The Grand Finale - The D.O.C.

It's Friday. I'm listening to a live feed of the Police and FBI agents storming a neighborhood in search of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and all I gotta say is that if you believe any of this shit the Govt. and so-called News sources and Media outlets are force feeding you, then I truly feel sorry for you. Sheep. The Al-Queda aspect is being pushed, the troubled teen angle is being played, and, of course, no one will live or be given a chance to tell their side of the story - Christopher Dorner anyone? How's that James Holmes thing working out? Yeah, and while the Sheeple were distracted by the loud noises and bomb explosions and watching the sacrificial lambs do their part, your 4th Amendment rights are on the ropes and about to be taken away? CISPA passed the House and is now on the Senate floor. Do you care? Of course not! let's just get drunk and high and stupid and talk about superficial things like Punk Rock and shitty Black Flag karaoke acts! :-)

Last nights gig @ the Beauty Bar was exceptional! Special Thanx to Blue Tile Lounge Events, Nevermore Productions, and Push Forward Skateboarding for making it all happen. And Thanx to Jarret Keene and Seven magazine for the little write up. Click here to read that. Tons and tons of good Friends and Family in attendance, lots of interesting and engaging Artwork all around the place, there was a metal half pipe that was being raged on all night by some pretty talented and wasted skateboarders, and the bands were more than acceptable - they were exceptional! The Swamp Gospel kicked things off with a spiritual set of Cramps tinged boogie woogie voodoo Punk, which include the handing out of free shots of Spirits mid-set and then the obligatory cover of Strychnine by the Sonics immediately afterwords... heh. I missed Fuzz SoLow, because I was inside checking things out with my girlfriend, and I missed Crazy Chief because they had to cancel, due to some Family emergency, but I've seen 'em both before, and I know that they're good, so no biggie, but I did get back outside to see Unfair Fight just fucking RAGE through a set of Punk Rock goodness that was captivating and a true joy to watch. Dan's performance was exemplary, with him egging the crowd on via in your face interaction and vocal delivery, and Chris just shredding the riffs away on the geetar sounded great. Everyone was buzzing about Liz's bass playing, and Pete was easily the best Drummer of the evening - as always - no offense Lenny. ;-) Unfair Fight were just incredible and they get better each and every time I see them.

My band American Buckshot was up next and we seemed to do OK. I wasn't really paying attention, as I was bashing the ever living fuck out of my drum set while pondering such lofty subjects as Why is there air? and How would you coat the Empire State Building in bananas to deter King Kong? People really liked us, and there was lots of compliments doled out afterwords, so Thanx everyone. It was beyond fun, to say the least. Mersa played after us and I couldn't stick around outside to watch them, as I was soaking wet from just playing and didn't wanna catch my death from cold, so I spent the remainder of the evening at the bar chatting the night away with everyone who bothered to show up. Lots of cool peeps I haven't seen in a while, and Family too, which is always a good thing. Cheers everyone. It was a fantastic night.

Surrounded By Thieves are playing with some really shitty bands tonight @ the Motor City Cafe. I'd say more about what a bunch of asshats the other bands they're playing with are, but I've really got better things to do. Improve your lot in Life Surrounded By Thieves. You can do better than that and remember, discretion is a good thing. Same with you Motor City Cafe. Leave those mediocre bands and the inevitable Drama they bring to East Side Joe's. It thrives in that cesspool and is not wanted in our scene.

Everyone in the facebook world was all aflutter about this whole Flag gig that went down last night @ the Moose Lodge in Redondo Beach, the exact same spot where Black Flag played their first gig. I always thought their first gig was @ Pollywog Park, but no less than an authoritative source as Spin magazine say different, so it must be true. Click here to read their write up on the whole thing. Now, my pessimistic, opposing view of this whole thing is that, if it's a Black Flag karaoke act you're looking for, then Flag is perfect. I'm not into this whole Nostalgia for Nostalgia's sake thing that everyone else is, because not every band can get back together and still kick ass and write great new material that stands up just as well as to their earlier releases. You wanna make me a believer - release some new stuff and quit slaughtering the cash cow. I mean, they had to bring Dez Cadena into the fold just to have more material to play so they could have a full set and get paid. Lame. I'm not even going to mention the fact that Keith and Chuck have been playing these same songs with the rest of the guys in Off! as the backing band under the name No Flag for a couple of years now as well, because that would just take away from the oh-so-good feeling that reunions for cash bring to the ignorant masses. Those bills don't pay themselves ya know! LOL If you don't believe me about this karaoke act aspect I'm pushing, then check out this video from last night of Flag doing My War, a song that only 1 person - the drummer - played on the record for. Nice. You people in Vegas might remember when bands like the Platters or the Coasters would do the same thing here, playing all the hits with only 1 original member in the group... yeah, well, this Flag thing is just the same - and just as sad as well.

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The Double Clown has been closed for a week, and I wish it would stay that way. Oh well. There's lots of stuff going on this weekend, including 4/20 related events, like the 3rd Annual World Bong Hit Holding contest going down at SOMEBODY'S house, and the 4/20 Munchie Party with Burning Agrestic and Lambs To Lions and some other bands smoking things up @ the Bunkhouse, and this years munchies will include brownies, pizza rolls and nachos! Oh, and some veggies for the Hippy Hipsters that eat like rabbits. There's also some sick ass Stoner Metal gig going on @ Favorites with The Ultra Electric Galactic, Blakk Heat Shujaa, and some other bands whose names probably sound really witty and insightful when stoned out of your gourd, and, of course, some Record Store Day propaganda, where I will be participating by watching Pet Tigers play with Talib Kweli (who?) @ Zia Records on Eastern, and then afterwords, if my better half is feeling up to it, I'm gonna be at this Pat Todd And The Rank Outsiders gig @ Backstage Bar & Billiards, featuring the return of the Black Jetts, a long and sorely missed musical entity here in the City. And if you don't know who Pat Todd is, just go kill yourself now. If kick ass Rock N Roll is not your thing, then you could always go to Scarlet @ Artifice, or the Highland Games, and be like all the other hipster homo's walking around in a kilt, or you could even see that ol' Chickenshit Conformist Hypocrite himself, Jello Biafra, with his farcical band Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, a reference to something that wasn't funny or interesting then and is still neither now. He'll be playing all those Dead Kennedys hits that he swore up and down in numerous interviews that he would never do, because he believed he was such a creative musical force that he didn't need to resort to that to get people to come see him play live. Yeah, glad to see Mr. Integrity is true to his word, and all after coming off of performing at Coachella this year too. Way to play by the rules and conform like all the other sheeple Mr. Biafra. I used to admire and revere you. Now I just pity you and aspire to be everything you're not with my Integrity intact. Cheers you old queen. Cheers.

Everything is updated. Damn I've written a lot. I don't have the luxury of writing as much as I'd like to, but it's always fun when I can sneak the time in. Did I tell you about the 3D6 Music Review I did? Click here to read that. Did you see the photos of Lenguas Largas that I posted? Click here to see those if you haven't already. I took them @ Hellpop! Comics when the band played there like a month ago. Timely I know. Oh, I also posted the photos I took of Nü Sensae that I took that night as well. Click here to check those out. I love all the Drama going on with the Arts Factory and the Bar & Bistro closure. Seems like that owner of B & B  and the owner of Yayo Taco share that same 'I'm being persecuted' complex. Whatever. That place sucked anyways. Uhhhmmmm... I corrected the Jimi Hendrix review for his latest release People, Hell And Angels, and you can click here to read that. I'm sure there's more to tell you about, but I'm tired. I was up all night. I need a nap. See ya at the gigs! :-)

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