Monday, May 19, 2008

Mike Ness - Tiger Army Rock

I'm really behind on my writing.. but hell, its not a job.. its a hobby. Checked out Mike Ness at Fillmore the other night.. It was slightly different than your typical Social D. show (is there one? even after all these shows, I'm not so sure). Down in the "pit" which wasn't so raucous to the countrified, punkabilly sound.. but hot and sweaty none-the-less.

Bottom line, great show. Came out strong, hitting "don't think twice" really quickly then slowed her down a bit with some "Solitaire" and an acoustic version of "Ball and Chain"... a cool spin on that classic.

He skipped "Six More Miles" at the Tuesday show, not sure about Thursday, but there was no fiddle so maybe that was why. Also, I was hoping he'd do "Ring of Fire" since the vibe was very Johnny Cash, but no dice. He closed out the encore with "I fought the Law" and at that point the punks had overtaken the "pit" and it was a nice bit of moshing and slamdancing by then (only a couple of tempers flared, the crowd was cool).

TIGER ARMY: Sunday night was a totally different scene.. but they came out strong against a backdrop of 40s or 50s country classic. I didn't recognize it but I love Nick 13's continued tip of the hat to class country, the good stuff before Nashville became so GD silly and stupid. Worse than today's hip hop or emo pop, the music industry will f..k up anything I swear.

I digress... it was pure 100% psychobilly though with the New bass player doing most of the talking.. and Nick 13 filling in some gaps.. he seemed to have some guitar issues but he carried on like a pro and ripped through the old Tiger Army classics and the new stuff.. including my favorite "Pain" which he says has a video coming out soon.. that should have been a single long ago in my opinion.

"Devils' Garden", "Outlaw heart" "Atomic" "Cupid's Victim" and the songs from "Regions Beyond" were cool.

I like the new bass player, Jeff Rofredro (who is really the old one, forget his name) as he's a big, bad ass psychobilly MF but I have to admit I miss the previous dude (his name: Jeffry, how is that for confusion). Jeffry was mad cool, when I interviewed him and the Tiger Army gang at the 2007 Warped Tour. Nick 13 was aloof, the drummer James Meza, quite... the gang's management at the time was disorganized and a bit difficult to work with, they said I could shoot the performance, then backtracked on day 2 (after I had already shot on day 1) and in general, were difficult.. but what band isn't, I still respect the band, their vision and most importantly their unique sound. Nick 13 is a talented, passionate dude. He knows exactly where he wants to go and has overcome alot to get his band there.

Last night you see he's a seasoned musician, playing through issues, smiling, happy to be where he is.. you can feel it and the crowd responded. The mix of punks, psychos, skin heads, goth rockers, black, white, Latino, Asian and young and old was a testament to the band's diversity and unique sound. They fu..ing rocked.. the crowd rocked.. and I think back to how far the band has come from when I first saw them and had no clue who they were when they opened for Social D in 2004. Four year's later, shot drummers, musical bassists, and incredibly diverse sound for a 3 person band and they are bonafide in my book... i wish them the best.

If you want to see the segment I produced on them from the 2007 warped tour, check out www.PunkOutlaw.com

NEXT UP:
Pennywise then NoFx.. I'm losing my mind.. is punk making a comeback in NYC??!