Category: chicago

Show #56: Memories, Chicago

I got involved with Squared Off and Smear Campaign back in March of this year. We were booked with Smear Campaign and got to know them — Cactus Matt offered me a gig that we ended up playing like 4 months later. I also met Hoser that night — his band (Squared Off) wasn’t playing then but he mentioned that he booked shows at a club called Memories. I had never heard of it. Later I came under the impression that it was located in the town of Cicero, I guess this was some confusion with the Street (Cicero Ave.) upon which this club sits. As a side note, I mention that this was my first meeting with Hoser. Unbeknownist to me, I had met him a year or 2 earlier when his previous band FID played at the Fireside Bowl with us as well (as well as bassist Dan, who at that time was musically unemployed, but is not in Smear Campaign to add a final twist).

I often pressured Matt and Hoser to get a show going at Memories with just our 3 bands. Well eventually Hoser came thru and although the bill was longer, I knew this was the show I was waiting for and luckily we were able to take it. It was to be a party for Hosers b-day party which was to occur 3 days later. Smear Camp was not on the bill, but Squared Off and Low Profile were accompanied by out of towners The Tradesman (an Oi! outfit), Burnside Bridge (who we were at the time booked with at another show in total coincidence) and I Attack, another local group who I knew Squared Off had played with before.

I arrive with Hilger, Lisa and Rob and we were the first ones there. I had been to Memories once before to see Squared Off and Smear Campaign (with original Smear Camp bassist Wally). The place seemed a bit cramped (but was that due to the facilities or just a massive crowd, I wondered). I also remembered that they had a decent stage going. When I walked in there were maybe 5 locals there, a huge pool table in the way, and no stage. There was some wood piled up in the back though…hmmmm….

I think it was Corey from Burnside Bridge who was one of the first other people to arrive. He knew as much as me as far as what to do (nothing) and we decided to wait for the big boss (Hoser) to call the shots. He soon arrived and I realized that the stage was collapseable. They have large sheets of plywood (carpeted) and tons of milk crates out back to support it. Joe from Squared Off, myself and an old gentlemen with what appeared to be 1 tooth total threw down the crates and assembled things as well as moving the pool table and a bunch of other shit out of the way. The lineup was soon decided and Rhyno attempted to give us the ‘bad news’ that we had to play first — which I gladly accepted. That night the slot actually hurt us, as a much huger crowd showed up later on. Some people had already showed up tho: Weber from Ratbag Hero (he said he came to see Burnside Bridge though and had no idea we were playing, although I had given him a flyer for the show the week before at Bigwig), Hilger’s sister Amber and her friend Laura (pictured here and here with Rub-a-Dub doggie, who is getting some groupie love). Betty and Johnny from the Burbanks showed up, but late and they missed our set. Also of course Cactus Matt was there, and later Jimmy, Smear Camps drummer and Chris their ex-2nd guitarist as well.

At some point while killing time before 9:30 when we were scheduled to go on, I was outside and a person I later identified as the singer/bassist for The Tradesman rolled up (onto the sidewalk) in a vintage Silver Vespa scooter and matching old school silver helmet. He tried to rip on it and say it was a piece of shit but I thought it was pretty tight. He said he was just coming from some scooter convention or something. I asked if he rode the Vespa all the way from Erie, Pennsylvania and he laughed and said no.

We went on to a thin crowd and opened with a sure fire way to alienate the crowd: an 11 minute, 8 part medley. Including #7 ‘A Barell With Poles’ which consists of only guitar and vocals. I wasn’t feeling the show and if you read the previous 10 show reviews, I don’t think I say that even once. I don’t think anyone there was feeling the shit at all. I don’t fucking know.

After the set Hilger changed shirts (so did I, as always, it was pretty sweaty). We stepped outside and his shirt was unbuttoned and it was flapping in the wind and I scored this pic, then I made fun of him for trying to cop such a ‘sexy pose’. Later on Rob noticed some chick with the low-riding jeans that rode a bit low and the ass crack was exposed. Now I’m often known in many circles as a Paparatizi for taking crazy pics of people without their permission. I was at a festival in tha RG recently and snapped a pic of another similarly not-that-hot chick with a thong fully exposed. I took a pic of that and almost got into a little trouble, physically, but got away with the pic. Well anyways, I felt obligated to take a pic of this ass crack and I was nervous to use the flash, althuogh I knew I needed it. I had had this same problem with the thong pic, I took one real quick and checked it and it was mostly useless (even after I brightened it later on my comp), so I immediatley took another with the flash — and thats how I got myself into trouble. Well in this case I bitched out and I only have the one pic, which is barely visable after being lightened by my super high-tech comp warez. Enjoy.

