Saturday night I finally went to a concert. I haven’t been to one for a long time. This time it was at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, about 30 miles from my home. According to the event’s page on Facebook (and on the venue’s site) door opened at 7:30, show was supposed to start at 8 AM and end at 10:30 PM. I checked a week before the event and there was one support and one main band listed. But in reality there were two support bands; the second must have been added after I checked online.
I got there at 8:20 and the first band, Cormorant was already playing. I don’t know the sub-genres of heavy metal so I cannot tell you what kind of metal they played. They clearly were having fun and took it easy. As usual, I didn’t understand a single line of the lyrics, through the heavy throat signing. But I was just happy to hear loud music. Not that loud though. Throughout the whole night I was wondering whether I became a bit more deaf, or the show in general was not as loud as I was used to. I believe and hope the second was true. I don’t mind that the volume wasn’t gut-wrenching, but was surprised. The result was that my ears were not even ringing after the show or the next day. That was an unexpected surprise. I didn’t manage to snatch any good picture of Cormorant, but here is a cropped one from the back of the room.
While they were playing I checked out the merchandise booth. I saw that they had the t-shirt I wanted. It had the cover design of the main band’s (first and) new album. I found it funny enough to wear it in the future. (See below; it was designed by the same person, who did the iconoclastic Obama poster of the same design.) As I couldn’t hear the salesperson’s answers to my questions so decided to wait till the first band finished playing. They did that a few minutes before nine. I went straight back to buy the t-shirt, but was informed that the last large size of that design has been just sold. Too bad, I should have acted first. I bought the other design t-shirt and the CD as well. At least I supported the artist this way. I checked the day before and the CD online cost $12 at the record label’s own site and between $15 on Amazon.com (or $9 for used a copy.) Compared to these I was happy with the $10 price at the venue.
While waiting for the second band I walked out to the car, as I parked only half a block away. I popped in the CD and checked the lyrics on the inserts. At least this way I became a little bit familiar with the material. As there were only 9 songs on the CD, I pretty much memorized in one sitting the titles and got the essence of the meanings of the songs by browsing through the text.
I returned after 15 minutes right when the next band, Ashtray was about to start. They were more in tune with the evening as they were a punk-ish band. They made me feel a bit old. It was the kind of band I loved to watch 20+ years ago. They had youthful energy, the voice of the singress was annoying at first, which fit well with the idea of punk. In later songs she was less screeching. I admired how close she and the other singer, a guy sang together. They were fun to watch, although their angst didn’t feel authentic as they kept thanking the audience: a contradiction. During their songs they sounded angry as they should, but in between they were just nice. They sang a few songs roving amidst the audience. From my perspective it was light entertaining, but I was entertained. They did a few covers, including from the band Operation Ivy. See a song of theirs I recorded.
After Ashtray there was another 20 minute break, during which I dropped my jacket in the car, so in case during the last band’s gig I feel like entering the moshpit it would be simpler to do so. I also looked more around the venue. It was transformed from an old theater. The seats were torn out and the main auditorium had skate ramps on the side. The floor was also covered with wood panels, for skateboarders’ convenience. The toilets were on the balcony and like most of the building’s inside was covered with graffiti upon graffiti. There was also a little mini-balcony at the back of the main room, where fanzine and some related literature were sold. This was an all ages event, so only sodas and candy bars were sold by a guy at the door. I do mean all ages. I saw several kids who must have been no more than 8 or 9 years old. Two of them weer wearing the hoodies marked as “staff” and they were obviously with their father. But there were others, who were not with anybody who seemed like a parent or an older sibling. On the other end of the spectrum there were about half a dozen guys, yes all guys, over 50 or 60. Me, with my 42 years of experience still pulled upwards the average age of the room as most of the audience was between 13 and 17 by the look of them.
Finally “Jello Biafra and the Guantamano School of Medicine” started at 10:10. After the band members took their places and started to play Jello Biafra rushed in wearing what looked like a bloody butcher’s coat.
I’ve never seen his Dead Kennedys, the band he is known for, live, but based on the videos I watched he had very similar energy this night. At the end of the first song he introduced the band members and even their past bands. I was most happy to see the drummer Jon Weiss, who was previously in a band called Sharkbait. I never saw them, but have two of their record, which are great. Finally I could attach at least a face to the music I’ve been listening to more than 15 years. The other band members also came from venerable bands.
Before almost every song Biafra delivered a 2-3 minute political rant. Never longer, as he must have learned to adjust to the audience’s attention span. After two or three songs he shed his butcher’s coat and revealed a black shirt with motives of the US flag around the shoulder. I only saw this kind of shirt on patriotic country music fans and stars. Biafra, was another kind of patriot, expressing his respect for the veterans, but not their misled reasons for joining the army. Later he took of that shirt to and was left in a t-shirt only, with the text “dead veterans against the war.” You can see some of it on the last picture. I was happy to notice though that Biafra’s pot-belly was more or less the same size as mine. (He is 10 years older than I am.) This made me think that I have hope to not grow my girth much.
The band played all the songs from the new record, a few from the “Live From The Battle in Seattle” record and two Dead Kennedys songs. These last more specifically were “California Uberalles,” with an insert on current politics in the vein of “what do you think of Obama now” and “Holiday in Cambodia.” This last was part of the 3 song encore, before the band ended the night right at 11:30. I will not reproduce here Biafra’s lyrics or opinions. I agreed with most of what he said and was glad that somebody was saying them. I doubt though that everyone in the audience got all the nuances of his informed politics, including me. What do you make of this for example:
I fully entered the moshpit only for one song, but was on the edge of the moshing circle for most of the songs and rocking in my own little solid way. I had fun this night. Mission accomplished.
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