Archive for July, 2007

Thursday night I went to Ronny’s for two reasons; to see Hotlips Messiah and to celebrate Slick Horrible’s birthday by meeting up with friends and having a couple of serums. I needed a good night out and this sounded like just what the doctor ordered.

Ronny’s is a pretty small bar with a back room that in reality is a garage. In this garage there is a couple of tables, another small bar, and the bands just set up their gear near the back of the garage and play. There is no stage, and the lighting consists of a single spotlight with a red gel pointing to the center of where the bands play. It’s about as low budget and punk rock as it gets.

The Wanderers

The Wanderers

The Wanderers

The Wanderers were up first. I think they are a local act but I honestly don’t know anything about them. I just popped in to shoot a few pictures then head back to the bar so I didn’t really pay much attention to what they were playing as I was heavily distracted. I don’t recall thinking anything bad of them so the next time I’m at a show they are on the bill for, I’ll make a point to actually pay attention to them.

Doug Travis

Doug Travis

Doug Travis

Doug Travis

After a fairly rapid set change Doug Travis took the stage, er… the floor, next. They were a mid to fast tempo chaotic punk rock band complete with a pretty spastic singer. He came out in a gold jacket and flashing glasses and was flailing about during every song as the band were pounding away on their gear. I found myself enjoying them quite a bit.

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Last but not least was one of my reasons for being there, Hotlips Messiah. It has been close to a year since I have last saw them play and the time has been good to them. In that time they have become tighter and more refined and are really forming a good sound. They have a definite 70’s punk influence in a Screamers kind of way with the keyboards, but they also use guitars. It works together quite well, and Traci is one hell of a front-woman. I could do without Richard Bastard playing in the nude, in fact I’d happily have gone my whole life without seeing his junk. They played about 45 minutes and junk aside, it was a really entertaining and energetic set.

Hotlips Messiah

After their set, I finished my beer and said my goodbyes and hit the road because sadly I had to be up in the morning to go to work. I left with a smile on my face having had a really fun evening. I definitely won’t be letting another year lapse before seeing Hotlips play again.

Lisa and Betty over at Frontier Records sent over their two latest colored vinyl offerings. This time it is once again two of the best releases on the label (and there’s so many good ones to choose from!) and two brand new colors.

Circle Jerks - Group Sex LP on green vinyl

Suicidal Tendencies LP on opaque red vinyl

Both of these limited editions can be purchased direct from the Frontier Records website. If you stop by be sure and tell them that MXV sent you! Thanks again Lisa and Betty for another fine vinyl fix!

On Tuesday, 7/17/07, our dear friend John Stabb of Government Issue was physically assaulted, just a block away from his home, by a group of 5 teenage thugs. John will be undergoing extensive facial reconstructive surgery starting on Sunday, 7/22/07.

http://members.aol.com/johnstabbbenefit/

Wednesday night I went to see Chris Cornell and Juliette and the Licks at the Congress Theater. I was asked to shoot Juliette and the Licks for a spin magazine website feature and I, of course, agreed.

Juliette and the Licks

Juliette and the Licks

After driving through some really bad traffic to get to the city, I met up with Dark Dave outside the venue and we got inside about 20 minutes before showtime. The place wasn’t very crowded when we got there, largely due to the early start time I’m sure. I noticed they have done some work inside the old Congress, including ripping out the ancient seats on the first floor that covered the back two-thirds of the theater.

Juliette and the Licks

Juliette and the Licks

Juliette and the Licks

Juliette and the Licks

Juliette and the Licks promptly took the stage at 7pm. She was dressed in leather pants, a yellow top and was wearing some Indian headdress and had paint under her eyes. The band played about forty-five minutes of their dirty rock and roll. Juliette was pretty energetic, moving all over the stage and the band members were playing with a pretty good energy and everyone on stage was enjoying themselves. In between songs Juliette would play up to the crowd or provide a little information about the band or song they were about to play. Having only heard a couple of their songs online, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed their set.

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell

After about a forty-five minute set change while I was taking photos of the people the writer I worked with was interviewing, Chris Cornell and his band took the stage. Everyone but Chris came out and played some sort of into until he joined them and they went into their first real song. From there it was a steady mix of his solo material mixed in with some Soundgarden songs as well (as I was told as I’m not familiar with them) an Audioslave song or two. The crowd were pretty into it, especially the Soundgarden numbers, which included “Jesus Christ Pose”, “Outshined”, “Spoonman” and “Black Hole Sun”. The band played for close to two hours including a three song encore and gave the crowd more than their money’s worth withe the long and rock-solid set. They even played a cover of “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson.

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell

After the show ended I drove home in a massive thunderstorm that knocked out the power to Combustion Manor, which I had to wait up for it to return so I could upload the required photos to Spin. All in all a pretty good nite and a very entertaining show.

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell

There are plenty more (and larger) photos from the show on my flickr site.

I was asked the other day if I would be interested in shooing some photos of Juliette and the Licks for Spin Magazine’s website feature called, “It Happened Last Night”. I was pretty flattered to have been asked and I certainly needed to get out and keep myself busy. Not to mention I wanted a good trial run of my brand new camera body, the Canon EOS 5D which I am already in love with only having owned it for five days.

You can see the results here. I will have my own story about the show along with plenty more pictures of both Juliette and the Licks and Chris Cornell probably tomorrow when I’m doing working on all the photos.

CH3 - One More for All My True Friends - Picture Disc 7″
Suburbia Records

CH3 have been around a long time, about 25 years to be exact. Throughout the years they put out some really good records, and one or two that kind of missed the mark. After a long hiatus from recording, a few years ago they got back in a studio and recorded their best album since the first one and seemed to have found themselves again.

After another recording hiatus, but not one from playing shows, the band finally delivers some new recorded works in the form of a limited edition picture disc. The record features two songs. “One More for all My True Friends” is a sing along drinking song of the mid-tempo variety. It’s a great song to end a set of punk rock with and it is a lot of fun. There’s a bit of an Oi/Street Punk influence going on in the songs too.The flip side, “A Life Remembered” is a much faster number that would almost sound at home on the first or second album they ever recorded. It’s full of energy yet is still a bit melodic too which hooks you in. I like the two different styles of punk rock they represented here and they seem to compliment each other very well.

The picture disc is a limited edition of 500 numbered copies so I’m sure it won’t be around long and it’s well worth the few dollars to pick up, not to mention it’s worth it to support some of the nicest guys in punk rock.

Related links:

Suburbia Records

CH3 website