Show Review: The F@gz, Thee Swank Bastards & Voodoo Organist at Club Napoleon's in Joshua Tree, CA

Mindequalsblown link: http://mindequalsblown.net/2011/06/the-fgz-thee-swank-bastards-and-voodoo-organist-june-3rd-2011-at-club-napoleons-in-joshua-tree-ca/

Show Review: The F@gz, Thee Swank Bastards, Voodoo Organist on 6/3/2011 at Club Napoleon’s in Joshua Tree, CA.

For those who don’t know about these bands, let’s do a quick lesson:

Voodoo Organist is a unique band that is primarily awesome vocals with an organ and drums with the addition of a theremin (my personal first time ever seeing a theremin used live). The genre could be described as death jazz with acid influences. Thee Swank Bastards are an instrumental surf-punk group that is good enough to make Agent Orange blush. Mutton chops, black suits and a exotic dancer (who can hula hoop the entire set) provide an excellent and unique show. The F@gz is a brand new punk band with Kelly Kaos of Yeastie Boys on vocals, Todd Roll on bass, and punk legend Rikk Agnew (The Adolescents, Social Distortion, Christian Death, D.I., 45 Grave and other countless bands) on drums.

The show was at Club Napoleon’s  in Joshua Tree, CA. Really small venue, but the size provided and intimate setting. Voodoo Organist opened up the show with an interesting and unique show. A couple voodoo skulls thrown here and there, along with his instruments, which were an organ and a thermin. He played a lengthy set list of 11 songs, lyrically spanning topics like Satan, the CIA, tripping on acid, and the end of the world. I love the vocals here because they are gruff, yet you can hear them clearly. He played an extremely good set with only the thermin, organ and drum loops. I would’ve loved to hear drums, but I suppose the drummer couldn't make it.

Thee Swank Bastards… Now these guys mean business. I never heard a surf punk band live till now, and man I love it! They later told me that they don’t have a predetermined set list, which is admirable because they have the ability to play any of their songs without a hitch and without error. Add to that already awesome live set is the sexy Szandora doing the hula hoop throughout the entire show. The live show is full of energy and the only gripe I have here is that there were not enough fans to enjoy this as much as I did. I hope that they catch a break and go on Warped Tour someday for the masses to see.

The headliners were The F@gz. Chances are that you have never heard of them. At the time of this show, they were only a month into existence. The drummer is a punk legend however, by the name of Rikk Agnew, who has played with The Adolescents, Christian Death, D.I., 45 Grave and more. The lead singer is Kelly Kaos, who is also in the band The Yeastie Boys, a bizarre circus band that plays punk classics with clown lyrics. Rounding up the lineup is Tim Mullin, Miles Bandwell and Todd Roll on bass and guitars. The immediately jumped into their high energy set with Hazard County, Trouble and Classy Lady. I love what I call “true” punk shows because they truly don’t give a fuck who and what they might offend, where as some modern punk bands aren’t as fearless. Another thing I really liked is that when a band plays punk, they tend to sound like 99 percent of other punk bands. Well not this band, as their sound is fresh and unique in punk. Unfortunately they don’t have any recorded songs just yet, but hopefully soon that will change. They actually went through a lot of songs (for a total of 11 songs) until the damn police came and broke it up. I guess that’s some of the consequences of having an outdoor venue next to houses.

Overall, it was a really good live show, despite the turn out it received. I know that here in the high desert is mostly full of hippies that worship Phish, and I hope I can help change that for the better. Not many good shows comes through here, but I know that when The F@gz, Thee Swank Bastards or Voodoo Organist plays here again I will be there for sure. :)

Go to their websites here to buy merch, albums and learn more:

The F@gz: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-FGZ/155197474541316

Thee Swank Bastards: http://theeswankbastards.com/

Voodoo Organist: http://www.voodooorganist.com/

Show Review 4/23/2011: Big Four (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth & Anthrax) in Indio, CA

                Before you ask, yes I am aware of the date in the pictures being a day off. The camera is stupid and I was too lazy to fix it.

