Lagwagon, MxPx @ House of Blues
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Dear MGMT,
First, a bit of tough love. When I saw you at the KROQ Weenie Roast in May, you were bad -- really bad. You were baked out of your collective neo-hippie minds -- and I'm not referring to the fact that it was 200 degrees outside. I mean, c'mon guys, if Flogging Molly can keep it together dressed head to toe in black while facing the afternoon sun head-on, you can at least make an effort. Could you have been any more high? You kept obsessing about how L.A. has the best tacos in the world. That may well be true, but you didn't need to replace the words of all your best choruses with "tacos tacos tacos tacos." I didn't drive all the way down to Irvine to see you karaoke-ing your way through your set with the sequencer on auto-pilot.
But all is forgiven.
Tonight's show was beautiful. You picked up your guitars and played. That chord you held for half a minute before -- and sustained all the way through -- "Time to Pretend". I don't think I've ever tingled like that before -- at least not with my pants on. And how you made the crowd SQUEEEEEE like, well, kids, at the end of the bridge in "Kids".
Seriously, keep doing it like this.
The Voids @ Cobalt Club
I hadn't been to the Cobalt since college. (Jeremy, what ever happened with that band of yours? I don't remember the name, but I do remember the one song -- "If you love me, then you'll funk me".) So I didn't have high expectations for a show in Canoga Park. But front-woman Adri served up a pretty mean set. Had the place packed. And I don't know what the fight was all about in the alley after the show, but it was just icing on the cake of a perfect night of punk rock.