There were 4 more bands after us and I stayed until the end. The Tradesman played traiditional punk/Oi, with the guitar solos and everything it reminded me of Warzone. I attack was more old school thrashing punk rock, alot of smashing mid tempo beats. Very loud. Squared Off was great as usual. We played our Squared Off cover ‘My Turn’ for the 2nd time at a show with them. Squared Off then played it in their own set and Hoser made a point to not only point out to me, but to rub my face in it, that I was playing 1 note 1/2 step off. I made a mental note on that and Hilger looked and realized it to. Ny bad dude. I didn’t drink at all at the show because I got pretty wasted the night before had to get up ‘early’ for practice before the show. The funny thing is that as much as I say I wasn’t feeling shit, I’m sure all the other bands did and I’ll bet the whole crowd did too. Weber stressed to me that it was the best of the 2 or 3 sets hes seen us play. I guess we played well enough. I’m going to cut this review now before I rip on myself more. Good show.

–satan165

Low Profile live at Memories
Saturday August 30th
w/ Squared Off, I Attack, the Tradesmen and Burnside Bridge

We practiced at 5 on this day and went thru the set real quick. Then me Williams and Lisa went and made copies, scanned photos, updated the site, filled out the CD inserts and smoked weed to kill time before we had to leave for Memories.

We were the first ones there. But soon after some of the members of Burnside Bridge arrived. We just sat around and chilled. I ordered a Rolling Rock and sat at the bar. Then decided to play some songs on the jukebox cuz it was way too quiet and we had some time to kill.
This jukebox is awesome. I played some Crue, Scorpions live, Halen, Bob Seger, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, etc. It has a lot of good shit in it so I was amused.

So my sister Amber and her friend Laura show up. Jessica showed up. Weber from Ratbag Hero shows up to see Burnside Bridge but got to see 4 other awesome bands so that was very cool. Matt, Jimmy and Chris show up. Hoser walked in and I walked up, wished him a happy 12th 21st birthday and gave him 10 pics I’d picked up when I went to the guitar shop. I wanted to get him a pick holder and give it to him full but they didn’t have any. Oh well. It was lookin good though cuz the place was fillin up and the drinks started to flow.

Hoser, Joe and Williams started getting shit organized. Setting up the stage and the PA and monitors and all. I just sat back, drank a few and chilled. So awhile after that, Williams comes up and says that we play first which was cool with the three of us. So we helped Rob load in and we had Hoser and Rhyno hook us up since we were using their amps. Our set was something like this:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
Sex Party
Excited To Die
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
48
Hot Mom
My Turn (originally by Squared Off)

After Excited To Die, I remember saying something that our set was almost done and Cactus Matt yelled out that we’d only been playing 20 minutes and to me it seemed like an hour. It was kinda weird. I wasn’t tired or anything, time just seemed real weird that whole night.

Folsom was received well as it always is. My sister asked both me and Williams if we’d play it so we thru it in the set. Weber told me that this was the best time he’d seen us out of like 3 or 4 times and then said that seeing us play the song 48 really made his day. So that was real cool to hear. My Turn was good and fast and exciting. But we later learned that we play a change a lil wrong. Hoser pointed it out to us when they played it correctly during their set. Sorry bout that.
Johnny and Betty walked up to me while I was standing around after our set. Johnny says “nice set” and I’m like oh yeah, thanks. Then he gives me a big hug and says “sorry, we totally missed u guys. but we could hear u while we were driving around trying to park” Thanks a lot u 2. No problem though cuz u have to sit thru our set this coming Sunday at Bigwig. Just kidding. Don’t even trip about it. We listened to the CD u gave Williams while in my car chiefing.

