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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
20. November 2007 at 2:29 pm :
that is not how things worked out at all. a couple kids were having fun, singing to jay reatards songs when one fell on the stage and got kicked by the bass player & jay. jay then took his guitar and started slamming it onto the kids head while the kid was still on the floor.
the kid tried to get up and get into jay’s face because of jay’s behavior when jay jumped into the crowd and started throwing punches.
as someone who only went to the show to see jay reatard, i was utterly disgusted by his actions. if that wasn’t enough, he whined like a little kid about his precious guitar that the kid didn’t even fall into. in fact, if the guitar was broken, it was because jay smashed the guitar on the kids head.
if all that wasn’t enough, jay reatard and crew bullied the bar owner out of 80% of the door money, even trying to take money from the other bands playing that night.
as someone who has booked shows and gone to shows for years, i have never seen a band do anything as disgusting as jay reatard did.
it’s nice you are a a jay reatard fan boy, but seriously, what he did was inexcusable and unacceptable. don’t try to pass blame off onto orange county or anyone other than jay reatard.
perhaps the doll hut isn’t the best place to see a band, but there was no reason for jay to act the way he did.
many of the kids who did give him shit were in the same boat as myself. they were fans of his music who were simply disgusted by his shitty actions.
20. November 2007 at 3:08 pm :
I don’t think I excused Jay’s actions anywhere and maybe let him off the hook a bit easy…really what I meant to convey were the events that led up to the incident at the end of the night, which seem to happen a lot (not fighting, more the “localism”) at oc shows.
Also NOT a Jay fan boy, I like his stuff, but was really there to see The Strange Boys, who I really liked.
20. November 2007 at 3:37 pm :
i understand that the show wasn’t perfect and there was some confusion about band order as well as how many bands were playing that night, but nothing that happened before jay got on stage warranted the reaction jay gave.
two of the kids who were having fun and dancing were in the opening bands. at least one of them played a show with jay reatard the night before. they were definitely there not just to be with their friends but to support the touring bands as well.
if you want to talk about showing no respect to the other bands on the bill, that needs to be pointed squarely at jay reatard. for a) fighting other people, especially people who were down on the ground and NOT attacking him. and b) for his band mate who bullied the owner of the bar demanding that he unload his pockets and pay them 80% of the door leaving absolutely no money for the local bands. if you want to talk about disrespect, jay has that written all over his forehead.
i’m not really trying to attack you and your point of view either, it’s just that i was right up front when all of this happened and i myself almost got kicked for simply trying to pick up the mic stand and not to mention almost got hit by his swinging guitar. since the place was tiny, it was hard for anyone but a very few in the front to see everything that happened. and even i don’t fully know what happened since i was RIGHT there…and others could see what was happening without fear of getting hurt themselves.
20. November 2007 at 4:23 pm :
agree on “warrenting the reaction” part…and didn’t take anything as an attack.
thanks for sharing…in a civialized way no less, which is almost unheard on web comment forums.
20. November 2007 at 5:45 pm :
no problem…i was just incredibly pissed at what i witnessed at that show.
by the way…good luck with long beach getting better shows. i used to book shows at a venue that no longer does anything but acoustic what not and art shows and was the only real all ages diy venue there…and uhh, long beach is a challenge and a half to deal with. both in regards to the scene of the city & the city and its politics itself.
26. November 2007 at 12:54 pm :
the local bands were willing to show respect but the stange boys and retard fucked it up. this is why you cant write a review about yourself. your ego gets in the way.
26. November 2007 at 3:17 pm :
where is the review of Killer Dreamer (san pedro band)? oh ya, strange boys and jay the retard got paid and left to their hotel room before the show was over.