I got a call last week from friend and rocker
Frank Meyer, saying there is a kickass rock show at
Alex's Bar in Long Beach. Alex's Bar is a pretty well known punk bar in LA and while it's about two blocks from my house, I had never been there(when you live across the street from
a bar, you get into certain habits).
After a quick stop-off at
The Pike for some fish and chips, another quick stop-off to pick up a few other LBC friends, we head over to Alex's.
Let me digress for a moment: I love music. But I'm not a fanatic the way some people are, nor have I ever followed a band around on tour. While I may love certain bands, I don't necessarily know the names of all the people that have ever come through their lineup. Frank Meyer, on the other hand, is an ENCYCLOPEDIA of rock. Or better yet, he's liking a walking, talking Wikipedia complete with hyperlinks to any other subject related to your search.
Part of this is because Frank was around for most of it. He lead a fucking righteous LA punk rock band in the 90s called
The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs. Go pick yourself up some Cheetahs, they ROCK. Hard-style. You won't be disappointed. (Nor will you be disappointed by his new supergroup
ANGUS KHAN.)
Still don't believe me? OK- Frank's
three year old daughter knows the entire history of punk rock and could probably beat me at Rock and Roll Jeopardy.
Yeah.
So we were going to see a couple of bands (with a bunch of Frank's friends in them)-
Charleyhorse and
Nine Pound Hammer. Charleyhorse is a newer band, featuring the bassist of
Nashville Pussy, Corey Parks, and the singer from Throwrag, Sean Wheeler. Nine Pound Hammer is an older band that has reunited for a couple of small tours, and features, Blaine Cartwright, the guitarist and vocalist from Nashville Pussy. Basically we were seeing the
mitosis of Nashville Pussy. (nerd!)
Alex's Bar is a blast to see a show at because it's set up perfectly for standing room and sittin' room. Huge bar, cheap scotch and Pabst, and more
shock-black Bettie Page bangs than you've ever seen. The sound system is thundering loud and the stage is low enough for the singers to kick the front row in the teeth.
If this were a proper music review I would tell you about the shitty first band that were just a bunch of gross, hipster, Ramones via the Strokes, Hot Topic brand, inflatable posers. How's that?
CharleyHorse fucking ripped it up. For those unfamiliar with Corey Parks, she's a six foot tall, upright bass playing, tattooed chick that's 75% legs. Sean Wheeler is like an emaciated Tom Waits on speed. Their rhythm guitarist looks like the Eddie Knox character from Guitar Hero II and they tore up the stage with psychobilly, punk'n'roll for a good hour.
There are a few important things to note about Nine Pound Hammer's set:
1.) Three full blown fist fights started within the first two songs of their set.
2.) All their songs are about Kentucky, drinking, and hunting.
3.) They perform the theme song for Adult Swim's
12 Oz. Mouse.
NPH ruled. I don't remember the last time I saw a punk show in a small club like this, but it was righteous. One song after the next, boom boom boom. Rock and roll. Fist fight after fist fight, resulting in the floor becoming a sea of beer-dirt slush and broken glass.
I know this hasn't been the most eloquent entry in a while, but I highly recommend to all you rockers going and checking out all these bands. While you're at it, go over to
G4TV.com's The Feed, where Frank writes all the music news pieces and is getting a significant amount of scoops over other music blogs/publications.
