This was a unique show in many respects. We were offered it a few weeks before by Mr. Johnny Vomit, of the group…..Johnny Vomit. He informed me that Joe from Mo Fucked (all 3 of our bands had played together with DRI about a year ago) had another band (which I later leared to be Chopped Liver) and he had booked this show. It was close to home which was great. Also, although we had played with Johnny Vomit 3 times previous, all times we had asked them (or ended up on the bill with them, like DRI). So we were honored to have been given the opportunity. Johnny had emailed me asking if we could play ‘the 6th’. No day was specified. I checked a calendar and saw that it was a Tuesday. I called Hilger and Rob and they were both down. I arranged to have the day off of work and called Johnny back to confirm. He said he would call when the date got sooner and tell us what time to be there, etc…
Well the day before came and no word from Johnny. So I emailed him when I went to bed and said to email all 3 of us back with the time to be there. I woke up that afternoon with a gang of messages from everyone and also a bunch of missed calls and voice mails. It ended up that the show was actually Friday the 9th. Johnny claimed he never told me the 6th, and I deleted the email so who knows. I do know that we have never had this happen in 60+ shows. So I made more work arrangements and got the Friday off as well. Johnny left me a hilarious voice mail from his work to tell me what was up.
Well the day of the gig arrived. I slept until a leisurly 5 pm and made some food, chowed, and went to Robs. I left before them. Now long before the show I took a drive down ‘the strip’ (Madison Ave.) in Forest Park because I had never heard of Mugsys and I had drank at a few bars in the area. I was coming west on Madison that day and I remembered that it was at the east end of the strip at Harlem Ave. I put that on our website and told everyone that. Well I was driving down and got to Madison and Harlem…that wasnt the club! I dont know where I got that idea from.
It ended up being almost at the opposite (west) end of the strip. I quickly called Hilger and told him. But all night every person that showed up told me how they went to that bar first, some said they even went inside looking for us. That sucks, I’m sorry.
Well I eventually foudn the place and a decent parking spot so I went inside. I saw no sign of any band people or equipment which is a bad sign always. This is why I never bring gear in first, I just sit down and have a drink. I assume the gig is canceled everytime (though it almsot never is). I ordered a Heiniken and the bartender says smoething like ‘you dont have to be so mad about it!”. Which of course I wasn’t trying to be, but I guess I had my normal serial killer face on or whatever. Soon after that Hilger and Lisa stormed in with amps and gear (Hilger doesn’t subscribe to my theory about not bringing shit in first). Well it worked out because Kathy (who i then foudn out was the contact/promoter/whatever) approached them and introduced herself. Hilger introduced me then. Kathy was super nice and told me she worked for Red Bull. We discussed phony red bull products like Matador (the shit bar spray out of the gun). I don’t know if she also owned the bar or what because she seemed to be the only real authority figure there that night and she also ran the bar.
Well she busted out a marker and went to stamp my hand. Then she said some crazy shit ‘you can have beer…but no shots.’. Thats right ladies and gentlemen, she hooked up all band members with FREE UNLIMITED BEER. I’ve never ever before seen that. 2 or 3 free drinks tops! and thats fine with my anyways. I immediately ordered more Heinikens and sat down to chill. Just then Joe came in and I regognized him as a ‘band guy’ and introduced myself. We spoke for a second and he asked if we wanted to play first. I said sure.
Joe also told me how when he had met Kathy and scoped the place out for a show in advance, he mentioned to her that he wanted to change some bright lights in the ceiling above the area where the bands were going to play. Kathy had some blue bulbs to put in and there was some guy trying to put em in. He was a little short and could barely reach even with a ladder and just fucked with shit for like 15 minutes. It started to bug me and also entertain me as he seemed pretty ignorant and in the end he just gave up and put the old bulbs back (actually, he only ever got 1 out).
The DeKalb connection was key at the club that night. Joe and Mo Fucked (and I assume Chopped Liver as well) are all from Dekalb. Johnny Vomit has played out there at a club called Ottos a few times. I met numerous other people from DeKalb that night. One was a mexican guy named Carlos. He was wearing a Misfits shirt and I asked him what his favorite song was. He eventually related back to me that he didn’t know the names and his english was shitty but that basically he loved punk rock! Another mexican guy from DeKalb was running the door. I guess Joe brought him along for this purpose. His name was Raphie (here he is — with Carlos on the left) and he started ranting to me and Rob about his love for punk rock and how crazy he was! He also said that he had many song lyrics written up (but no band/music)…one was called ‘Suicide’! Sounds crazy! He kept going on about a massive party he was going to have with bands and food and kegs. He said I could just crash at his house. ME and Rob were kind of laughing at him because he had such a wild ‘i dont give a fuck’ attitude. I dont mean that in a bad way, but he was just super energetic and insane. Later, during Johnny Vomits set, he ran up and started ranting into the mic! It was crazy! There was also another guy we had met before. When we played with DRI I’m sure this guy was rollin with Mo Fucked from DeKalb. He was this massive black dude and he was giving us mad props. It was a little out of place cause the guy didn’t look like he really belonged there, and I’m not just talking about the color of his skin. Well Hilger spotted him at the gig and pointed him out to me. Then later in the night he actually came up to me and Hilger and gave us props again! I had to take a pic of this guy. This pic is hilarious!!
