Hard Skin at Alex's Bar in Long Beach
Sufjan Stevens Ain't Got Shit On These Fuckers
So, most bands that you like to think of as being totally awesome (radical, and tubular, brah) really, really, really, REALLY suck live. Hard Skin ain't on that "never see them play" list. I called the venue (ok, ok, the bar) late Wednesday afternoon, because the show wasn't posted ANYwhere other than on the TKO Records website, so no one I knew was even sure that there WAS a show. Apparently we weren't the only ones who didn't know; half the staff at the bar didn't know either. Now, I could stop this story here and say there was no show, and the company was just full of shit, and I drove up to Long Beach and couldn't find the damn bar to save my hide, and passed the same fucking cop 3 times looking for it for nothing ~ almost all of which is true. I could. But I won't spare you. Unlike this review, the show was fairly short (we're talkin' 20 minutes, tops); but it was honestly the best $5 show. EVER. The band's energy and rapier British wit almost made me pee myself like an excited puppy. They should feel special. It doesn't happen all that often. And they played, in my clearly expert and impeccable-taste-in-all-matters-musical opinion, some of their best stuff: mainly off their Hard Nuts And Hard Cunts and Same Meat, Different Gravy albums. I think that I could safely say that I could have called it a night and died happy if they'd played "Skinhead"... although I guess I'd rather have someone sing that TO me rather than at a show. Ok, so forget the whole "wish they'd played Skinhead" thing. I can now die happy. all in all, 2 billion/2 billion.
And if any of you lovely gents would like to, one day, sing that song to me, I recommend that you go buy, or somehow aquire... er... borrow from a friend, Same Meat, Different Gravy and memorise that song. Unless you already have. In which case... your place or mine?
On another note, I was hoping for a smooth recovery from death. While the stuffed nose is gone, and the cough is coming along nicely, I can't eat. Well, not without getting sick, anyway. On the bright side, at least I'm losing weight.
also, fred perry rules my world.