Man, in this day and age of video phones and YouTube, a body doesn't even need to try and evoke the experience of going to a show with mere words anymore. No, all that's needed is to wait a couple days and BAM! Other more techno-inclined persons do all the work for you!

So in reference to my last post, here are some vids from Saturday's show.

Here's the "hype Santa" that was dancing with Monkey. As the person who posted the video put it, "I dunno what she was on..."



For the morbidly curious, here's a minute and change of The Action Design...



I don't know, they actually sound better in that video than I remember. Maybe it's just because all their songs sounded kind of the same, so it all started to run together after a while. Or maybe we were all just impatient for THE AQUABATS!

Their big entrance (plus first song, "Danger Woman"):



Here they are doing that old chestnut, "Attacked By Snakes"--includes footage of the weird cobra-person that came out and danced around (and seriously freaked Desiree out); also includes a hilarious false start due to drummer Ricky Fitness getting "really into a beat" he was laying down:



And hooray for someone getting footage of that kid Quinn! Here he is being hurled into the crowd:



And here he is being hurled against a giant tortilla:



Finally, a couple short clips from the encore. Here they are noodling around with "Holiday in Cambodia" while trying to decide what holiday song to play:



Before finally launching into "Holiday Road"--can you tell the crowd was into it?



Apparently the response was such that the band is cutting a quickie limited edition single of the song to give away at their L.A. shows this weekend. Wish I could be there. ::sigh::

I posted this as my Facebook status update last night:

"Going to a 6 and older show tonight; tomorrow is a 13+ event. We run with some pretty hardcore crowds."

It's true!

Tonight we're going to dr_ninjapants's 25th Anniversary Dune screening. Since the film is PG-13, the good Doctor has deemed that it's a 13+ event.

Last night's show was THE AQUABATS, and that was for fans 6 and older. Although I think some younger kids snuck in.

Des and I were quite curious to see what the crowd turnout would be like; I hadn't seen the 'Bats in about 6 years, and in particular I wondered if the success of Yo Gabba Gabba! would bring in a more kid-oriented audience.

We needn't have feared or wondered. It was the usual selection of uber-fans in costume, punk dudes and dudettes, douchebags who think being punk means getting wasted and acting like an asshole, and random closeted fans like me and Des.

The venue was Slim's. I'd never been there and had heard mixed reviews, but it was a nice experience. The acoustics were among the nicest I've ever experienced. Neither Des nor I needed ear plugs, nor did we come out of the show with ringing in our ears.

There were two opening acts. We got there literally right when the first act, Monkey, was launching into their first song. They put on a great set, although I posed the question to Des halfway through as to whether this qualified as a nostalgia show yet. She said we're right on the cusp of it turning into that. I guess third wave ska has to make a "comeback" first, right? Monkey was also notable for having two ladies on stage, which is pretty unusual to see in a ska band. Of course, one of them was a "hype Santa" who danced with an inflatable snowman through the whole set. But the other was the band's bassist; go girl!

The second act, The Action Design, also featured a lady. In fact, looking them up after I got home, it was the former singer from Tsunami Bomb, a band I rather liked. Can't really say the same for this project. They played a sort of generic indie rock that, typical to the genre, lacked any real hooks or melody. All angle and jangle, if you will.

Remember that part earlier where I talked about people who think it's "punk" to get drunk and act like assholes? Yeah, well they came out in spades during The Action Design's set, heckling the band mercilessly. (And, of course, since the heckling was directed mainly at the singer as the "face" of the band, some of the heckling was unbelievably misogynistic.) I felt bad for the band. I mean, I'm sure they have an audience somewhere who'll appreciate them. It just wasn't at Slim's last night. I'm not one to put a lot of stock in "the omens," but about 30 seconds into the first song, the singer's mic cord fell out. That right there is an omen.

(Oh, and one thing that helped pass the time during the set was the fact that the bassist bore a passing resemblance to Neil Patrick Harris, so I amused myself thinking about the fact that NPH had formed this side project. Ahem.)

So anyway, The Action Design wasn't by any stretch of the imagination the worst opening act I've ever seen. It's just that The Aquabats usually pick great opening acts (Bad Credit, Blue Meanies, Digital Unicorn, etc.), so the bar was set pretty high, in my opinion. Plus, the poor crowd reaction totally killed the energy in the room after Monkey got everyone hyped up. I guess generic ska beats generic indie rock every time.

So then it was time for The Aquabats! Hooray!



Here the thing: I've probably seen The Aquabats more than any other band. From approximately 2000-2003, I probably caught their live show at least 1-2 times a year. So I have a fair bit of experience with the 'Bats. On the other hand, this was Desi's first time seeing them live! She's been a fan ever since I turned her on to them, but over the last five years a comedy of errors (either on our part or the band's) has prevented us from seeing them perform. So I was a little worried when, after three songs, the Bat Commander had to "take a knee" (his words), totally wiped out. He made reference to needing the crowd to help get from "starting on the 20 yard line" to the end zone. (Still not entirely sure if he was talking about himself or the fact that The Action Design had "de-warm-upped" the crowd.) He never said anything, but it was obvious he had a pretty bad cold. His voice took a while to warm up, and he kept blowing snot all over the stage (which he did point out, often to the audience's collective disgust). But I needn't have worried. The Bat Commander, and the whole band, are solid professionals, and they came through. A plot worthy of an Aquabats skit!