Well we went on first. We had a set list but decided not to use it since we hadnt run thru it (too busy at rehearsal with new songs) and it had some odd ball songs Hilger picked which we havent played in a while. When I first showed up the place was full of regulars. (no punks). Johnny Cash was playing on the juke box which was awesome and I fed it some more cash (no pun intended) and put on more. I told Rob and Hilger how we should open with ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and we all agreed. Well the regulars were long ran out of the club by the time we took the stage and it was full of punks. I turned back to them and said ‘no way can we open with that’. They agreed and from there was just winged the set. We played ‘Figure it Out’ first because I wanted to play a crazy song and it starts with guitar (so I can start it without any warning).
By the third or fourth song I decided that a little Cash would actually go over well with the crowd (no particular reason I thought this, just seemed right). Well my hunch was correct and people loved it, espically some members of Chopped Liver and The Tossoffs. Jim from the Tosssoffs even grabbed a mic and sang along. We played some Misfits too and that went over well. The problem was that with no set list and no set time for our set (after like 12 songs I asked Johnny how much longer and he just said ‘keep playing till i tell you to stop’) I had no way to pace myself at all. Therefore I blew out my vocal cords near the end of the set. I was getting real tired and some songs like ‘Milwaukee’ had weak vocals. We played ‘Skulls’ by the Misfits near the end of the set and it was a bad idea, at the end of the song my voice completely crapped out. Dr. Z from teh Powerknobs showed up and hollered for an encore when we said we were going to finish so we played ‘Hot Mom’ for him. I had a good second wind for that one (Hilger sings 1/2) and I jumped 3 or 4 times in the song.
Next up was Chopped Liver. First to understand this band you have to understand Joes main band, Mo Fucked. They are a 3 piece and Joe plays bass. That band is just unruly gutter garbage thrash old school. Chopped Liver is even worse/better. They are crazy. Joe plays the drums and his lack of prowess translates into super raw, super REAL hardcore punk rock. His drums were super water damaged and beat to shit and they fit him perfectly. Their guitarist has a massive mohican as well. BEfore the show started I seen the bassist and guitarist walking up to the club when I was outside. I addressed them with ‘hey you fucking punks’ and they took it in stride with a smile and greeted me warmly in return.
Next up with The Tossoffs. They have 2 guitars and a singing drummer. Their drummer Woody looks to me like the real deal. The guy can really play the drums well and sings in a strong and deep voice. Their originals were good and they threw in a couple Misfits (played at lightning speed!). They seem like real down to earth fellows and it comes thru in their music which is as real as can be and what i would categorize as ‘street punk’.
Johnny Vomit closed the night out. As usual Johnny drank about literaly 6 Old STyles just during his set. But then again, they played a super marathon set (or so it seemed) so maybe thats not that much. They played all my favorites as well as all the songs off their new NGS Records MWHC split cd. The last time I went and seen them I kept calling for ‘Shut Your Face’, noe of those songs. They didn’t play it and I didn’t think they were going to this time either…but luckily they did close with it. I was getting super tired by the end of their set and just wanted to go home real bad. I just destoyed myself during our set and a bunch of beers isnt the best way to recover. At some point during their set people started to mosh. Well some beer got on my camera and I got pissed. I handed it to Hilger and started trying to kill people in the pit. I was grabbing dudes aruond the waist and trying to throw them and bashing hard. Well Joe from Chopped Liver was in the pit and hes not one to fuck aruond with. The problem is that he is actually taller then me and when he gets the elbows up they are at my face level (which rarely happens, since Im taller then most). He got me once pretty hard in the head and I kept at it and got more pissed. Then, accidentally (I think) he came up beneath my head and slammed the top of his skull into my chin. Luckily my tounge wasnt out or it would have been cut the fuck off. The bottom of my chin is still bruised and hurts and my left side of my jaw is fucked up and feels like it almost got seperated out. Just then one of the workers made us stop. During the pit some glasses or bottles got busted and there was broken glass around. For some insane reason, some bitch that was there took off her shoes and socks and was walking around like that. The floor was disgusting and covered with beer if nothing else, I have no clue why you would do that, plus there was glass (which I assume she didnt know). I kept waiting for her to slash her foot open but she dodged the bullet somehow.
