Show Review
Eric Coomer
night of the first Scofflaws West Coast Tour(tm).
Got to Hollyshit sort of early. Met up with Mike and Richie
and headed out for some diner before the show. There were
going to be four bands, Tantra Monsters (from Hawaii), King
Aparatus (from Toronto), Hepcat (LA) and the Scofflaws (Long Island).
I've only seen Hepcat and The Scofflaws before so I was hoping to
catch some good new bands.
The show was at the Whisky-a-Go-Go. Not a bad place but I thought
the owners and the folks running it were dicks- nuff said. The
bands had to adhere to a very tight schedule and at the end of the
night they basically herded everyone out before they could just hang
out and talk.
So the first band was the Tantra Monsters. They were okay. They
get bonus points for being from Hawaii. Definately Fishbone
influenced. The Sax player was pretty decent. They're a relatively
new band that seems to be searching for an influence. Not really
my thing. But they were decent.
Second up were King Aparatus. These guys are really nice and very
cool but I did not like their sound one bit. They could really
use some horns and the guitar player needs to relax on the
whammy-bar-heavy-metal-wanna-be(tm) soloes. They were a real tight
band for the most part so if you like that type of music they
are a must see.
By this time there was a pretty decent sized crowd, especially
for a tuesday night. Lots of aggro type "skinheads" that really
need to relax and have a good time. I've always gone to SKA! shows
to have fun, but...
Third up was Hepcat. They were missing Alex(singer) and I think
one of their horn players. I guess they had some reservations
about playing but since the Scofflaws were coming all the way
from NYC they decided to play anyway. They did a pretty good
set but they seemed to be lacking any real energy or enthusiasm.
The first fight of the evening broke out during on of their reggae
tunes. Fucking classic.
Finally, the Scofflaws took the stage. I've seen these guys about
a hundred times but they never disappoint. They had a lot of newer
stuff and they did some of their more classic tunes. They didn't do
many of their better covers. Part of the reason was that the Whisky
was keeping everyone to a strict 45 minute set. The Scofflaws even
had to ditch El Pussycat and These Boots Were Made For Walking.
In and around the 4th song or so a HUGE fight broke out. Actually
I think it was more like 4 or 5 fights. Major brawl. They kept
right on playing though as the bouncers stepped in and carted away
the morons. These morons of course were soon replaced with a fresh
batch of morons. So then at around the 8th song another fight broke
out. This time some skinhead girl was totally wailing on some poor
other yound skinhead. He took a major beating. Not a pretty sight.
He's going to have a hell of a time living that one down!
Overall I think LA sucks and the people are basically assholes.
But it was a real good show. Even the bands that I didn't particularly
care for were decent entertainment. Like I said if you go for that
sort of thing they were pretty good for what they do.
The whole line up minus Hepcat but Plus Dance Hall Crashers are
playing at Slim's in San Francisco tomorrow evening. Then
King Aparatus and The Scofflaws are heading to Lake Tahoe and
Salt Lake City. The Scofflaws are ending it in Salt Lake but
King Aparatus is making their way back to toronto doing shows
across the great floodlands. Sorry but I don't have specific
dates. I have to give these guys major credit. They have six
members in one van and they drove the whole way out and they
are driving the whole way back.
Eric
Jeremy D. Mushlin
: Ah, just got back from Hella this morning from the first
: Eric
Wow....you definitely don't see fights like that in Boston...even when
oi! bands play and there are lots'o'skins, things are almost always
pretty cool, ie-no nazis, no morons, no moshing to ska, etc....it almost
spoils me, except that the draws aren't always that great, and its hard
to
get good money for out of town bands....I would KILL to see
Hepcat...I'll take a collection and pay them myself if I had to...Boston
would LOVE them.....I just saw Mephiskapheles with the Skatalites for
free at Tramps in NYC.....the show ROCKED, except that it was 21+, so
alot of people just hung out outside the whole time...pretty lame in my
opinion...Allstonians and Steady Earnest at Granny Killam's in Portland,
ME, this Fri. night (8/6)...Allstonians and Skavoovie this Sat. in
Plymouth, MA, ....next Fri. night (Aug. 13.) Allstonians with the
Tribulations (roots reggae) at TT the Bears Place in Central Square, in
Cambridge...Aug. 14th (Sat) in Connecticut (Hartford) with NY
Citizens...AUg. 15 (Sun. ) in Great Barrington , MA with Steady
Earnest.....
that's all for now, f-folks......
Dance hard!
Mush-1
fish...@soulsteppin.corp.sun.com
Jeremy D. Mushlin writes....
>Wow....you definitely don't see fights like that in Boston...even when
>oi! bands play and there are lots'o'skins, things are almost always
>pretty cool
Thats because Eric is here on the west coast, and isn't there in Boston
anymore to stir things up :)
Emily
-----------------------
These are my opinions,
not Sun Microsystems
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Eric Coomer
> Wow....you definitely don't see fights like that in Boston...even when
>oi! bands play and there are lots'o'skins, things are almost always
>pretty cool, ie-no nazis, no morons, no moshing to ska, etc....it almost
>spoils me, except that the draws aren't always that great, and its hard
>to
Whoa! This is the exact reason I hated Boston. Every show I saw
there nobody was dancing. Everyone was too interested in slam
dancing. Even during the Laurel Aitken show. How you can mosh
to Laurel Aitkent is beyond me but there were people doing it.
The worst was during Special Beat. What a fucking drag. I will
say though that one of the only fights I saw was the one I was
in. Some fucking bonehead jocks thought it was real cool to
keep slamming in to some of the girls hanging up front. The one
thing I can say is that there didn't seem to be any nazi types at
the show at the Whisky. A nice change.
>get good money for out of town bands....I would KILL to see
>Hepcat...I'll take a collection and pay them myself if I had to...Boston
I believe I heard them talking about heading out to the east coast VERY
soon. So keep an eye out!
>Mush-1
Eric
Jeremy D. Mushlin
Alright, so the Special Beat Show had a pretty lame crowd, but they are
HUGE, so what do you expect? It was all yuppies! But there are alot of
shows here, and normally people dance, etc...and it is good...few
problems..
etc....
Trick
: >Mush-1
: Eric
Yeah.. I left Boston three years ago after I saw the Freeze play two songs and
have to walk off stage because everyone was too interested in fighting. I think
Sick Pleasure in the song "Sick Pleasure" said it best about shows with morons
who just want to fight. I've heard that there aren't anymore "unified"
Bosstones shows anymore in Boston because there are too many college kids
getting drunk and going to the shows just to play "skinhead". We all fuck up
our own scene.
-murray c/o trick
--
tr...@netcom.com
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