THE
DRAGONS THE TOILET BOYS
@ The Casbah, San Diego
Saturday, March 23 2002
Your luck can be incredibly good or thoroughly bad when you're in the hunt for Rock Action. It was the latter when I set out from Sydney for California to take advantange of a business trip - in fact the "real" Rock Action - in Los Angeles at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
A.T.P. is a moving feast of often eclectic music, conducted in Europe or the USA, and curated by a well-known band that arranges for friends (or major influences) to fill the bill. This time at U.C.L.A., it's Sonic Youth doing the programming. Heading the Friday night session (in different halls but at staggered times) are the sporadically reformed Television and another act informally dubbed "The Four Stooges" - partners-in-noise J. Mascis and Mike Watt collaborating with Scott "Rock Action" Asheton on drums and guitarist-brother Ron Asheton. Could I be there? Yes and, as luck would have it, on the artists' complimentary list.
Or so I had been told by a third party (who remains nameless and blameless.) Forgotten, ignored or maybe beating the guy with the list that had my name on it to the show, I moved to the box office nextdoor to lay down 50 U.S. bills (that's a "ton" in Aussie terms) only for the shutters to be pulled down as the "house full" sign went up. No amount of cajolling could persuade the event press manager to give me accreditation. (Let's face it - the fucker ignored my e-mail of a week earlier and he had more than enough friends around him, asking him to grease the wheels, so what pull would I have?) No Rock Action of the ex-Stooge type and the TV had definitely been turned off.
Crestfallen, I tramp off campus and head into the coolish night, the pissed-off comments of (paying) punters ringing in my ears. Standing in a 200m queue with the main hall already full, they realised the promoters had sold many more tickets than many fans expected. That was small compensation but I moved on to San Diego to do business but arranging to catch up, in person, with legendary zine writer Steve Gardner of "Noise for Heroes" and NKVD Records when work was over, a week later. Meet we did and The Barman's luck was finally in.
After much hospitality, disc-spinning, storytelling and a great meal from Steve's wife Mary, we headed for San Diego's number-one real rock venue, The Casbah, to see San Diego's number-one real rock band, The Dragons.
The Dragons have been around since 1991 but first came to my attention through former Brother Brick, Proton Energy Pills and Asteroid B612 guitarist, Stew "Leadfinger" Cunningham, who was taken with them and a signature tune "Loaded". They have five albums to their credit - "Painkiller", "Cheers to Me", "R.L.F.", "Live at the Casbah" and the latest, "Rock n Roll Kamikaze". Favourable mentions from Col at Vicious Kitten and Ken Shimamoto's well-deserved I-94 Bar rave review of the latter had piqued my interest enough to chase down two of them. Steve Gardner also rates them the best local band in his town - which should be enough for any I-94 Bar barfly.
The Casbah is a smallish, square room with a capacity of 200-plus, an outdoor area, back pool room and house P.A. In Sydney, you'd probably compare it to a small Annandale or a Green Square. It runs the rock most nights of the week and still attracts a fair spread of larger acts doing the circuit through L.A. There were four bands on tonight but we missed the first two. It's a mixed crowd inside but probably not reflective of the usual Casbah crew because the main support is the much-touted, MTV-exposed Toilet Boys.
Let's get this out of the way early...New York's Toilet Boys are well named. Fronted by a stringbean, peroxide tranvestite by the name of "Mr Guy" and crewed by a bunch of would-be Dolls prattling "Rawwwkk and roll Saaaaan Dieeeego" inbetween second-rate metal songs, it's stunning to believe these guys were on the bill for the Las Vegas Grind garage-punk festival not so long ago. Punk it is not, despite the closing cover of "Blitzkrieg Bop". The lead guitarist did a lengthy line in pyrotechnics, alternating between guitars spouting butane flames, showers of sparks and another adorned by a naff plastic pitchfork. The band pauses to brag that their latest video is on rotation on MTV. (That'd be right). This is a package that's so contrived and aimed to shock that it doesn't. Andy Shernoff was supposed to be working with them on songs and studio production. Again, I'm staggered.
And so to the main reason for being here tonight: Not Rolling Rock but the Dragons. Frontman Mario Escovedo makes his intentions known from the get go: "I wanna get LOADED!" he tells his hometown crowd as he and launch into the song of the same name (the very tune that rang Leadfinger's bell.)
It's followed by a string of familar (the singalong "Whoa Yeah", the drinkalong "Three Steps From the Bar") and the soon-to-be-better-known (still dunno about the eminently catchy "I wanna fuck everybody" chorus of "Needs", which brought a smile to the dial, but the acending riff of "Instatiable" is, as Bro. Gadner described it, killer.) Personal faves: "Like It's a Bad Thing", "Fade" and a breakneck cover of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" (where bassist Steve Rodriquez takes centre mic.)
These guys are nothing if not Stones and Replacements devotees (check out their second album "Cheers to Me" for confirmation of the former and frequent references to J.D. and Coke for the latter) but tonight (and on their more recent albums) it's the NY Dolls/Thunders influences that come to the fore. Whether it's the thrill of being back home in front of a charged crowd after a string of touring dates, or the fact that - live and on disc - this is a band that's picked up the pace as it's gone along, I'm not sure. This hour-long set is, as Bro. Gardner observed, almost frenzied in its delivery and pacing.
And loud: Mario's guitar may have been way down in the mix but his lead partner-in-riffs Ken Mochikoshi Horne's upper-range tones have my ears ringing for the next day-and-a-half. Not that I'm complaining. The Dragons are Real Rock Action. Can't pay a better compliment than that. - The Barman
P.S. Chalk this one up - at this show we happened to be positioned next to a group of people communicating solely by "signing". Were they hearing impaired (maybe longtime devotees of Horne San's guitar playing) or is the latest fad among Californian record company A & R scouts liberal use of non verbal communication? Buggered if I know.
