Sorry for the lag. My comp has a virus as big as the sad news. Yes I'm depressed about it. Anywho I walked to my buddys house one morning all early and we drove to our local Community College. The punk rock legend,Jack Grisham (TSOL, Joykiller, West Coast Dukes) and he had just written his memoir, "An American Dream". After finding the damn auditorium we walked in 10 min late (not missing much), got front row seats, and he had started speaking about his book. The book is not just another "Rock Star Biography". What makes this book more unique than Snookies? He lives his life with Satan and God guiding him from his shoulders.I looked around to notice that just me and my friends were the only punk rockers there. So many local kids were shocked when he said stuff like,"Yeah I was on crack when my daughter was born" and stuff like that. Some girl asked him about his band and as soon as he said T.S.O.L. me and my buds started clapping and cheering to our idol. He responded to the girl "Its called TSOL, it stands for True Sounds Of Liberty. You wont like us unless your a CRIMINAL!" OF course he looked right at us when he said that. After the speech we went to go talk to him and to get our books signed. Well they did, not me... I got my flyer signed. After we took pics and hugged him he told us about a free show that weekend on a boat. Of course we told him we'd be there. I have not read this book yet but I will. You know you wanna as well.
Fast forward to the weekend and we go to a boat. A band is already playing. People are just staring at 'em. These guys were middle aged calm dudes playing some good punk rock. They are Love Canal and are a good piece of history of Orange County Punk Rock. They did shows in '82 with OC greats Channel 3 and Adolescents but broke up. They reunited in '07 and have since been playing shows with the great ones. The singer seemed very calm but had a great voice. Though people weren't really into them I thought they did a very great job and I will be looking for their music.
Up next was a band I was very looking forward to seeing. They are called Yeastie Boys. They dress as clowns and do punk rock parodies. When I was walking to the boat I saw them walking to the boat as well. It was nice standing in line with a dude with a red wig and huge sun glasses. They went up on the mini stage. All 20 of them. They seem to act the same way in cars, same goes for stages. They started playing their version of Institutionalized and right away went to Wild In The Streets (Clowns In The Streets). I found this really amusing. Clowns were actually doing their jobs and people were pitting. I was really into it but I couldn't help from laughing from what they were singing about. Circus Producer (Pun on Dead Boys "Sonic Reducer"), Acrobat (Adolescents "Amoeba") and Holiday in Clownbodia (Dead Kennedys). They were a fun band. Since the boat was 3 stories people were throwing confetti and balloons and stuffed toys onto the audience. As soon as Yeastie Boys finished I fell in love with them. I will be seeing these clowns again. After they were done they were down in the pit and blowing their horns for every band that played after them.
After The Yeastie Boys set, a band called The Hated played. They were also OC pioneers and this was thier first show in 20 years. I cant find anything all about this band. Except one complaint from an old skool guy saying it's just the singer. They did a decent job and the clowns were going to crazy to these guys. They were good but nothing special in my book.
Up next was a band you may have heard of called The Crowd. These guys still play shows with big names like Bad Religion and Social Distortion. Their local fans adored em so they had people singing along.Its good to know old skool bands like these can still play huge arena shows and then little boats in their towns. The guy for being 50ish still danced his ass off and his voice reminded me a lot of The Dickies. I need to check out their music. They were great and still to this day are so underrated.
Finally. My 4th time seeing the legendary T.S.O.L. Right away the place got crowded. It took forever but finally Jack put his pen down and went to the stage. I went upfront and like my past 3 shows, I sang and shouted every song lyric. Jack had to stop during in the middle of a song cause he blanked out. He said, "Sorry for that, I just imagined this boat sinking,and was thinking how I would get out since theres one door." he continued to sing. He asked for request but then said "Fuck that! This show's free, you get whatever we want to play!" After all the stage diving and nasty 50 year olds in bikinis complaining, the show was sadly over. TSOL is one band you must see live. If your a TSOL virgin,then your obviously not Punk Rock and haven't heard their debut album Dance With Me. Go see 'em if there ever in your hood. Its rare but worth it.
Set Included:
World War III
In My Head
Terrible People
Superficial Love
Dance With Me
Tired Of Life
The Sounds Of Laughter
Abolish Government/Silent Majority
The Triangle
Fuck You Tough Guy
Die For Me
Man and Machine
Code Blue
1 comment:
I freakin love you. just sayin!
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