Speaking of which, there were a couple costumed villains last night. The first came out during the band's performance of an old chestnut, "Attacked by Snakes" ("We haven't done this one in 25 years!" announced the Bat Commander), and was a dude in this pretty bizarre cobra costume who acted all menacing and stuff. The second villain was an evil tortilla. Indeed. To whit:



Now here's where it gets really good. You see, a little earlier in the set, the Bat Commander had hoisted one of those 6-year-olds out of the audience; he explained that he had accidentally stepped on the kid while he was flailing around during one of the songs and wanted to make sure he hadn't completely destroyed the kid's leg. The kid, who was named Quinn, said he was "okay," to which the Bat Commander and the whole crowd gave a huge cheer. After that, Quinn was set down on a drum riser so he could get a real front row seat to the show!

At any rate, when the evil tortilla came out, the 'Bats did their best to beat it into submission, but it was a truly nasty tortilla and just kept coming. So the Bat Commander announced that only Quinn could defeat the monstrosity--at which point he picked up Quinn and proceeded to beat the tortilla with the 6-year-old kid. Like, swinging Quinn by the shoulders and throwing him into the tortilla. Repeatedly. It was awesome. Quinn seemed to enjoy it too.

At any rate, it's pretty much impossible to sum up what it's like to see The Aquabats live. It's one of those "you had to be there" things. Here's a bare summary: They ripped through a nice combination of stuff off Charge! ("Our new album...that came out five years ago!") and older stuff, and even did an impromptu performance of "Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates" when the crowd started chanting "Where! Was! The Captain!" Oh, and when they did "The Cat With Two Heads" the Bat Commander did the monologue from "Suicidal Tendencies" ("All I wanted was a Pepsi!") instead of the usual spoken-word bridge. Great stuff!

The encore was capped off with a holiday song. After going through a few possibilities (Madonna's "Holiday", "Holiday in Cambodia"), they settled on "Holiday Road" from the National Lampoon movies. They had The Action Design and Monkey join them on stage and everyone (even yours truly) chanted along with the song. Appropriately, as the song wound down (for the third or fourth time), the Bat Commander was heard to exclaim "Hallelujah!" Truly a religious experience.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

"Devo was right, Devo knew/And all the crazy prophecies came true" --Groovie Ghoulies, "Devo"

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply does not work." --Kent Brockman

"At least now we know what it was like to be a sane conservative in the Bush years." --Chad Denton

I've been thinking about posting my thoughts on the recent barrage of almost surrealistic political reversals, back-stabs, and general throwing-under-the-bus-ness, but I see Angelina Jolie has beaten me to it. Bravely using her celebrity clout and visibility, she has called out President Obama on his administration's failure to act on...Sudan??

Now, I know this is her fashionable cause du jour, and the situation in Sudan is almost inhumanly awful, but still...timing. Not so good. Because, you know, things are still going in the "down the toilet" direction back here at home. Not to mention in other Third World hell holes that we've already poured billions of dollars into. Following on the heels of the Polanski apologists, this just seems like more high-minded Hollywood liberalism. You know, the kind that gives liberalism in general a bad name by being just so damn disconnected from reality.

Being realistic--that's why I haven't completely given up on Obama. I wonder if maybe he's just making the tough choice in what is essentially a "damned if you do, damned if don't" reality. Maybe--just maybe?--he's trying to set a precedent of compromise and respect so that when the Republicans inevitably win back a majority they won't have as clear a cause of waging the bloody reprisals we all know are coming. But trying to undo 8 years of neo-conservatives using the globe as their personal testing ground for their pet socio-political theories, and 40 years of Nixonian dirty tricks politics...that doesn't come easy. Some might say it's impossible. That Obama is playing a sucker's game, and that there is no appeasing the irrational.

Time will tell, I suppose.

In the meantime, we can collectively wince at a President accepting a Nobel Peace Prize mere days after sending more troops into the Graveyard of Empires. Me? I would have just built a wall around the Afghan border, then sent in Snake Plissken on an as-needed basis. But that's just me.



As for the absolute train wreck that is the Congress...

A bipartisan coalition in the House voted late Thursday to make it easier for corporations to engage in complex derivatives trades without government restrictions, eroding the reach of proposed regulations to govern Wall Street...Democratic attempts to toughen the legislation failed.

...I guess I misunderstood what a "majority" meant. Although I thought I had a pretty good idea after 8 years of a Republican-controlled rubber stamp legislature. Guess I was wrong.

DJ 3000: Those clowns in congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns.
Bill: [laughs] How does it keep up with the news like that?