California Recap Part 2
Saturday, October 25th, 2008
After the release party it took me and Nathan a minute to make it over to the Beauty Bar, but when we eventually rolled in, we got to actually appreciate what we just witnessed. Gibby was just finishing up his DJ set and Patrick Melcher took over spinning soul, ska, reggae and mod classics. The room was packed and it seemed like the entire show had taken the spot over. Straight Edge or not: everyone was crammed into the bar getting psyched and swapping stories and dancing; we were all going to milk this night as long as possible until the lights flickered for last call.
The next morning was a scramble to return some rented camera gear and a dash to Long Beach to get Jesse on his flight back to New York. With time to kill and empty stomachs we hit up the Coffee Cup Cafe in Long Beach and bombed our guts with an early burrito that almost caused us to fall asleep half way through. My shirt tightened up and I almost felt like a fucking burrito but it was worth it. I give up California, you win, you have much better Mexican food, so I flew the surrender flag and stuffed myself with as much beans, rice, avocado and tortillas as I could handle. We got back to Hollywood and realized we were ready to pass out, so we got in a power nap before entering traffic again for our second trip to Long Beach that day.
After enjoying a slow, highway sight-seeing tour back to Long Beach we touched base with {OPEN} and got set up for the acoustic jam. Popeye and Jeff were punctual and polite, Shea Gauder, the owner of {OPEN} was eager to help and after a quick trip to Ralph’s to get water and beer, we were set. Shea’s store is an incredible mix of rare and out-of-print books and local music. I had to resist looking around knowing I’d soon have a stack of books and a lighter wallet. Part of the excitement of whole trip was seeing old friends and just getting to fucking celebrate with minimal stress. California native and former Bostonian Eric Ferentz and his fiance Christie met us for dinner and we swapped updates over noodles waiting for the night to get going. Soon enough the book store was packed, ROA and Casey Jones showed up and signed copies of the book, Jenny, Jordan and Vique from Revelation Records were there. Jenny did an amazing job setting us up last minute and accommodating us and graciously offered to work the door to make sure no underaged heads stole beers. Livewire Board All-Star Chadski came by and introduced himself, finally becoming more than a screen name, and Vern Larid skated over after celebrating another Phillies victory.
Our goal in promoting the book is to touch on every aspect of the book and represent hardcore’s different styles, factions and personalities. We set out to be one of the first books to expand on the different ideas and sounds that started bursting out in the 1990s; the melodic bands that started surfacing were unique because they were bringing a whole grip of sounds to the table, especially the ones from California. These were kids brought up on Bad Religion, Dag Nasty and the Descendents. Bands like Farside and Gameface were bringing serious melody to the table but were releasing records and playing to a hardcore seasoned audience, it wasn’t the first time melody crept into hardcore, it was the first time that it was a modernized format and it wasn’t on SST or Epitaph. Take a band like Blink 182, they are as indebted to Bad Religion and Descendents as they are to Farside and Gameface, these bands really started the cross pollenation of hardcore and the whole Fat / Epitaph scenes before the Warped Tour. Once the east coast had bands hitting their melodic stride such as Lifetime, Bouncing Souls and H2O a sound was beginning to grow and with heavy touring and dedication it lead to poppy punk domination the radio waves becoming one of the most popular styles of modern rock. When you strip down a good song to something simple strummed on an acoustic guitar and it sounds amazing you have a great pop song and that’s what Popeye and Jeff are able to do. Popeye started things off with a set packed with originals, covers and finally a wonderful rendition of Farside’s Audience. Jeff followed with a great set that gave a nod to his roots with an acoustic Dag Nasty cover before Popeye joined him for a final set where they collaborated and ended the night with another Elvis Costello cover. Please check these guys out if you can and keep up with their projects and support some modest but incredible song writers.
Thank you again to everyone involved including Shea and {OPEN}, Jenny Jensen, Jeff Caudill and Michael “Popeye” Vogelsang. Mandel (one L) showed up and didn’t put me in a Ju-Jitsu hold for spelling his name wrong too so I could really wipe the sweat off my brow, the night was a success.