Burnside Bridge were up next. They had real nice gear. The one guitarist had a bunch of pedals all nice on a board and played a left handed vintage Rickenbacker. Josh, the other guitarist played a real nice SG. And the chick bassist played a nice black on black Ernie Ball bass. Props all around. Their sound was good. I liked their songs and got into them but we went out for a session during the end of their set and ended up chilling outside cuz it felt so good after playing a hot and tiring set. We later walked in and watched the Tradesmen who totally rocked and impressed me a lot. Very fast, energetic street punk. They sing about the working blue collar class and about the union. Williams and I later talked with the lead singer/bassist and he said he was a union pipefitter. Oh and they r from Erie, PA and said that Memories was the smallest place they’ve played in a while but they had fun anyways and after their set they were ready to get drunk. Good luck with the rest of the tour guys.

I Attack were next. I knew that Squared Off had played with these guys at least a few times. They were great. Super fast, high energy, yelling punk rock. Glad I got to play with and finally see these guys. They gave Hoser a pinata for his birthday. It was pretty funny. It was soon smashed and in pieces all over the floor. They ended their set with an Ozzy cover and the singer didn’t know all the words but improvised and I thought he was gonna collapse on the floor. It was so fucking hot in there at that point.

Squared Off got were up last. Hoser was pretty drunk at this point. People were buying him shots and he was just havin a good ole time. Their set was great. They opened with Made In America and had a bunch of us right up front singing right along. They played My Turn and Hoser made sure to point out what we play wrong. OOPS!!
They played Two Way Street, Sue You Got, Porcelain, I Want One More, etc. They covered We Can Dance and then played Seeing Red by Minor Threat with either a very hoarse Joe singing or his vocals were just quiet cuz we couldn’t hear him. Oh well. It was good anyways.

It was a real fun night. Thanks everyone involved.
Happy 12th 21st birthday Hoser!!!!!!!

-ERIK

Show #54: Big Wig, Chicago

It is always a pleasure to work with people that you like, and who are professional. The venue known as Bigwig could have just as easily have fallen into the wrong hands — some stupid fucks who would have shows that didn’t come off properly and been littered with other problems. Luckily for us, and every other band with an opportunity to play there, this is not the case.

I would gladly do whatever Charles and/or Weber from Ratbag Hero tell me to do. They call the shots around this place and I couldn’t think of any better people to deal with. True class acts. I could praise them all day but allow me to talk about the actual events of the night. I’m sure that in doing so I will end of praising them more so its all good.

Weber offered me this show a few months ago and we snatched it up immediately. This is my favorite place to play in the entire world. Some aspire to some fucking arena or other garbage — I don’t need anything more then that which is laid out for me at the fabolous Bigwig. I got a ride from my dad to the club to prevent a DUI related crash later in the night. Got there way too early and chilled outside with my gear. I was the 2nd person there — the bartender was the 1st (I am a fucking asshole for not knowing his name, I admit it). He was working with 3 tall boys of ARizona green tea. I find that stuff repulsive (I’m a black tea man myself) but I respect his decision in beverages for the night because I myself consume many gallons of tea, soda and juice everyday. He asked me to watch over his cans of tea which he hit up the adjacent Pizza Hut to score a pazone. In the meantime, Hilger and Lisa showed up. Charles was the man with the keys so we were all way too early and waiting on him. The bartender came back with his food and just then Charles and Weber showed up. We loaded in a chilled the fuck out. I got my 3 complimentary drink tickets and saved them for later in the night. That is until the bartender comped me a Pabst for no apparent reason. But who am I to argue with a free drink. I swilled it down and then he came back with a Miller Lite bottle and a Long Island Iced Tea that someone had ordered and then not wanted or something. Me, Weber and the bassist from Break of day were all sitting together drinking and we all had a bit of an aversion to the Long Island Iced TEa. I started to pound my now 2nd Pabst as fast as possible in hopes of scoring the Miller Lite. Then Weber, man of extreme passion that he is, made the recommendation that the 3 of us share the Long Island Iced Tea 1950’s soda shop style with 3 straws. We all jumped in and gave it a go and I thought I was drinking straight Tequila at one point. I pulled away gagging and saw that the drink was barely dented. Then we got Mike from Break of Day to snap a pic of us fagging it up with this drink. We sucked it down and I had to drool a bit into a nearby garbage can, as my taste buds don’t agree much with the foul liquors in a Long Island Iced Tea. The 2 beers and that which was consumed in about 15 minutes provided a nice buzz and I felt quite relaxed.

