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| Japanther/Toys That Kill-Harold's Place Feb. 10 |
Ear-Pollution Show |
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| February 14th, 2006 14:39 |
 San Pedro is a town that has a long history of grittyness. This is a town built around all aspects of maritime activities, from military (Fort MacArthur), to commercial. In fact, the combined ports of Long Beach and San Pedro are by far the busiest in the country. The characters that have kept these ports of call running are the backbone of this town, and I can't think of a rougher, saltier collection of people than longshoreman and sailors. This mish mash of immigrants and miscreants gave San Pedro the feel that it has today. There seems to be an undercurrent of danger that runs through this town, and it is reflected in it's music and skate scene. Channel Street is a perfect representation of San Pedro, if you get caught half steppin', the park will beat you down. Harold's Place is also quintessential San Pedro, rough and raw. I promise that you will never find a single yuppie at Harold's Place. You will find good music, however.
Friday night's line up was diverse and entertaining. The opening band is named after the best invention ever, the Flowbee. Flowbee got the night going with some good ol' rockabilly. This is a straight up trio of guitar, bass, and a drummer whose kit is as simple as can be: kick drum, snare, and crash cymbal. Flowbee played like 100 songs, and some were tight and some weren't. The ancient lady with the huge fake rack sure liked it, as she was shakin' em like nobody else was watching. Appropriately enough, Flowbee just happened to be playing a song called "Shake Your Rack". They also played one of my favorite rockabilly songs of all time, "Hot Rod Lincoln". All in all, they seemed a little rusty, but not unlistenable at all. Hell, they were probably drunk.
Next up was F.C.P. or Female Chauvinist Pigs. As you may guess, this is an all-female quartet. As you may not guess, they can churn out some fuggin hardcore like nobody's business. And as an added bonus, every single one of 'em can probably kick my ass with the exception of the bass player, I think I can take her. Their style is hardcore punk with a good dose of metal crunch thrown in. F.C.P. has some hardcore lyrical content, too. Check these song titles: "You Skinny Little Whore", "Corporate Fuck", "So You Think You're A Man". Whoa. Go check out their My Space page or something if you wanna get a hold of their music, they told me they have stuff there.
Japanther was up next, and they stole the show. I am going to refrain from reviewing their music in this column, as I got a hold of a copy of one of their CDs. I will say that the live show was pretty impressive, and if these two kids keep it up, they may find themselves selling some damn records. Stay tuned for a review of Master Of Pigeons.
Toys That Kill were up last, and were cursed with technical difficulties or something. Either that or the cops showed up, I don't know. What I do know is that they rocked for about 10 minutes, played some Led Zeppelin, and peaced out. I would like to write more of a review, but hey, that was pretty much it. They do play pretty often, so I will make up for it next time.
It's good to know that this kind of scene is thriving down in San Pedro. How many places can you go and see a free show with four bands that rock? And where can you rock out right alongside some guy who is your about as old as your grandpa? I can't think of any. But I am glad Harold's Place is around, and I can only hope you all have a dive like this in your neck of the woods.
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