After what seemed an eternity, and after switching from one radio station back to another, Trueland and I finally got ourselves situated and in control of the equipment on the Pints With Punks radio show, just in time for our guest CJ Ramone and his drummer Pete, who also plays with the Street Dogs, to come into the studio (Matt brought them) and sit down and do the show. It was a boozy, fun interview / hang sesh, with, as usual, the majority of the really good talk with CJ being done when we weren't on the air. Him and Pete were super nice guys, fun to hang around with, and a great and easy interview to do. Absolutely great fucking time, and kudos to Matt or Trueland for making it all happen. I didn't even plan on going to the gig @The Dive later that night, but when he said we were on the list and he wanted us to come hang, well, it's hard to say 'No' to CJ Ramone, an American Punk Legend. So after a quick bite I headed off to The Dive to catch the gig. No biggie. I just had to get up in 8 hours to drive to CA. and play a gig with The Civilians at the Viper Room. No biggie. No biggie.

It was a mediocre turnout at best @The Dive for a Friday night. "Typical Las Vegas crowd" CJ Ramone quipped from the stage during his set, and he was sadly right. Johnny Madcap And The Distractions were up on stage when I arrived at the venue, boring everyone to tears with their Pop Punk jangly guitar tunes from the sound of things. Outside CJ had a lot of people wanting to talk to him, take pictures with him, just be around him, it was cool to watch. I was having too much fun outside bullshitting with everyone (including Pulsar) to want to go inside, but once CJ took the stage, I was front and center, camera in hand, stupid stoned grin on my ugly mug. He sounded great, had 'the voice' we all know and love, and the band was tip top too. He had Steve Soto and Dan Root from the Adolescents on guitars, tearing shit up and riffing hard, and Pete was powering through everything hard and fast, playing a drum kit that was identical to mine in color - it was eerie! LOL It looked like he was having a lot of fun playing all those classic Ramones songs, as well as tons of cool stuff from his varied solo career. He played Three Angels (personal fave), Understand Me and a bunch of other songs from his last release, Last Chance To Dance, as well as some classic unexpected Ramones songs. Bonzo Goes To Bitburg? What's Your Game? Fuck yeah!!! A little disappointed he didn't do ANYTHING from the Acid Eaters album (I thought that would of been a natural choice but nope!), and he didn't do Main Man or Strength To Endure, even though it was on the set list. Oh well. Minor tribbles at best. CJ Ramone played for a long time, to a die hard small group of friends and fans, and it was worth staying out late to see him play. Fuck the Sheiks Of Neptune and their audience for taking off and not sticking around for the show. I hate when bands do that, but Whatever. After saying my goodbyes to CJ and Pete and everyone else that was still hanging out, I headed home for a bit of kipper before making the early morning trek with The Civilians to play that gig @Viper Room in Hollywood. Man, the things I do for Shakey's Bunch-A-Lunch... LOL

I got to the Dive bar pretty early, and the parking lot was already full, with loads of Punx tailgating outside of their cars and getting festive. Everyone came out to see D.R.I., and to buy merch, lots and lots of merch, and if you were Zack, you came out to get your D.R.I. vinyl signed... haha. After what, an hour and a half delay - for what, I have no idea, but after what seemed like an eternity IDFI kicked things off with a raucous set of Punk Rock that was like witnessing an aural murder spree. Haven't seen them in a while and they sounded great. Still doing that Fang cover though... ugh.

S.F.T. - remember them? That's OK, nobody does! hahaha We played next and got lots of circle pit action going and even some "hawd-caaah" arm flailing and picking up change. It was funny listening to those guys complaining about being bullied by the "old dad Punk guys" in the pit when they were trying to Hardcore dance though... heh heh. Good crowd response for a band that only plays 2 gigs a year... LOL Kaustik, nice guys but man their band sucks. That Grind, Cookie Monster vocals thing just bores me to tears. Just not my thing. It seems stupid to me. Whatever. I stayed outside while they played. I made it through probably the first 4 songs of D.R.I. before I took off. They sounded old and slow and terrible, like a Heavy Metal D.R.I. cover band or something, I dunno. Maybe I was just tired, maybe I'm just turning into "that guy', but I wasn't feeling it, so I left while everyone else in the place was drunkenly rocking out, so what do I know?

Sometimes I forget just how old I really am... LOL With everyone all a flutter about the just released fast version of We Will Rock You by Queen, from the upcoming Queen On Air - The Complete BBC Radio Sessions box set, I sometimes forget that not everybody got to see them live like I did, where they always opened up with a ripping version of that seminal song, for example, I present to you this video of the band playing live in Montreal 1981. Where are the bands like this nowadays? Anybody?