"Dance and bleed, karate chop and pray good times will never stop!"~The Vandals
So, the Vandals show. Where to begin...hehe The show was part of a benefit series for CBGB, and it was perhaps the best show I’ve ever been to. EVER. Cole and I drove down to Connecticut from Sunderland and took the MetroNorth(?) commuter rail type thingy to Grand Central Station, which was crazy huge by the way. Then we took the subway to Bleaker St, and there was CBGBs! It was so much smaller inside than I had expected, I was thrilled. Everyone was just sitting around chillaxin it was awesome. There are stickers and graffiti and band flyers from floor to ceiling and the stage is like...RIGHT THERE. I know.
The Vandals, I can’t even describe. Not only are they a wicked good band music-wise, but they are ridiculously funny, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, I really needed that. Bands with awesome music make me happy, bands that can make me smile get BONUS points!! :) I can't even explain how much fun I had, if the Vandals are ever coming around here, you MUST go see them. I'm trying to think of the set list...I forget the order and stuff but I know they at least played the following:
43210-1, Pizza Tran, Oi to the World, Cafe 405, My Girlfriend's Dead, I've got an Ape Drape, An Idea for a Movie, It's a Fact, The New You (happy Cole??), So Long, Farewell, Don't Stop Me Now (Queen Cover) and of course, I Have a Date! The last two are the only songs that Warren sings, and he gets so excited, I love it haha Anyone who can sing that song with the same energy at like 40 as he did in the early 90's video gets an A+ In fact, go watch their videos! I Have A Date and Pizza Tran are my favorites, due to their extreme 90's clothing styles (and Dave's white-boy-punk-rock-singer-without-a-guitar-to-hide-behind dance, which has only been challenged by Greg from the Bouncing Souls haha) but My Girlfriend's Dead and 43210-1 are also good. (How cool would it be if those links actually worked?? I'm soo not a computer person teehee I know you have to wait a few minutes for them to load. Totally worth it though!)
So amazing time at the show, I wish I could have gone back the next week to see the Bouncing Souls but I was too broke. :( After seeing the Vandals I was looking at Joe's Tour Diary on their website, and it's wicked funny, but he also writes about how they went to Iraq for two weeks during Christmas to cheer up the troops, which I mean, I don't care what your thoughts on the war are, I have so much respect for them doing that. So many of the soldiers over there have no desire to be there, it's not like they started the war, and I can't imagine who hard it is being away from their families. Plus, they're the perfect band to cheer people up heh But anyways, after doing this, they went on a European tour, and because of their performances in Iraq, they were basically boycotted and threatened all throughout Europe and called murderers. Which lowers my opinions of the intelligence levels in Europe significantly. There were actually posters showing the Vandals and then pictures of dead babies and the prison abuse scandal. Use your brains Europe. Please. In Greece, they had like hundreds of people waiting outside the club with knives and clubs and stuff and they were holed up in the basement for hours because the club owners said there was no safe way out. I had to laugh at Joe's description though, because he's describing this like terrifying situation and then he writes:
“The only fun thing that happened was that at the peak of tension (we were
all pretty nervous due to our helplessness and sitting duck situation) I
jumped on a big balloon that exploded with the sound of a hand grenade.
The owner of the club came running out of the back to see what happened.
It freaked out everyone so I felt bad, but I flew a long way to perform in
Greece and I think I deserved a little fun. I apologize to everyone who
thought they were going to die at that moment. I must admit though it was
a pretty amazing sound. I have no idea what that balloon was doing there,
but it was ripe.”
teehee If you're bored, read some of their tour diary it's good stuff. It's at http://www.kungfurecords.com/html/joesreport.htm If anything, read the most recent entry, it's about the CBGB show, and he says it may have been their best show, which I feel only proves that I'm not just doing the typical "That was the best show EVER" thing lol I had such a good time that I even MySpace messaged Joe to thank him for the awesome show and say how retarded Europe is, and he totally wrote back!! We're real tight now...ok we're not but I still think he's a damn cool guy :)
Ooo and there's pictures from the show! Click Here!! You won't!! Thanks for putting up with me livejournal, I know this entry is longer than any entry should ever be, but this was the BEST night ever and I dont wanna forget it! Thanks for going with me Cole, we need to go again NOW, we'll bring your CBGB shower curtain!!