I went home and relaxed like a motherfucker. Driving in the winter sucks and so does loading in and out. I got back to Robs and he was crashed out on his couch when I snuck in to drop off my amp. It was a wicked show that took a lot out of me. I still cant believe the free beer special. I cant imagine how much beer Johnny Vomit alone drank.
And oh yeah, I think Rob and Hilger were under the influcence of some drug or something when they posed for this one right here.
–satan165
Low Profile live at Mugsy’s in Forest Park
Friday January 9th
with Johnny Vomit, Chopped Liver and the Tossoffs
This show started off a lil weird. Somehow, we originally thought the show was on Tuesday the 6th but after emailing Johnny Vomit, who booked us, he cleared it up just by saying ‘be there at 8. cya on Friday.’
So we met up at Rob’s around 7 to load up. We then headed over. I got some good parking right across the street. Lisa and I started bringing my shit in and were greeted by Kathy who was running the show. She was very cool all night. She told me she works for Red Bull and does all sorts of promo for them. What a cool job. Johnny Cash was playing on the jukebox as I walked in and I had to go throw in a few bucks to play some songs. They had a nice selection. I played 2 Motley Crue songs, some Sublime, some Bob Seger, some Elton John, and some Guns N Roses.
The place is pretty nice. They gave all band members free beer but I was getting my vodka/red bulls for free also thanks to the cool and hot bartender chick.
Kathy had bought some colored light bulbs to dim the area where the bands would be playing and this guy who worked there couldn’t seem to even get one in. I don’t know what he was doing or what he was having problems with but one thing I can say is that this dude was sort of a shortie and standing on the top step of the ladder and still trying to reach up to the lights. We were waiting for him to take a dive. So he failed miserably and didn’t even get one changed and he seemed to have broken one of the light fixtures while fucking around with it. Is was all amusing to us. We just sat and drank and watched the guy for what seemed like half an hour.
All the bands showed up. We volunteered to play first so we started setting up. Johnny Vomit provided a nice PA for the show.
We didn’t have a set list whatsoever but this is along the lines of all the songs we played. Not in order of course but I’ll try to get it as close as I can:
Figure It Out
Grudge
Vampira (originally by the Misfits)
Arnold Palmer and Katie Holmes
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
King of the Hill theme
Think About It
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Skulls (Misfits)
Milwaukee
En Guarde
Execution Style
JPF
Lachrymose
Hot Mom
It was a good long set. I was all hot and sweaty and out of breath but it felt great. Rob had his drums set up next to a big ass furnace so I’m sure that made it a lil uncomfortable. We played 2 of our new songs which went over well. We did 2 Misfits covers since we seen some dude with a Misfits shirt and someone else had a Misfits hat on. We played Folsom since so many Johnny Cash songs were played on the jukebox. Williams ended up giving out all the CDrs he brought and I must have given out like 30 stickers.
Chopped Liver were up next. They r 4 piece with a frontman. They play fast, aggressive hardcore. The bassist used my amp for their set. Their drummer Joe plays bass in Mo Fucked so we knew him from the DRI show we played with them at Rockhouse. The guitarist was a real punker with a full mohawk. He was real cool tho and gave us props. I gave him a sticker and told him to check out our site but he said that none of them have computers. Oh well.
The Tossoffs were up next. They were real good. They r 4 piece. 2 guitars and the drummer, Woody does lead vocals which was pretty unusual. Rob came up to me and pointed at them and said “Rodrigo style.” As in Rodrigo who sings and plays drums from Satanic Surfers. I dug their set and they r a bunch of cool guys. They did 3 Misfits covers. I Turned Into A Martian, Astrozombies and Some Kinda Hate.
Johnny Vomit were up last. They rocked the fucking house. They played a real long set till around 2am. They played Liver Rebellion right in the beginning which was great. And later played two of my favorites, What the Fuck and Shut Your Face. They did a lot of originals and some covers but they just tore it up, Johnny drinking 2 beers at once and having beer after beer brought to him in between songs. He pounded em all !!!!!! They were great.
We were all a lil drunk and fucked up at that point in the night. Some people started moshing and this dude got bashed in the face and had a big bruise and it got a lil puffy. Bottles got broke and beer spilled and it was just craziness. What a fuckin night!!!!!
Thanks to Johnny Vomit for inviting us to play the show. Thanks to Joe for setting the stage area up. Thanks to Kathy for having such a good arrangement for the bands and being so cool and understanding about everything. Thanks to Lisa for helping load in and out of the bar and for taking pics. Thanks to Dr. Z, Bones and Metko, Jessica and Crystal, Jonny and Betty Burbank, all for coming out. And thanks to everyone else who dug our set and asked for CDs. We had a blast.
-ERIK