Joe and Rhyno from Squared Off showed up. (Heres a nice pic of Rhyno, Lisa, Hilger and Rob completely relaxing in the confortable couches.) Frank and Will from Rocky Denis showed up to see Replacing Sydney. Things were looking very very good to me at this point. Charles threw a little ‘Return of the Dragon’ on the projector and I thought maybe I had died and gone to heaven. Replacing Sydney took the stage and I was unsure of what to expect. They all certainly had top-notch equipment. Hoping not to sound like a sexist asshole, I must admit that the 2 female members of the group were very cute as I had been told far in advance by friends who had seen the band before. I was very surprised by their sound — they had only female vocals which creates an interesting texture over distorted gutiars. Both guitarists worked the hell out of their footpedals as well, clicking from clean to distorted very often. Very interesting to me was the keyboards — the keyboardist used the same tone the entire set, kind of like an electric piano sound. I expected just from other bands I’ve seen who had keyboards to hear organ type tones and whatnot, but this was a very mellow tone that melded well with the other insturmentation and certainly the angelic female vocals.

Next up was Break of Day. I had worn my brand new Last Man Out shirt which I had just scored from the band a few weeks earlier. The drummer of the band had told me that he used to drum for that band! Small fucking world. Mike, the 2nd guitarist, recognized me from Columbia College, where we had attended together years before. I didn’t remember him but he said I was trying to sell him on Pie in the Sky at the time, my my, that MUST have been a long time ago! They took the stage as a 5-piece band with a frontman (who even provided his own cordless mic, nice!). Their sound was decidedly not emo or sensitive. Although melodic, they played plenty fast and made good use of the 2 guitars. Unfortunately, their set was scattered with technical difficulties. This worried me that it was a jinx and we would have probelms too when we played — I had just gotten my cordless system the week previous and tested it at rehersal just before the show. I crossed my fingers.

By this time there was defiantely a good amount of people there and many were plenty drunk. I was very anxious as always to get the show on the road. Hilger and I duct taped our cordless packs to our straps for each other (only 1 of many ‘things’ we do for eachother…). Of course, after that it becomes a blur. Not a drunken blur, for I had had only 3 of 4 drinks over 2 or more hours at that point, but an adrenaline type of blur, as it is at any show we ever fucking play, anywhere.. As I type this the next day my neck is pretty stiff and only after a huge shit and shower do I feel less drunk and ‘with it’. Some highlights included (those I can remember): Me and Hilger ran out of the room into the bar where I started up the ‘King of the Hill’ theme — Hilger was standing on a barstool (and nearly falling) and I was back by some tables scaring people. We had rewritten a new set just before we played, and after we went through all those songs, we just kept playing and playing…after numerous requests from Rhyno we jumped into ‘Attitude’ by the Misfits. I just stepped away from the mic at that point as Joe and Rhyno from Squared off were screaming the lyrics into one mic and Will from Rocky Denis even got inspired to grab Hilger’s mic and sing as well. (He even had the balls to apologize for doing that. Please dude! Sing away! By all means! How dare you even ask!). (Here’s me and Rhyno singing the ending to the song.) We jumped into ‘Green Corn’ by NOFX and the guitarist from Break of Day watched me intently. (it was Joe’s request, so of course he sang it) So of course I had to blaze the fuck out of that solo. He even had the respect to bow down as I ripped it. I repaid him later with a nice Peach Stoli/Redbull.

Right after the show I ran down the block and ordered up 2 delicious steak tacos with everything. Total=$4.25. Total time to wait for order=approx. 35 seconds. I brought ’em back to Bigwig and chowed em down, fucking fabolous. Then I commenced to drink about 6 Peach SToil/Redbulls. I highly recommend that everyone go on a Redbull mixed drink bender at some point, the effects are very odd. I was swillin’ em down and buying em for everyone in the house in my drunkeness. I sat with Weber and he told me tales of working his Kung Fu stylings on gangstas on Morgan street in his south side hood. ‘Return of the Dragon’ ended and Charles threw in ‘Enter the Dragon’ — fucking awesome. Of course, by this point I was deeply inebriated and felt my body sinking into the confortable Bigwig seating. Charles reacted quite violently to someones claim that ‘the Bigwig was dirty’ — he threw a caddy of straws and napkins on the floor in a true mess. That’ll show em! Weber was on his upteenth PBR and we had a conversation something like this:

