Double Crown....ON THE ROCKS - Night One Review

I'm going on 2 hours sleep, but here goes....

I started off the day getting ready for a practice session for my old band, The Toga Kings, who are getting together to play for the first time in 8 years. We used to play the 3-B Tavern quite often when we were together, but stopped playing after a really bad, crazy show that we just don't remember much about (what we do remember is alcohol, cupcakes, shaving cream and our bass player playing "Another One Bites The Dust" for 5 minutes solo while standing on stage wearing just his underwear and Chuck Taylors). Anyway, we practiced for 3 hours and caught up on what we've all been doing for the last 8 years and surprisingly, we actually sounded better than we did back when we were playing semi-regularly. We are practicing again for a couple of hours, then playing the big show at the Nightlight tonight.

So after that I headed down to Chirbin's for night one of the Double Crown ON THE ROCKS fest at Chiribin's. The night started off with the only local instro band, The All-Nighters. They were dressed up like a cross between the New York Dolls and Sigue Sigue Sputnik, but their sound was pure surf/instro bliss. These guys are really good, mixing surf standards with a bunch of stuff that could of come off any of the early Sadies albums. The crowd really got into it and although when they started there were only about 50 people in the club, by the time they ended the set the crowd was near capacity (about 150 people).

Next up were The DT's, a local hard soul/garage combo featuring Dave Crider (Estrus Records/Mono Men/Watts). Just like you'd imagine, their sound isn't too far removed from the Mono Men, but with female vocals (provided by Diana Young-Blanchard, who was the singer of Estrus combo Madame X). They were probably the most popular band of the night and their set took the show to another level. The crowd moved from simple cocktails and beer to 40 ouncers (this is the only club I've ever seen that sells 40 ouncers, mainly PBR) and the level of drunkeness definitely kicked up a notch.

To close out the night was The Party Favorites, a band with a sound similar to Chris Con Carne, but done as a trio. They always have a stage gimmick - for this show the theme was the Nintendo game "Duck Hunt". They had a large projector displaying the game, with audience members taking turns playing. The band members were all dressed up in full-body duck costumes. They were the perfect closers for the evening and left the crowd in an exhausted, yet happy mood as they filed into the street at 2am.

Tonight's the big one, at the Nightlight here in town with Chris Con Carne, Footstompin' Trio, Toga Kings, Girl Trouble, Barbary Coasters and Kilaueas. Should be a blast!