Sin Salvation - The Dragons

Too much fucking fun this weekend, that's for sure. Drinking and eating my way across So Cal. for a few days, and in between I managed to play a few gigs. ;-) Fri. night was all about Ripperside and all the fucking righteous people we were hanging out with. Thanx to Josh and everyone involved with Knife Wielding Maniac, who were forced to use a refrigerator dolly and a cue stick as a mic stand (don't ask) during their opening set, the down and brown vatos in Feather Static, who reminded me A LOT of Pigasus and even threw in a few MC5 covers for us "Punks in the audience". :-) They were fucking waaaayyy cool dudes. And big Thanx and Spanx to Jesse and everyone involved with Hungry Ass Youth, who closed the night off with a killer set of some great sounding tunes. It was an amazing way to start this little adventure out, that's for sure. Thanks to everyone for all the offers of Sex and Drugs, but we were only here for the Punk Rock N Roll. We had more to do the next day and we weren't falling for the ol' "it's only 20 minutes away" line everyone was telling us that night... ha ha ha It was hard to sleep from all the excitement that night, but somehow we managed. ;-)

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Sat. it was all about Shakey's and their Life affirming Bunch Of Lunch deal. All the pizza, chicken, and mojos you can eat. Just look at that picture. Go ahead and drool over it. I can wait. Just know that it was every bit as good as it looked, and I ate so much of it I got sick, and after a quick vomit or two, came back and finished off a few more plates! LOL I was having high school flashbacks. Seriously. The people working there thought we were some big name band, and they wanted to take pictures with us, which was cool. We fought off the food coma long enough to climb back into the van to look for somewhere to crash out that night, and after finding out that Carlos is banned from all Motel 6 establishments for something he doesn't even remember doing, we cruised around for hours on end before finally finding a room to rent, which we didn't even have time to go in and check out, because we were running late on our way to Anaheim to play the World Famous Doll Hut. YES!!

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Wow! Haven't been to the World Famous Doll Hut probably since Linda herself was tending bar there, but I do remember a Youth Gone Mad gig happening there before they closed it down for remodeling / renovations / whatever, and man, does the place look a lot different than it used to. The bar doesn't take up the whole room anymore, there's an actual stage there now, with monitors and stage lights and everything, and the outdoor patio smoking area is actually quite nice now and not just the place where they threw out the trash, empty kegs and half full drunks. The gig started early, but there were people there, we were the first band to play, and we got people to notice us and pay attention to us, right Violette? LOL Awww man, so much fun to place this place again. Thanks to everyone who bought merch, and to Macc for the hook up on the gig and the invite back - save us that D.I. gig, will ya? :-) I didn't see any of the other bands that played, including Lemon Head's band Dead At Midnight. We packed up our gear quickly and headed off to Baldwin Park to play the 2nd gig of the day.

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Playing the American Legion Post was more trouble than it was worth. After an amazing pastrami sandwich grub at some greasy Mom & Pop hamburger joint across from the venue, we settled into the van for a long game of sit around and wait. The gig was running 2 hours behind, and the shared sentiment was that we were going to get bumped. We were playing last, on a bill of like, 5 bands, and it was some dude's birthday party, and all his Friends bands were on the bill, so we just assumed that we, the out of town band no one knows or cares about, was going to get the boot, and we almost did. If we hadn't asserted ourselves towards the end there, we were getting kicked off, because it was already one in the morning, and they still had one band to go, and the event had to be over at 1:30 - no exceptions. After a huge chunk of Drama with that last Local band, who just didn't wanna give up their spot on the bill for us, we set up our gear to play 5 songs before they kicked us off the stage. What fun. Nobody was in a good mood by the time we got back to the motel room, and Carlos and I stayed up all night drinking cheap booze and wandering the streets of El Monte, ending up at a grocery store at 6 in the morning to get a nightcap before heading back to the motel room to pack up and get ready for the long van ride Home. I slept the entire time and woke up in Vegas covered in my own drool and potato chip crumbs. Seemed appropriate. Unload the gear. Put the seat back in the van. Tell everyone to fuck off and pass out in bliss in my blackened bedroom. Fun. :-)

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