Weber: “Yeah, I’m going to call into work tomorrow”
(he has many times told me of coming into work after a Distortion Sunday at Bigwig half drunk on 1 hour sleep, or just calling in altogether.)
Me: “Good deal dude. Fuck it, you deserve a day off”
Weber: (without skipping a beat) “Yeah, I’m going to go into work tomorrow”.

Then he described how he woudl just go into the bathroom and ‘chill out’, or maybe even take a nap. Hope your monday wasn’t too harsh, bro.

I wished the night would never end. I drove home and scored some White Castles and then slept for about 11 hours. I know I’m missing something in here but hopefully Hilger will remember.

–satan165

Low Profile live at Bigwig
Sunday July 6th
with Replacing Sydney and Break of Day

First off, I had a great weekend. But when Sunday came around, I was dragging my ass, not very excited about the show or even leaving my apartment. It would have been a great day to just stay inside. But of course my mood totally changed once I got to the club.

I showed up with Lisa at about ten to 7. Williams and the bartender were chilling outside and the doors were locked. So we waited and then Weber and Charles showed up. I wore my Bigwig (the band) shirt in tribute to the place we were playing. I got many compliments on it. =)

Right away we had Charles throw on some old AFI. The same album that was playing the first time I walked in this place. Then they later thru on some Bruce Lee flicks for us.

All the bands showed up. Rhyno and Joe from Squared Off showed up. Jessica showed up and took pics of us. Props all around. It was much fun just chillin and hangin out. Bigwig is such a laid back atmosphere and then after Replacing Sydney start up, Williams gets the urge to go and completely drop the set list and wants to bust out some more of the hardcore shit we play. So we sat at the bar and wrote a sloppy ass set list on some paper. It looked good though. We ended up adding a bunch more songs off the list of course. But now I wanna talk about the other bands.

Replacing Sydney were fucking awesome. Very rocking. Melodic and noisy. Great female vocals. And very cute chicks at that. The bass player chick was definately awesome. Didn’t use a pick. Reminded me of Kira from Black Flag a lil. U go girl. They had 2 guitarists. They both rocked and played a lot of lil lead parts. The other girl played keyboards and sang some songs by herself and did a lot of backup parts with the beautiful melodic chick voices. I luved it. I dug this band a lot all around and had a lot of fun watching their set and heckling back and forth with them a bit. I put your sticker on my bass case already. I’m a fan fo sho!
You’ll be hearing from this band sometime in the future. They could definately go big and get on a label. So do it! Put that cute bass player chick in a video on tv and you’re goin somewhere.

Then Break of Day set up. These guys were cool all around but their set was sloppy as fuck. They stand around for like 10 mins and then the guitarist is like, whoa, I gotta tune up. Give me an A. Everyone was ready for them to start and get the show going and it was just sloppy. Be fuckin prepared to rock guys. I was pumped to see u guys and then was blown away by the unprofessional shit and mishaps and had to go outside. Actually, I can’t even say that much cuz I watched the first 2 songs, or lack thereof and went outside for a session of some supers. So I can’t say much more cuz I didn’t give u guys a fair listen. And why r u against bands having CDs and websites and tshirts and stickers and shit? I didn’t get that comment at all. It had me totally stumped. Thats part of being in a band. Thats all good though cuz we give that shit away for free. Ya heard me???

We were up last. Both Williams and I rocked the wireless systems with no problems at all. We both duct taped em to each others straps which is going to become a new custom right before each show. Fuck playing with a cord.

