense. And loud. Bring earplugs. You'll thank me later. I don't think I'm gonna make it out though. I got band practice tonight and $40 is pretty steep to pay for a band I used to pay $3 to see @ Al's bar on a Thurs. night... heh heh
![]() Russell Means arose with the Morning Star and crossed the River to be reunited with his family. He led an extraordinary Life and was a huge inspiration to me and my interactions with my Indian ancestry and Government institutions. And that leads me to finally talk about the passing of a great guy I knew, a guy named Andy Crews, guitar player for the Apocalyptics and tattoo artist extraordinaire. I had been putting it off hoping to hear something different on the news, something that would make sense of it all, but it hasn't come yet, and I don't know if it ever will. Google his name if you don't know or haven't heard anything about what happened. I've re-read the news reports a dozen times. I just can't wrap my head around what they say he did. I just can't. It doesn't make sense. That wasn't the guy I knew, the guy who was always happy, carefree, helpful, never a bad attitude or a harsh word for anyone, a guy who loved his Friends, Family, Music and Tattoos. Andy Crews. Bad Ass Mother Fucker, but in the nicest way possible, if that makes any sense. If you knew him it does. That guy is forever gone, and that just sucks. I first met Andy @ the Double Clown (of course). He was playing in the Luv Taps, who were just terrible but Andy definitely stood out from them like a sore thumb. Denim vest, hair greased back, tattoos, he didn't fit in with them. Wasn't meant to be. But then he got the Apocalyptics going and then, then things got interesting. The Apocalyptics were a great band, and had a grip load of Grade A material under their musical belts, and I always believed that I would get to see them play one more time - a reunion show! :-) The band was no more because Andy moved to Washington to work at a tattoo shop up there, and I was always hoping Andy would come back to Vegas and play another Apocalyptics gig but now, that's not gonna happen. He's coming Home, but unfortunately it's in a box. Andy's memorial service is this Sat. @ the Highland Hills Baptist Church at noon. Don't mourn the Loss but celebrate the Life. More information about it can be found here. I was gonna go on and say something about all the cool stuff that went down this weekend, but I'll save that for later. This Andy thing is just such a fucking bummer, and I don't wanna trivialize his passing as just some casual thing that happened by writing about a bunch of nonsensical self-serving stuff. I'm not trying to pass myself off as one of his closest, bestest friends or some shit like that, I mean, I wasn't even Friends with him on Facebook, LOL, but I dunno, it's just such a mistake. That's what I'm calling it, a mistake. It's just so undeserving to a genuinely nice guy. I don't know what happened to him up there in Washington, and I don't know if I want to find out why he did what they're allegedly saying he did. All I know is that it's sad that he's no longer with us. Boooooo. Remember, don't take anything for granted. Tomorrow may never come. All my Condolences to his Friends and Family. |
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