By far the biggest concert I’ve ever attended. And believe me when I say this, I’ve been to a lot. In the ticket line ahead of me, there were people from Japan that came out here for this event! That being said, I was forced to miss Anthrax’s set entirely due to a mix up with my tickets. After walking around the entire venue twice (before I actually got in) I watched as Dave Mustaine finished up “Sweating Bullets.” I got back some of my energy when they started playing “Head Crusher” but it didn’t kick in till my favorite Megadeth track “Symphony Of Destruction” was playing. By this time I downed the Red Bull I was sipping on and watched, transfixed at the perfection of how well they played. When “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due” was over the set abruptly ended with a final bow of the band. During the interlude I struggled to meet with my confidant’s that I was supposed to work with, but apparently they somehow thought I had VIP passes (which I didn’t) and tried to meet up with me there.

                Now, I’ve seen Slayer before. Back in 2007 when they toured with Unearth in Sacramento, CA. That went down as one of the all time wildest shows I’ve attended. Unfortunately, that same energy was not really intact here. Granted, there were some decent sized pits and people going nuts. But there wasn’t any of the blood-letting I witnessed years ago, at least from the vantage point where I observed the band and crowd. They blasted through “World Painted Blood” and “Hate Worldwide” without any warning, coming to a small rest before yelling out “WAR ENSEMBLE!!!!” The next three songs after that were a blur to me until Kerry King struck the all too familiar chords for “Dead Skin Mask.” The audience responded very well to “Dead Skin Mask” and caused a whole bunch of people jumping and moving around. Also, I suppose this was the perfect time to get the throwing up out of the way as a lot of people made beelines to the nearest garbage cans and coughed up delicious burgers from the Grill Em All truck and beer. Again the blur set in until the end of “Snuff”, with the band leaving the stage. I thought their set was all over until Jeff Hanneman  (!!!!!!) came out and played “South Of Heaven” and “Angel Of Death” before a well pleased audience roaring with approval. He played extremely well, despite his recent illness with necrotizing bacteria caused by a spider bite. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t play “Bloodline” but it’s ok J.

                I have saved all of my energy for this. Although anyone can say what they want about Metallica and their diva like attitude they’ve known to have, It’s still fucking Metallica! And to be able to witness them playing on a historic night like this as my first time, I was thrilled. “Creeping Death” and “For Whom The Bells Toll” were played right through without much interruption, then the crowd went apeshit for “Fuel.”

                Metallica was the only band to have any sort of pyrotechnics on their set. After fire was blown in the air, some kids near the front of the stage decided to start a fire using discarded beer cups and used water bottles and mosh around it. Being the kind of guy I am, I got into the middle of it and helped keep the fire going for the rest of the night. Who am I to not help towards a worthy cause? Another 4 songs were played (“Ride The Lightning,” “Fade To Black,” “Cyanide,” and “All Nightmare Long”) when James Hetfield asked the audience to help him out singing a few songs. That’s when “Sad But True” was started and the entire audience pitched in for that and “Welcome Home (Sanitarium).” I never witnessed how well the audience actually responded to singing the lyrics as well as they did. It was movie perfect (hears to hoping this concert will end up on DVD sometime). Songs such as “One,” “Blackened,” and “Master Of Puppets” went off without a hitch. Then, David Ellefson (Megadeth), Frank Bello (Anthrax), and Kerry King (Slayer) all joined Metallica on stage to perform a King Diamond cover “Am I Evil?” Such teamwork was unthinkable just about 5 years ago because of the beef going on between the bands at one point or another. “Seek And Destroy” and “Hit The Lights” were the last 2 songs of the night until Metallica took the final bow and Lars Ulrich said “I can’t think of any better place to play this first Big Four show!” to the audience’s approval. A night that will remain with me for the rest of my life. If you weren’t there, you definitely missed out big time.