We popped around the corner to get a quick drink and hang with Jenny and Jared Eberhardt, we had to curtail the hang because we were both getting mad tired and had to truck back to Hollywood, but I had enough time to question why we consider Fireman heros for putting out fires but not Plumbers heros for unclogging toilets. Later that morning at exactly 5:30am there was a fire in our hotel and 4 fire trucks showed up immediately. I wouldn’t bend and call them heros but the message came through loud and clear, thanks karma.
Holy shit …it was fucking friday and we didn’t have shit to do so we hit up Fairfax and ended up running into Rick Rodney from Strife and Sal Barbier on the same block. Rick was working at Reserve and Sal at his namesake store, both must visit destinations if you are in LA. Across the street was a photo exhibit featuring some familiar hardcore camera clickers Juan Puente and Jeremy Weiss, small world. My inner jock took over and I headed to Vern’s Melrose Place looking apartment (complete with central pool) to watch the Red Sox defeat the Rays and trick me into thinking they were awesome. Vern was hunting for playoff tickets on eBay while Clyde Singleton spun some tales about his week including getting arrested for having yellow cake in his pocket and a grim apartment hunt. We met up with Kenny Hughes and headed back to the Montalban for another Nike party, this time Nike SB was celebrating the release of Lance Mountain’s signature Blazer complete with C.R. Setcyk, III artwork. They were showing Jon Humphries’ short film called Roadsigns then Lance Jr.s band was set to play. One night we were surrounded by hardcore personas this night was skate icons, when you’re an east coast guy it’s hard not to geek out when you see Guy Mariano, the same Guy Mariano that won a pair of Lance Mountain Blazers later that night in the raffle (you hear that Lakai?) this fucking dude wins everything. Ray Barbee and his infectious smile was there, Frank Gerwer, Daniel Castillo, Danny Supa, Heath Kirchart, and dozens of other heads.
Al Brown with Heath Kirchart, Richard Mulder and other Skate Celebs:
Vern got dissed by Transworld :
It was an amazing turn out and another great event that wore me out enough to check out early. I hopped in a cab and hit up Subway as it was the only thing open, near my hotel and “fast food”. Unfortunately fast food in CA is still slow as hell and I watched in slow-mo as dude constructed my sandwich, microwaving and re-microwaving a veggie patty, meticulously cutting strips of avocado and strategically spacing out spinach leaves. I had to piss and I was hungry as fuck, as I was reaching my tipping point a large black man with braids entered the establishment asking if anyone saw his keys. He had a semi-beat up sports car idling out front and a coy look on his face. Though the father on Good Times died on the actual show he was alive and well in real life, that’s correct John Amos was looking for his fucking keys at the Subway on Highland and Franklin late Saturday night. He asked the dude behind the counter if he “knew who he was” and the man promptly responded “Yes you are the tuna, you get the tuna everyday sir”. And that’s kind of where things were, he was the footlong tuna guy in need of his keys and I was hungry in need of food and a toilet. I said “Ok, I’ll pay now” and was off kind of wishing John Amos was dead in real life because he was delaying my already long mission.
Saturday was our last full day in California and was also Liskfest. Nathan and I could actually be spectators for a change which was nice. We arrived to the fairgrounds as Rival Schools was beginning their set. The sun set as they played and jammed, a perfect setting for some solar kissed jams. The sound was excellent, not hindered by the lack of walls to reverberate guitars and basses. Lisk hooked us up with passes and Joe Nelson and Gorilla Biscuits were nice enough to give us a spot to sell books at their merch table. Sara was gracious enough to watch our books and we rewarded her with a book and some chinese food. Once again everyone was out and the Sloth Crew were itching to dance, dive and have some fun. We peeped the Revelation booth and shot the shit with Igby, he introduced us to Half Off’s bass player who was also No For An Answers original bass player as well, he had never heard the You Laugh 7″ which was kind of amazing. All our OC friends were out in full force, Worsty even had some headset on coordinating things as Lisk zipped around on a motor bike looking like Kurt Russell.
