Your Fourth of July weekend has gone to the Dawgs.
For the better part of 20 years, Bawb Pearce has led one of the Sacramento Valley’s best blues-rock attractions. Pearce and his three accomplices—Steve Wall, James Curry and Otis Mourning—make up the current incarnation of the Beer Dawgs. While most bands fear playing too much in the area, the Beer Dawgs maintain a regular regimen of four or five local shows a week, drawing capacity crowds regularly. From the band’s regular stint at the Torch Club to local biker gatherings, Time-Out Tavern and the Sands Regency in Reno, the band makes the rounds and then some. There’s a reason it’s flourished in a scene where countless others have failed, and you can find out why when the Beer Dawgs play Constable Jack’s, located at 515 Main Street in Newcastle, this Friday at 9 p.m. The cover is $6. So, head on up the hill toward Reno and stop your car just before the real traffic starts in the lovely ol’ town of Newcastle. You won’t be sorry. Call (916) 663-9385 for more information. (SN&R)
If they gave out Sammies for best hair, Th’ Losin Streaks would be in the Hall of Fame.
Few bands in Sacramento can top the visual onslaught that is Th’ Losin Streaks. Although the band has only been around for the better part of two years, its live show is unrivalled. From drummer Matt K. Shrugg’s spastic hand and foot work to guitarist Mike Farrell’s one-armed, nouveau dance-guitar shtick, there isn’t a dull moment. Frontman Tim Foster knows how to whip a bored bar crowd into a frenzy with his off-kilter stage persona. Sure, the sets are short and the songs are brief, but, like any good garage band, that’s the lure. If you haven’t heard the band yet (or are in need of a good, swift, ass kickin’), Th’ Losin Streaks will deliver on all fronts. While the band prepares to record the follow-up to its debut platter, Sounds of Violence, it has a small handful of local dates to appease its ever-growing fan base. This Saturday’s show at the Blue Lamp, located at 1400 Alhambra Boulevard, includes the legendary Bananas and the up-and-coming Black Dahlias. Hide your girlfriend. (SN&R)
If you haven’t seen Mikey Hood, guitarist and founding member of Hoods, around these parts of late, it’s because his band of traveling gypsies has been on the road celebrating its emancipation from Victory Records. Although the joining of forces with a label seemed inevitable, based on the band’s work ethic alone, it was only a matter of time before label shenanigans infuriated the energetic Mikey into threatening a bloody coup. Thankfully, before any blood was spilled in the streets of Chicago, the band signed to Eulogy Recordings, home to such noted acts as the Warriors, Calico System, Rag Men and On Broken Wings. Hoods play with one of their labelmates, Donnybrook, this Saturday at West Coast Worldwide. The all-ages show starts at 8 p.m. Admission is $7. The band likes to keep the whereabouts of its favorite downtown haunt limited to those “in the know.” If you’re not, visit www.westcoastworldwide.com and tell ’em Fast Eddie sent you.
Immolation makes a long-overdue return to Sacramento
A death-metal band with long hair, black clothes and grim expressions? How unusual!
8:30 p.m. Thursday; with Deicide, Skinless, the Misery Index and With Passion; $22.50; all ages. The Boardwalk, 9426 Greenback Lane in Orangevale, www.boardwalkrocks.com.
After several thwarted attempts to speak with Ross Dolan, the bassist and vocalist for Yonkers, N.Y., death-metal band Immolation, I almost decided to pack it in. As the band’s current tour made its way through parts of Canada and onto U.S. soil, it seemed like our 15-minute interview would never come to fruition. Nevertheless, after the tour manager’s sincere apology, I finally caught up with the band’s fearless leader in the lovely town of Prince George, British Columbia—during sound check.
It’s been way too long since Immolation has played Sacramento. “Man, we haven’t played there since about 1997,” said the enthusiastic frontman above the din of a bass-drum sound check. “I forget the name of the place, but it had a barbeque and shit. We were on tour with Six Feet Under. … I guess it was Bojangles?”
Right. It has been a long time.
For the better part of 20 (gasp!) years, Immolation has been releasing quality albums and demos that continually push the intellectual boundaries of its commonly ridiculed genre. To the outsider, Immolation is merely another death-metal band with Cookie Monster vocals. Upon further inspection, nothing could be farther from reality. Immolation’s sound—a quirky mixture of extreme metal with British metal’s chord structures and odd phrasing—is anything but typical fare.
Immolation’s devoted legion of fans is growing in number. Many seem drawn to the band’s obvious disdain for Christianity and organized religion, evident on its latest recording, Harnessing Ruin. “I’ve read really positive and really negative things about the record,” said Dolan. “The fact is you’re never going to make everybody happy,” he added with a hearty, evil laugh.
There’s even a bit of politics on the band’s latest long-player, out now on Olympic Recordings. As Dolan explained, “It’s very subtle because, again, we’re not a political band. Yeah, you could interpret [the lyrics] how you wish. It is very vague how we address topics, but the new album addresses what’s going on in the world and stuff.”
