I guess that sold-out Wavves show on Saturday was a tad bit sloppy. David Downs reports:
By the closing track, Cooper was so frustrated with his own playing he knocked over his cymbals early. He finished without them, at which point he chucked his sticks into the crowd, and stormed off. Williams yanked off his guitar, hurled it through the drum kit, stalked off and punched Cooper in the back. None of this looked rehearsed.
Whoa! I’m sorry I missed out. I thought that backing band had decided to go straight and act more professional after working with Jay Reatard for so long. Read on for more Wavves antics, and some Best Coast problems too.
[Fast forward to 1:40 or so in the above video for an explanation of why there's 1:40 of Marilyn Manson's "Beautiful People." And for another two minutes after that you can watch a black screen as Wavves plays in total darkness while begging for the stage lights to come on.]
I was at this show! and I lovved it, follies and all. Isn’t the hit or miss unpredictability what people loved about seeing bands like Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements live? They may have fucked up and fucked off but it rocked! And wasn’t such a disaster in my opinion.
Are you kidding me? I love when unpredictable things happen at shows. Which is why, though I would’ve liked to have seen Wavves, I’m glad I saw Crazy Band that night instead.
The Bay Bridged explains:
Crazy Band (a self-styled obscurity from L.A.) began the night on a stage propped with two foot piles of crumpled newspaper, random billboard flyers, and basically just shit everywhere. As the band started (and by started, I mean each musician sounded like they were playing a different song while simultaneously talking to one another in valley-girl-on-crack dialect), their leader of ceremonies, sporting various florescent traffic guard wear, emerged from the pile of newspapers scouring the stage for a supposed set list lost amidst the rubble.
Within moments, said leader started a four person mosh pit offstage, while chanting some of the band’s mantras and/or song names including (in no particular order): “can you lick yer own boob,” “i’m so excited, i’m gonna die,” “boyfriend dumped you today because cuz yer gay,” and so on. At times, it all felt a bit subculturally insular, like imagining a Pop’s Bar v. Lexington Club battle of the bands, but the spectacle of it all was definitely hilarious, and it seemed most of the room couldn’t resist enjoying.
Read on.
thats awesome! haha. I saw a band called monotonix in Davis, and the singer poured tapatio on his face(to pretend it was blood) thinking it was ketchup and ended up screaming for water after it went in his eyes. Things then fell apart in a good way, and the drummer ended up giving everyone a piece of his drum kit to bang on. Not a favorite band of mine, but this show ruled!
With Monotonix, that “chaos” is part of their rehearsed shtick. Every show involves the singer running on top of the bar/crowd, drums are disassembled and reassembled in the crowd or in the street outside the venue, etc.
My old band opened for them a few years back to a packed house in Oakland. When the show was over, all the openers were handed $24 each. When asked where the rest the door money went (a few hundred dollars), we were told that Monotonix took it all. Another friend of mine hosted a show of theirs in New Nexico. After destroying the venue/his house with their act, they scoffed at an offer to stay there because it
“too dirty.” Not quite the punk rock ethos I was raised on………….sorry to digress.
ha wow, that is pretty lame, as they look like a bunch of “dirty” oafs themselves. maybe they should be forced to play a show at the gaza strip while their own countrymen do a flyby and bomb the shit out of them haha.
No Age, while not chaotic(performance wise), are totally genuine dudes which is one reason I like them a lot.
20 years ago this was called Nirvana.
Nathans did say he wanted “King of the Beach” to be his Nevermind I believe haha.
no one will care about these bands in a year. at least, i hope so.