So like I mentioned before, we totally scrapped the set list we originally had and didn’t play one song off of it. To the best of my memory which is pretty cloudy from a long weekend of partying, our set was sumthin like this:

Zamboni
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Figure It Out
Grudge
En Guarde
Attitude (originally by the Misfits)
Green Corn (originally by NOFX)
A Date with Destiny (originally by Guttermouth)
King of the Hill Theme Song
Breakin the Law (originally by Judas Priest)
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
Spreading Yourself Thin (originally by Pie in the Sky)
Hot Mom

I think that was everything. Rhyno ran up and sang Attitude. Will also ran up and grabbed my mic. It was great. Good crowd participation. Then we had Joe come up and sing Green Corn. Many people sang along to Folsom and Breakin the Law. Those both went across real well. I think, the more u drink, the better we sound. Hahahaha. So I’m glad we played last.

We gave out a bunch of CDs, stickers and tshirts. We played a great set. Both Williams and I ran thru the audience a bunch of times. I was jumping up on the booths and barstools jamming. It was awesome.

I chilled for a lil while after our set and pounded down one more redbull/vodka and then loaded out. Stood outside Bigwig for like 20 mins and then drove Lisa home who lives kinda far.

What a night. I had a ton of fun. Thanks to Charles and Weber and the bartender. Thanks to Joe and Rhyno, Lisa and Jessica, Will and Frank, Replacing Sydney, and everyone who watched and sang along.

I think thats it. Much of the night is kinda blurry. Crazy long weekend. I luved it. My crazy life…………

-ERIK

Show #52: US Beer Company ‘Mob Fest’, Chicago

GET THE LIVE RECORDING HERE

What is MOBFest? Not sure that I know myself. Something along these lines: for a fee (aroudn $50 as I understand it), you submit your demo and some big time record exec’s listen to it and then come to see you play at MOB Fest sposored show, which occur for 2 or 3 night around the city. Approximately 10 clubs a night participate in this event. I think that its largely a joke, I’m sure that no bands get ‘signed’ as a result of this, its just another sick excuse to ‘pay to play’. US Beer Co from our previous experience there is a shady club, at least as far as the way its run. The 1st time we played there, they had only Bud Light and Budweiser available. When I asked why, the bartenders told me something about the owner being distrustful of distributors and their alleged ‘scams’. They had run out of booze and beer at a recent previous show and had not re-copped shit because of the lack of convienent availability. Now this to me signifies a fucked up type of management. So MOB Fest was being hosted at the US Beer Co that night. There were 8 MOBFest bands booked I believe, they were scheduled to play on the upstairs main stage. We (with 6 other bands) were set to play on the downstairs stage simaltenously. We technically had nothing to do with MOBFest, although since we would be playing in the same club with record exec’s in the crowd, wouldn’t we as well have a chance of getting ‘noticed’?(Plus we didnt’ have to pay some bullshit fee) Ironically, we would end up having even more exposure then the basement stage, but I’ll get to that…. Hilger and I arrived around 5:30 pm as planned. Rob said he would be there closer to 7. No worries since according to the (broke-ass) website of the club, we were scheduled to play at 9:30. Ratbag Hero was the band that originally got us the show, but they had canceled. Shooting Blanks had been booked at the last second (day before), and our old friends Last Man Out as well as club promoter Andy and his band The Symptoms were scheduled, so I was excited. It seemed that we were there excessively early, but this was the time Andy had told me to be there.

So we chilled and bided our time. A crowd started to filter in as well as some of the other bands. Shooting Blanks arrived and we had them store their gear with ours. We started drinking and everything seemed well. It was however, not the case….

As we mulled about in the basement area, I was talking to Andy and trying to find out our slot and what time we would be going on. Just then I watched his face freeze up and I turned to see what he was so shocked at. Two cops, in plain clothes but with holstered weapons out (one even had a bulletproof vest on) came down and started looking around. I didn’t know why there were there but figured it couldn’t have been good. Just a few nights ago, the place got shit down a bit early due to noise complaints.

Rob arrived but we were told not to load in any more gear. We were told that the owner was talking with the cops. No one knew what was going on but it was beginning to look like the basement bands were going to get canceled. Just then Andy popped up and hit me with the news. The owner had been cited for not having proper permits and tax shit since he techically had 2 clubs/shows going on, they didn’t want the basement show to go on. Andy’s solution was to set up the basement acts on the floor in front of the MOBFest bands big stage upstairs (thus putting all the bands on the same floor). We would only get to play for 15 min. each, in the intermission between bands on the big stage, while the next band set up. We set up 2 guitar rigs, a bass rig and a drum set for everyone to use to minimize set up times. This situation was definately fucked but thanks to Andy’s smarts and unwillingness to let the show get canceled, it looked like it was going to happen.