The Vandals, I can’t even describe. Not only are they a wicked good band music-wise, but they are ridiculously funny, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, I really needed that. Bands with awesome music make me happy, bands that can make me smile get BONUS points!! :) I can't even explain how much fun I had, if the Vandals are ever coming around here, you MUST go see them. I'm trying to think of the set list...I forget the order and stuff but I know they at least played the following:
43210-1, Pizza Tran, Oi to the World, Cafe 405, My Girlfriend's Dead, I've got an Ape Drape, An Idea for a Movie, It's a Fact, The New You (happy Cole??), So Long, Farewell, Don't Stop Me Now (Queen Cover) and of course, I Have a Date! The last two are the only songs that Warren sings, and he gets so excited, I love it haha Anyone who can sing that song with the same energy at like 40 as he did in the early 90's video gets an A+ In fact, go watch their videos! I Have A Date and Pizza Tran are my favorites, due to their extreme 90's clothing styles (and Dave's white-boy-punk-rock-singer-without-a-guitar-to-hide-behind dance, which has only been challenged by Greg from the Bouncing Souls haha) but My Girlfriend's Dead and 43210-1 are also good. (How cool would it be if those links actually worked?? I'm soo not a computer person teehee I know you have to wait a few minutes for them to load. Totally worth it though!)
So amazing time at the show, I wish I could have gone back the next week to see the Bouncing Souls but I was too broke. :( After seeing the Vandals I was looking at Joe's Tour Diary on their website, and it's wicked funny, but he also writes about how they went to Iraq for two weeks during Christmas to cheer up the troops, which I mean, I don't care what your thoughts on the war are, I have so much respect for them doing that. So many of the soldiers over there have no desire to be there, it's not like they started the war, and I can't imagine who hard it is being away from their families. Plus, they're the perfect band to cheer people up heh But anyways, after doing this, they went on a European tour, and because of their performances in Iraq, they were basically boycotted and threatened all throughout Europe and called murderers. Which lowers my opinions of the intelligence levels in Europe significantly. There were actually posters showing the Vandals and then pictures of dead babies and the prison abuse scandal. Use your brains Europe. Please. In Greece, they had like hundreds of people waiting outside the club with knives and clubs and stuff and they were holed up in the basement for hours because the club owners said there was no safe way out. I had to laugh at Joe's description though, because he's describing this like terrifying situation and then he writes:
“The only fun thing that happened was that at the peak of tension (we were
all pretty nervous due to our helplessness and sitting duck situation) I
jumped on a big balloon that exploded with the sound of a hand grenade.
The owner of the club came running out of the back to see what happened.
It freaked out everyone so I felt bad, but I flew a long way to perform in
Greece and I think I deserved a little fun. I apologize to everyone who
thought they were going to die at that moment. I must admit though it was
a pretty amazing sound. I have no idea what that balloon was doing there,
but it was ripe.”
teehee If you're bored, read some of their tour diary it's good stuff. It's at http://www.kungfurecords.com/html/joesreport.htm If anything, read the most recent entry, it's about the CBGB show, and he says it may have been their best show, which I feel only proves that I'm not just doing the typical "That was the best show EVER" thing lol I had such a good time that I even MySpace messaged Joe to thank him for the awesome show and say how retarded Europe is, and he totally wrote back!! We're real tight now...ok we're not but I still think he's a damn cool guy :)
Ooo and there's pictures from the show! Click Here!! You won't!! Thanks for putting up with me livejournal, I know this entry is longer than any entry should ever be, but this was the BEST night ever and I dont wanna forget it! Thanks for going with me Cole, we need to go again NOW, we'll bring your CBGB shower curtain!!