October 25, 2002
Muckruckers, Phenomenauts, The Flipsides, and Stunt Monkey
Halloween Show! Los Gatos Outhouse $6 7PM
This was a Halloween show, so a lot of people were dressed up, I saw a Dorothy from wizard of oz (well kinda a half-assed Dorothy b/c she only had the skirt, but still, rock) there was this fool with a HUGE frankenstein-ish mask, there were a lot of devils and demon-type kids too.
The Muckruckersplayed a really energetic set today. If ya haven’t gotten a chance to see their new line-up, get yer ass to it! I can see improvement in their live show, it’s more energetic and they seemed to be really into it tonight compared to the last show at imusicast in Oakland. They even made an attempt at filling in their ‘awkward silences’ as Marilyn and I had pointed out last time. The crowd seemed really into them too, everyone was dancing around only a few nameless kids were tryin to ruin their fun, but luckily, it didn’t.
The Phenomenauts’ set was chock full of rock. I love their stage performance, they have so much energy, they can easily get everyone dancing and singing along. Their tons of stage props like flaming cymbals, silly string, and the TP gun gets everyone in the mood. Whistling, singing through a loud speaker, an upright bass, and “transmissions” during their set. Their whole space getup just shows how into their music and entertaining the crowd they are. Their music is sorta 50’s swing dance-style music and classic rock and roll mixed together. I purchased their CD and was really excited to get it, as I’d wanted it for a while. I was almost disappointed in it, as it did not do their great music justice, and the energy from the live show isn’t as present as it is when you’re standing and watching them, but it’s definatly a good CD. Come back soon cuz I’ll be reviewing it! The Flipsides:This is the 1st time I’d seen the Flipsides, and I’m really glad I got to. They were all dressed up as cops tonight, the drummer as a sheriff though. I was really stoked when I saw that a girl was the lead singer/guitarist! You don’t see much of that. Plus, she actually had a good voice, wow. Their songs were catchy, but had substantial meaning to them and they weren’t like every other pop-punk song you’ve heard. The bassist kept making comments about going out and killing people but I think he was just getting into character. They passed out toy guns which people were ‘shooting each other up’ with, and fake police badges to ‘get free drugs with ‘ and a ‘baton slash sex toy’ so good times. So if you hadn’t noticed, I really enjoyed their set.
Before Stunt Monkey’s set, Sara and I went to her car to put some stuff in it and we saw these hula skirts, leis, flowers and tiki torches. We figured the nice kids from Los Gatos High wouldn’t mind us ‘borrowing’ their costumes and since we forgot it was a Halloween show and we didn’t dress up, we felt like getting in the spirit so we put on the skirts, leis and flowers in our hair, grabbed the tiki torches and went back inside. Some people gave us some funny looks, I think it was the tiki torches that did it, but we had a blast. Stunt Monkey’s set was pretty good. I wouldn’t say it was the best I’ve seen from them though. They didn’t seem to be as into it as they have in the past times I’ve seen them. They threw out some more ‘sugarcoated lard’ a.k.a. Hostess cupcakes and they brought out a real cake for their friend’s 16th birthday and everyone sang ‘happy birthday’ to her, which I thought, was really sweet. This was definatly an awesome lineup. The bands were all pretty different genres of music, but they all had energetic performances and knew how to entertain the crowd. I’d recommend checking out any and all of these bands the next time you get a chance to go to one of their shows. The sound was a little on the loud side which didn’t make the music sound bad, but some parts were pretty loud and my ears were feeling it afterwards. Overall, the show had a pretty good vibe, there were the few ‘I’m too hip to have fun kids’ but luckily they didn’t spoil the evening for everyone else. Everyone seemed really happy and like they were having a good time. I got to see a special presentation of Eric Fanali’s Karate Kid impersonation, y’all better not mess with him or he’ll regulate on yer asses! Thanks to everyone for donating money to 'The Local Zine' donation jar!! We love you!!
Mel-O-dy
First of all, I was really stoked to go to the outhouse cuz I haven’t been there in a long ass time. I went with my friend, Sara, and first, we went to Los Charros on Dana St. right off of Castro in Downtown Mt. View. Y’all should check it out, they’ve got REALLY good authentic Mexican food TO GO for cheap! Yeah!
So apparently it was Los Gatos’ homecoming, so there were tons of cars there. We had some fun talking to some LG kids afterwards, hehheh.