Although most bands rise to notoriety on the coattails of others, Immolation actually has headlined most of its tours. “We’ve actually been headlining since the Failures for Gods record [in 1999]. We’re enjoying the support slot this time around,” gloated Dolan. “At times, we would get the ‘headlining blues’ on an off night, since there are always kids that have to get to work the next day.”
Their current tour finds the members of Immolation—Dolan; guitarists Bill Taylor and Robert Vigna; and the newest member, Steve Shalaty on drums—playing direct support to Florida hate machine Deicide. “Deicide has been really cool to us on this tour, and so have the other bands,” Dolan said amicably. “We’re hoping to land another support gig near the end of the year.”
It turns out that the addition of Shalaty, though the band most likely would disagree with the wording, was a godsend. “Steve did such a great job. He just became ‘the man.’ On our first tour with Steve, we only had four or five days for him to learn the material, and he even learned two more songs on the road. Even now, we had a bunch of older songs that he didn’t know, and we’d go to his house, and he’d nail them,” Dolan said.
Unfortunately, getting the band together these days for practice isn’t as easy as it used to be. “Bob and I live in Yonkers, 15 minutes north of Manhattan. Bill lives in Tampa, Fla., and Steve lives in Ohio with a roommate,” he said. “Bob and I drive to Ohio on any given Friday [almost 10 hours away] and drive back on a Sunday.” If that isn’t dedication, what is?
“We’re very passionate about what we do and think the world should be handed to us,” Dolan said in closing.
There was a short period during the 1990s when our great city deserved the moniker “Suckramento”—the only town where White Zombie could fill Arco Arena, and you could still find tickets available to Paul McCartney on the day of the show. But, over the last couple of months, unless you were busy playing with your TiVo, recording Fear Factor reruns, you may have noticed that more than a handful of national acts have graced our stages.
Yes, Sacramento has been on many tour schedules as of late, rather than being a mere pit stop on the way to a larger Mecca, such as San Francisco or Reno. Once considered a “tertiary” market by major labels, known mostly for its ties to Tower Records’ corporate headquarters and for being home to our beloved governor’s office, the capital city has slowly made a name for itself.
On that note, 2005 has been an interesting time for local promoter Brian McKenna. Although it seemed like his independent company, Abstract Presents (at www.abstractpresents.com), had been downshifting and moving away from the spotlight, his current lineup has proven just the opposite. Like any sport or extracurricular activity, music is seasonal—and then some—and it’s just starting to get good.
While attendance varies from artist to artist, one thing is clear: People are coming out to live music again. Filling a venue like the 900-capacity Empire is a much more daunting task than one would presuppose, but the various capacities of venues like the Blue Lamp Lounge, UC Davis’ Freeborn Hall, the Crest Theatre and Old Ironsides offer a little something for touring troupes of any size.
From Queens of the Stone Age to Social Distortion, from the Aquabats to Benevento/Russo Duo, we’ve been (and will be) getting treated to a bevy of varied music without having to endure the long, arduous trip to San Francisco.
Perhaps if you’ve seen promoters like McKenna pacing a venue before a show, you might be able to realize the added pressure of promoting as opposed to merely attending. Twenty-five bucks for a Digable Planets show or even 10 bucks for the Ditty Bops is a small price to pay when you consider that the promoter usually is paying upward of 50 times that amount to secure the act.
Artists get paid a fee for services rendered, which is, for the most part, negotiated through a second party—usually a talent agency with multiple artists—by local promoters like Abstract. Nearly all touring acts require some kind of compensation; usually half of their guarantee is due up front, between 30 and 60 days before the scheduled performance.
For some ungodly reason, cover charges and ticket prices scare the common folks. Considering that the average person rationalizes spending almost double the amount of a given cover charge on various libations, this fact still is most perplexing.
Perhaps the changes in season are to blame for Sacramento’s obvious change in status. Perhaps it’s a shift in the economy. Whatever the reason, we’re finally coming into our own, and attendance is up. (SN&R)
Paradigm, hoping a free concert will make up for its new album not being out yet.
Although SN&R isn’t presenting the summer concert series in Cesar Chavez Plaza, this year’s lineup delivers on all fronts (and then some). Fans of the pop-alternative band Paradigm will be happy to know it’s finally releasing the long-awaited Thirty Stories High. Of course, the CD isn’t quite finished yet, so Paradigm’s fans must be appeased by a free (yes, free) live show. After playing countless colleges and live-music venues across the greater United States, the band has seen its fan base and sound grow exponentially, for the better. If Standing In Line, the band’s first proper release, was any indication of things to come in the near future, Paradigm should have no problem selling its new material to the masses. If you’re a fan of Sarah McLachlan, Jem, Anna Nalick or any of the Nettwerk-managed artists, you owe it to yourself to show up. Paradigm plays Cesar Chavez Plaza on Friday, June 3. The show starts at 5:30 p.m., and Paradigm plays promptly at 7:30 p.m.
Eddie
