Dizot Dizash

I'm up at the crack o' dawn following the third power outage I've experienced in the last few days. Two were here at home in JC, only for an hour or so, and the other was at Thursday night's Dot Dash fest (the first of three shows this weekend).

So, we caught a cab from the Lakeside to Southpaw in B'lyn where the show was supposed to have started hours beforehand. As we pulled up across the street from the club, the droves of rockers loitering outside was a sheer sign of somethin' gone awry. Power outage. Of course. The show hadn't even started yet.

I spotted Eric Davidson, lead vox for the now defunct New Bomb Turks, and pretty much my favorite front man ever (after David Lee Roth, that is). We all stood around and shot the shit for awhile, and he ended up revealing the funniest bit of trivia in the meantime. One of Eric's signature stage antics is grabbing ball caps off of guys heads, wearing them, then returning them. It sounds lame writing about it, but it can be pretty entertaining, cause guys can get pissed off, but they usually feel torn between diggin' the band and resenting the singer. Anyway, sometimes if he's feeling especially ribald, Eric will stuff the hat in his pants. That really makes 'em fume.


(This photo was taken by my friend Chris Mooney at a Hellacopters/Turks show at Maxwells in Hoboken probably about 6 or 7 years ago. Chris is probably the only guy around who could manage to get all those guys together after a show for a group photo session. There are guys from a third band that played that night, but I can't remember which one -- for some reason The Quadrajets leap to mind, but I'm not sure.... That's Eric flippin' the bird on the far right.)
I can't remember exactly what we were talkin' about at the moment, but I mentioned something about Eric grabbing people's hats, and he said somethin' like, "Yeah, this one time I was so wasted, when I got to the hotel, I realized I still had some guy's hat in my pants." He said he even washed the thing, the nut. Too funny.

The show started after awhile, and pretty much everybody sounded great. The Tie-Reds were really good -- I'd never heard them before, but I guess they had a following in NYC at one time. The Zero Boys sounded great, too -- really solid, but short set. The Spits ended up closing the show, and ruled as always. One of 'em was sportin' a cool cardboard robot costume. Love it.

Today's the big day. First, it's an early bbq/show at Magnetic Fields where the kick-ass Live Ones will surely rev me up for the rest of the night. Then the more official Dot Dash shit happens back at Southpaw. The return of Teengenerate is the main draw. They're supposedly playin' Raydios and Firestarter tunes, tonight, too. One of the opening acts is this great jokey kinda band, Knights of the New Crusade. They sing about biblical, Christian themes, with great lyrics like "There ain't no monkey in my family tree." They also, apparently dress in chain mail and the whole knight get-up when they play. Now that's what I call entertainment.

All right. I'm gettin' sleepy. Time to crash!

Alex Soria Redux

Since I pretty much never get comments on this here blawg, I don't know to look for 'em. But, I happened to be looking through some old posts and caught a really kind message from a close friend of Alex Soria:

"Thank you ohhhhh so much for taking the time in acknowledging Alex. He was the love of my life and best friend (just shy of 6 years, before his death). His personality posessed as much integrity, sincerity, as his songwritting and musical abilities.Although words cannot change the pain I, and others who loved him now feel, reading posts as yours and other articles will help the healing. It means a lot to me, even though many of these people I may not know, recognize, honor and celebrate him, his spirit. I am glad you found him handsome, as he sooo was!!!!!! Alex would be flattered, he was a very modest person. We will always love him!!!!!
Thanks Again, Deb Taylor"

Thanks for writing, Deb.

DLR! Talk Show! Whoo Hoo!

OK, I'm just a tad over-excited at the prospect of a morning show featuring David Lee Roth, a man who truly was born to grace the airwaves with his one-of-a-kind loquacity if there ever was one. I've actually heard some old mid-'80s era radio interviews with Dave and there's nothin' like it. I've had it with Stern for over a year now, anyway. I was a loyal listener for about a decade until he got all politically rabid on me pre-election. And the E! Show didn't help matters any since the radio show progressively became a TV Show, which doesn't make for very good radio.


Well, I've been without an enjoyable morning show for a good while now (NPR don't cut it when it comes to "enjoyable"). And man, do I hope the best front man of all time really has signed on to do a show, cause I'll definitely be tunin in.

Fireworks Actually Are 'Street' Here in J.C.

Is it sacrilege to listen to British punk on Independence Day? Not sure, but we did it anyway. Of course, lots of good ol' American rockin' was goin' on in the backyard here, too, yesterday. The sounds emanating from our Dominican neighbors' yard added a fiesta-like touch to the affair (not unlike most other summer weekend nights 'round these parts).





On the menu: grilled pizza (with homemade dough), bbq chicken (with my special lip-smackin' sauce), and an array of other snacks and goodies. I also made some tasty and tipsy frozen strawberry margaritas. Apparently my use of real strawberries is a rare thing these days. Sad.

The highlight of the evening, no question, was the impromptu fireworks display which took place on the street right in front of the house across the street from ours. Guys took turns sparking up various black market eye treats. Cars whizzed by as rockets soared and popped inches away. An adorable crew of kids (a.k.a. shorties) was enthralled, stomping on the stoop and clapping vigorously. Extended cries of "Yaaaaaaaay" could be heard blocks away, no doubt. Next to the pre-rodeo fireworks display we caught at a fiesta in Costa Rica in January, this was definitely my most memorable.

As for the obligatory cookie of the day, it commemorated the earlier, yet no less contentious and bloody days of this great country. Yet again, taking The Punk Rock Kitchen's Rock-Out Cut-Out recipe to new heights (berry-flavored filling, too!)