Another big shout to the Dubar family who were all there mixing, mingling and tossing around a football. Pat did one of the most incredible interviews for Radio Silence and was kind enough to sign a stack of books for us. It was great to catch up with him and meet some of his friends. Wishingwell really was a cornerstone of Southern California’s hardcore scene and there were the Dubars over twenty years later swapping tales and handshakes with everyone. Hopefully we can do some feature with excerpts of Pat’s interview because he really chronicled his entire journey in great detail and it’s an epic tale. There are a lot of misconceptions and mystery around Uniform Choice, things that got misconstrued and lost in translation before the up to the minute media of today took over. UxC’s legacy in California means so much to hardcore’s history and it needs to be told in the right way. Thank you again to the Dubars for being a part of the book and helping with such a great event. Oh yeah, Liskfest 2009 ..Uniform Choice…let’s wish that wishes come true, Pat and the band will take the stage if things click when they start to jam, this isn’t going to happen unless it’s on and it’s right. Let’s hope it clicks because the second they go into Use Your Head California could actually sink for real.
H2O At Liskfest courtesy of KTG Hardcore
Two stages meant seamless sets and no shift in momentum. Maybe it was their hiatus but H2O was on fire, they had more energy than every and were so focused and powerful. They’re never a band to lack any emotion or determination on stage but they rolled through the set hungry and precise. The hits kept coming and Max doused us all with super soakers. Toby and crew just get more comfortable with each note and set a perfect tone for Gorilla Biscuits. It was fucking freezing now, we weren’t really sure if all of the Cro-Mags were there but the horns blew and we were on our way. GB hammered out a set spanning all their material from Slut to a Civ cover, the grinded out their version of Sitting Round at Home and gave everyone a full taste of the GB catalog. Everyone was locked in, Arthur went shirtless despite it being a million below zero but was still able to ping out the artificial harmonics of Salad Days, a clever segue into Hold Your Ground. GB gave the crowd a strong upper cut and we were on the ropes but the special guest was ready to jam.
Gorilla Biscuits at Liskfest, Courtest of KTG Hardcore
The sky was black and with a chill in the air the familiar chords rang out as JJ and the Cro-Mags gave California one last taste of their classic material. Getting to see a band twice in a few days let’s your really soak things in, I had a perfect spot right near Mackie and I just watched him bash his way through the set. Some drummers can command a song from the first hit, Mackie owns it before he sits down. Every drummer in the spot just sat there watching this guy abuse his drums with a swagger that would make Young Jeezy say “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaayummmmmmm”. It was rad to just sit back and watch an actual circle pit. The dust pit settled and the night was done.
Photo 1: Crowd, Beauty Bar, Hollywood, California October 8th, 2008; Photograph by Nikki Sneakers.
Photo 2: DJ Gibby, Beauty Bar, Hollywood, California October 8th, 2008; Photograph by Nikki Sneakers.
Photo 3: Nathan, ROA and Casey Jones, {OPEN}, Long Beach, California October 9th, 2008; Photograph by Shea Gauer.
Photo 4: Popeye, {OPEN}, Long Beach, California October 9th, 2008; Photograph by Shea Gauer.
Photo 5: Jeff Caudill and Popeye, {OPEN}, Long Beach, California October 9th, 2008; Photograph by Shea Gauer.
Photo 6: Skate Dudes @ Lance Mountain Party, Nike Sportswear At the Montalban Theatre , Hollywood, California October 9th, 2008; Photograph by Carleton Curtis.
Photo 7: Vern Laird, Nike Sportswear At the Montalban Theatre , Hollywood, California October 9th, 2008; Photograph by Carleton Curtis.
Photo 8: John Amos (on the Right), uncredited.