LA / LBC / OC
Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]
News Bytes Twitter Next Week’s New Releases
The Strange Boys at The Doll Hut by me
Last night at The Doll Hut was just another example of why touring bands don’t want to come to Orange County – localism (using the surfing term is the best way I can describe local bands being shitty to touring bands) and crappy crowds full of teenagers who have no respect for anyone.
Jay Reatard and The Strange Boys (as I overheard in the parking lot later that night) showed up at The Doll Hut around 5pm and were told there wasn’t a show, so they went and got a room (I imagine they went and called their booking agent to confirm there actually was a show) and then came back a little later to be greated by the local bands who I guess were orginally booked on the bill (though when I checked earlier in the evening, not one of the “scheduled” bands had the show listed on their own myspace) and were pissed that one of them was getting bumped.
I walked in as Pterodacdudes were going on, and after reading about Erin’s experience there a couple weeks back, I braced myself to have to sit through some pretty subpar bands. But as Pterodacdudes played I was surprised that they were pretty ok – in a less intense The Bronx kind of way – and had a energetic group of friends out to support them.
After Pterodacdudes finished, I guess Killer Dreamer was supposed to play, but they got barred and The Strange Boys took the stage next, who I was there mostly for in the first place. They seemed a little worried that the crowd might turn on them due to the night’s circumstances, but thankfully nothing weird happened and they had a pretty solid “crowd” (and I use that term loosely as The Doll Hut isn’t big enough to hold the amount of people that would constitute a “crowd”) that were just as eager as I was to check out the Austin by the way of Dallas, TX group’s Dylan worshipping country-tinged garage rock.
The Strange Boys set was way tighter than I was initially led to believe from their recordings I had heard, they were loud and tightly tuned with the guitars and rhythm section locked in a groove all night that juxtaposed nicely with Ryan Sambol’s adolescent warbblely marble-mouthed vocals.
Download “Nothing” (mp3) from their Nothing 7″ which you can pick up from Dusty Medical Records.
[audio:thestrangeboys_nothing.mp3]
Next came Jay Reatard, who’s Blood Visions came out earlier this year and is a must own for anyone who is a fan of his earlier work in The Reatards and The Lost Sounds. Jay and company ripped though about 5 songs before an over zealous kid (who apparently had been giving Jay a hard time all evening) crashed into the mic and subsequently fucked up Jay’s guitar. At his breaking point, Jay leaped into the crowd and pummeled the kid a bit and then shut off his amp and began loading out.
The show was over.
People who had come to see Jay were bummed but seemed to understand, but the kids there to see their friends in the local bands just continued to taunt Jay and company, calling them rockstars (sorry dudes, Jay doesn’t act like one, he just might have some angry management issues, and wasn’t going to put up with so much hostile bullshit for one crappy bar show – plus rockstars don’t tour in minivans!).
And here’s the thing; local OC bands lack people skills and their fans show no respect to other bands on the bill, in turn keeping touring bands from coming to Orange County (with the exception of those big enough to fill the HOB or the Grove, two god awful places to see a band, but provide a large buffer between the band, any locals acts on the bill and audience), which has basically turned Orange County clubs into havens for old man punk and rockabilly bands or pay-to-play all age emo joints that foster the aforementioned mentality of the locals acts and their fans/friends.
But whatever.
Orange County’s loss is Long Beach’s gain, as we keep getting better and better shows coming our way.
[Ed. - for a futher account of this incident, read the comments, of which I tend to agree with concerning Jay's actions. I was only using the events leading up to this incident as an example of OC show "localism" or whatever you want to call it, which upon second thought maybe wasn't the best example to use since it was overshadowed by a larger incident.]
Jay Reatard Blood Visions is out now; get it from: Amazon | iTunes | eMusic