Spellbound - Siouxsie & The Banshees

Flyer by Edie Headnoise

Always fun spending the weekend in California playing gigs with my friends old and new! 😎 Friday nights gig with T.S.O.L. was such a good time! The venue La Santa in Santa Ana was in the basement of some crazy building with multiple floors hosting all sorts of different dance clubs there at the same time the gig was happening. Seeing disco bunnies, club rats, cumbia kids and punkers all congregating in one place on a Friday night was bit like hanging out at the Scream club back in the days, but without the modern day taco trucks lined up in front of the venue... heh. T.S.O.L. killed it, as usual, playing all sorts of shit from all across their musical career, Professor And The Madman were pretty good, no Rat Scabies on drums or Paul Gray on bass though but oh my goodness the fucking Detours stole the show hands down!! In my illustrious lifetime of seeing bands you could only dream about seeing, I have never saw The Detours so this was some bucket list shit for me. I stood at the side of the stage awestruck by just how powerful and catchy and involving the band was, with Gordon their charismatic front man having the crowd of longtime friends and fans eating of of the palm of his hand and drooling on themselves as the band tore through one classic song after another, every great Adolescents song, every great D.I. song, and every great Rikk Agnew song (as well as Social Distortion) was ripped off from the Detours who originally wrote them all and played them better than the aforementioned bands who are often miscredited with creating that "Orange County Sound". It was all The Detours. I for one couldn't of been happier to be seeing the band. I couldn't even take pictures because I was too much in the moment, just enjoying the sounds and the vibe in the room with no motivation to capture it for posterity's sake or bragging rights. It was pretty sweet. I was happy. I ended the night square dancing in the back near the merch booths. 🤣 I was sitting on the curb afterwards smoking a clove while watching Jack from T.S.O.L. change out of his wet sweaty stage suit into his warm and dry street clothes right in the street in front of the venue, where no one bothered him or was rushing up to him or anything, was pretty surreal. He waved to me as he tore off into the night on his big black Harley Davidson, and I couldn't help but wave back. It was a cool night to say the least, even though I lost the hundreds of dollars I made that night in the parking lot somewhere after the gig... 🤣🤣🤣

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Artwork by Tami C.

The next day was spent at a car show eating fried chicken and practicing with a new band called No Rival, which is Tammi from YGM's new musical project. Their sound is a mix of The Cult with U.X.A., AC/DC and Vice Squad, which is interesting to say the least. It's really catchy stuff. Featuring Caesar from The Stains on bass, and Thomas from Raw Sewage on guitar, we spent the day just jamming and conversing about all the crazy gigs we've played and seen and in between bullshitting having a great time playing music together, which just reminded me of why I do the stupid things I endure and go through to jam with my friends that I grew up with in the state right next to the one I currently live in. Driving home after weekends like this I get the best feeling in the world, like a drug high, strengthening and enabling me to get through the BS life throws at me and for putting up with people's shit and not killing anyone in the process... ha ha If only there were like minded people here in Vegas... 😉

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