On Monday, the lovely Grant Wheeler asked me to join him to see a band called The Sound Of Urchin play. He sent me a few songs, they were a little Ween-y, bouncy, goofy pop songs. I wasn't crazy for it, but I figured it might be a fun show.
Later, Grant explained that the show was in Downey, a place further east than even East L.A., and that it was at a punk rock bar called The Anarachy Library. (Go to their website right now and click on the "store" link for the most unintentionally hillarious graphic ever).
When we arrived we noticed it was "Metal Monday" and that, even though we were carded at the door, most of the people inside looked like they were 14. I was the only person wearing a tie. One woman asked me why I was wearing a tie. I said "Because it looks good? Don't you think it looks good?" She turned back to her beer.
Apparently the "anarchy" part of the "Anarchy Library" was biker-esque flames painted on the wall. I would also like to know exactly who in the Anarchy Library thought it would be incredibly punk-rock of them to install a foosball table. Earlier that day, i was worried that I might get beat up. Now I realized my biggest worry was being poked by an errant mohawk spike by a kid who clearly is as uncomfortable with the hairstyle as his parents.
The local band ended and the 14 year old kids began streaming out of the door like Whitesnake fans on fire. By the time The Sound of Urchin took the stage, there were only four people anywhere near the stage - myself, Grant, a drunk white kid with dreadlocks who stared at his feet, and another drunk white kid who repeatedly shouted "Wooo!" as if the band were on stage at stadium miles away, not a few feet in front of him.
The band was none-too-pleased to be playing on Metal Monday. The lead singer immediately launched into a speech about how much he loved cocaine, and how he wanted everybody to be doing cocaine, and why wasn't everybody doing cocaine? The drunk white "woo" kid yelled "It's because they're all Nu-Metal pussies!"
The singer then lost it. He began to rant "Oh, I get it! We're a joke band, is that it? We're a joke band? Come see the joke band? Joke band! Joke band! Joke band!"
He then proceeded to chant "Joke band! Joke band!" for a good two minutes. The other bandmembers lamely tried to turn it into a song, although they looked at one another with fear in their eyes the entire time. I was laughing. The "woo" kid was "woo"ing. The dreadlocked kid was staring at his shoes.
Because it was "Metal Monday" the band proceeded to play a metal set, which wasn't really what they were good at because it was one of the worst things I've ever seen. The "woo" kid tried to mosh, even though it was just him and the dreadlocked kid. They were later joined by a bald guy with a shirt that said "Got Milk?" who seemed to just be a fan on moshing.
The band eventually gave up and left the stage, and Grant and I wandered back to his car. I found it hillarious, all in all. Not often at a punk bar do you find a 29 year old dude in a tie to be the most subversive thing in the whole place.
Oi, oi, oi.
--opus
posted by opus at
1:48 PM
"Don't call me a good man. I'm not a good man. I'm a good bastard!"
--Heavily accented 7-11 employee.
posted by opus at
11:03 AM
I spent five minutes talking to this guy. The bear puppet is named Teddy, the rabbit puppet is named Nikki, and the elephant puppet (not pictured) is named Gumbo. He told me he used to have more puppets but somebody stole them. He said lots of people take his picture, but I'm the only one who asked him first, and the only person who gave him money for the privledge. Still, after all was said and done, I felt bad that I asked him the puppets' names but not his own.
--opus
posted by opus at
3:37 PM
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