I haven't been to many shows this year, but I have to say, and with only two months left, that this show is the best I've seen. Not only one good band on the bill, but two!! Two good bands!! Not too common lately, unfortunately. Lately there's one worthwhile band on a bill, and four shitty ones. Anyway, this show was held at the Redwood Bar & Grill in downtown LA, right up the street and around the corner from La Cita. Another great thing about this show, is that one of the good bands is semi-local. Neon Maniacs, from Fullerton opened the night up with some pretty good punk with a hardcore undercurrent (could be the ripping drummer). The music is driving as hell, and catchy to boot. I haven't heard their records yet, but would definitely see them again, and if I come across their vinyl, I'll pick that up too.
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| NEON MANIACS... |
Sometime during the summer I picked up the Irritones "Negative Dots" LP (P.Trash / Relax-O-Matic Vibrator) to review for Razorcake. Gave the record a positive review, and found out soon after these guys were coming all the way from France to spread their punk rock filth up and down the West Coast. Hmmm... The last good punk band from France that I've seen play in Los Angeles were the TV Killers, and that was at least ten years ago at Al's Bar. Anyway, so the Irritones are in town and the reason I left the house to start with. Neon Maniacs being as good as they are was sort of like an extra bit of frosting on the cake. I didn't really know what to expect from the Irritones. I mean the album is pretty damn good, and definitely in my top ten records list of 2010. As soon as they hit the stage I was blown away. Non-stop energy, tight as hell, charisma, the whole nine yards. I haven't witnessed a punk band this great since the early days of the Stitches (their shows in San Francisco are legendary, as well as some of their shows in Costa Mesa). The guitar has a nice crisp sound, and drummer who wails away. The vocalist is all over the place, climbing on top of amps, going into the crowd, smashing drinking glasses against the mic stand, flipping hats off onlookers, and never missing a beat. Their cover of Abwarts' "Computerstaat" was great; doing justice to the original and injecting a new energy into is as well.
They have a new 10" out, which I need, and a split 7" with the Rough Kids, which I'll review and post next week. Hopefully they'll come back to the US in the near future. And hopefully there will be more Irritones on this blog and elsewhere. Lots of photos this time around. Why not?
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| IRRITONES... |
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| I believe this is where they started playing the cover of Abwarts "Computerstaat". |
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| The bass player from Neon Maniacs picks Olivier up... |
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| IRRITONES set list |