Yer Mothers Lovers was the 1st band of the night, they were one of the MOBFest bands. Hilger’s original band Socially Unacceptable had played with these guys back in the day and Hilger and met one of the members even previous to that while standing in line for Primus tickets. Then they opened for the Powerknobs not a week before this night, I missed their set though. They were awesome and rocked hard. Their song ‘Satan and Lucifer’ is, to say the least, right up my alley.

The the 1st basement band, Last Man Out took the stage (or the area in front of it). This was our 3rd time playing with them — in 3 different venues, all 3 times booked together by chance. This was the 1st time I really partied with the members and watched them closely, and discovered a new found respect for them. This band is awesome, can’t say enough good things about them. Due to the cramped arrangements, at one point a cymbal stand fell over. Someone picked it right back up but myteriouslly the bass rig died at that same moment. Luckily it was in the closing seconds of their last song so it didn’t matter. Upon investigating further after the set, we found that the edge of the cymbal had falled perfectly and chopped the bassists cord right in half, perfectly clean. Now that was fucked.

Shooting Blanks was the next ‘basement’ band to play. Matt somehow broke his strap right before they played while tuning up in the backroom. He has some kind of weird strap locks so Hilger (who also has strap locks) couldnt even loan him a strap. I just said fuck it at that point, and told him to use my guitar. He beat the shit out of it but it survived and somehow stayed almost completely in tune.

After them was some country music sensation: a 16-year old prodigy. Her set seemed to go on forever. Finally we took our ‘stage’.

Our set was:

Grudge
Excited to Die
Hot Mom
Spreading Yourself Thin (Pie in the Sky)
Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)

It was a total success and went off without a hitch. We really went all out and went insane considering how short our set was. It felt really good. We gave out a bunch of stickers and shirts in the chaos after the set and got a good response from people.

The Symptoms were the next basement band and they fucking rocked once again. They have elements of weird guitar lead and vocals over it like Fugazi, but they also play fast straight forward punk shit at times too. Andy has an octave pedal that he uses constantly, clicking it on and off — he plays more lead and riffs then chords. They are great.

I stayed a while later and then busted out, I was drunk and still nursing a mysterious fever I had taken on the night before, which still sticks with me even as I type this the next day. Its just enough to feel weird and uncomfortable. Wish it would go the fuck away.

I’ll never play US Beer Co again unless its under new management. I would beef with the cops but they were probably just busting this guys balls cause they dont like him, and it would seem like he would deserve it. Much props to Andy for always being optimistic and knowing that the show must go on. Big up to Shooting Blanks and Last Man Out, 2 dead serious bands that have been doing their thing for years. Can’t wait to play with either of them again.

Show #51: Mutiny, Chicago

I want to take this moment to talk about some motherfuckers that are homophobic. Because I have found myself over the years doing a lot of hugging at good shows. Last night I hugged:

Charles from Ratbag Hero (more than once)
Weber from Ratbag Hero
Deech from Shooting Blanks
John from Shooting Blanks

It was just that kind of show. This is an envionrment where you are giving your all and exposing yourself to everyone there. At least for me thats how it is, its fucking personal when I take the stage. Well anyways, here the story…

Matt from Shooting Blanks offered me the show months in advance. I later found out that Parr-5, Ratbag Hero and Shooting Blanks have had shows together at the Mutiny before, those 3 bands then they get a 4th ‘oddball’ band to laugh at and make fun of. No just kidding. But they do get different 4th bands and we were it. From previous experience of playing at the Mutiny, I left real fucking early to get a good parking spot (which I did, right in front). I sat down at the bar and slammed a Heiniken and talked with Ed, the owner, for a bit.

Hilger was the 2nd to arrive. We both loaded in all our shit and went on a hunt for something to eat. We found it directly across the street at a place called Sonny’s Pizza. It was kind of weird in there, like someones house in a way, ate some slices which were a little weird as well, but still good. I’ll eat any kind of pizza all fucking day long, I love it all.

We headed back to the club and 2 guys from Parr-5 showed up, they were supplying the PA and started to set that up. Me and Hilger started playing some pool and chillin’ back. More patrons and bands showed up.

The 1st band (Parr-5) was supposed to start at 10:00 pm and they didn’t go on until 10:40. This made me a little mad since we were playing last, tentatively at 1:00 am, and I didn’t want or need that already late hour to be pushed back anymore. Besides, I knew that the longer we waited, Ed would just have to close the bar and then I wouldn’t be able to have any drinks after our set (which is what happened to us last time). Well they finally started.

Andrew and Bill Knobs of the Powerknobs showed up which made me very happy. Bill was sporting the Low Pro708 shirt. Low Profile and the Powerknobs are extremely supportive of each others bands. We have played with the Knobs 4 times and I’ve seen them probably 6 times. Well I think I’ll take a moment here to go off on a tangent and try to list all the gig’s I’ve seen them at:

Rock House Cafe
Wise Fools Pub w/ the Phenoms
A loft/warehouse in Chicago, film benefit
The Lyons Den
Big Wig (got to play guitar on ‘Wild Colonial Boy’, what an honor!)
Prodigal Son (showed up late and missed there whole set, Hilger did the same thing)

Well, back to the show review.

So one of the cool things about the Mutiny is its jukebox which contains not one but 2 Motley Crue albums. Hilger is a deep Motley Crue fan, hes gotten me into them as well. Well at this show we learned of the origins of those CD’s getting into said jukebox. We had already fed the bitch and played a bunch of Crue. Suddenly, a wild looking cat came out of the backroom. He saw our appreciation for the Crue and fired in some more dollars to the box for even more Crue. He even asked Hilger and me what we wanted to hear. He identified himself as Kurt, a sometime bartender there and he said the Crue CD’s were from his personal collection, he had actually put them in the jukebox himself. We started talking about Crue and whatnot and I was like, “Hey dude, This guy[pointing to Hilger] plays the motherfuckin’ Nikki Sixx Blackbird”. His jaw dropped and he wanted to see and play the thing really fucking bad. Eventually Hilger busted it out for him and let him play plugged in later right before our set. He was in heaven. I can’t blame him, that bass really is fucking awesome.

The infamous tamale man showed up hawking his homemade tamales and either he had a partner or some competition cause there was another dude selling tamales also.

Well back to the show. So Parr-5 went on quite a bit later then they should have, they played and it wasn’t very memorable. One sentance is all they get in this review.

Ratbag Hero was next. I was very eager to see these guys after meeting Weber and Charles at Big Wig and e-mailing with Weber a few times also. These guys are madmen: they play all over constantly, and have their hands in everything. They recently started a label and are putting out comps now too. They complained to me that they weren’t happy with their set but it seemed OK.

Then Shooting Blanks. By now I had been at the club for almost 5 hours and was real sick of waiting. I went outside and changed and grabbed my towel. I threw in some ear plugs and chilled, waiting for Shooting Blanks to finish. These guys are rock stars. Matt seemed to be pretty tanked up on alcohol before the show but he played flawlessly anyways, his whole band was great and rocked the stage hard. They were even better then the 1st time I saw em. And what a great bunch of guys! All friendly and cool. They played their rendition of ‘Home Sweet Home’ for all the Crue fans around, which there seemed to be many. There was some other dude there playing pool who was singing Crue like mad when we first got there and he also admitted his love for the band.

Well We finally got on stage at 1 something. We opened with ‘HAte’ for shock value but Shooting Blanks huge crowd and tons of hot bitches that came to see them were fucking gone, despite Matt’s many, many requests during his set to ‘stick around for Low Profile, coming up next!’. Just like Hilger had at US Beer Company, I broke a fucking string within 10 seconds of our first song. I busted into my backup and was worried that it would fail me as well, but it actually did great. It seemed to get fucking hot in there, I was chugging water. Dont’ remember much about the set as usual but it seemed to go well. I threw in ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ after playing 1 too many hardcore songs which seemed to have our small crown very confused and disinterested. As it always does, everyone loved that song.

So we actually got done early enough to slam 2 redbull-vodkas and chill a little while. My girlfriend Jessica showed up even though I originally thought she wasn’t going to. She took some great pics of us playing.

Now I have to get into the bassist for Ratbag Hero. For any members of that band, I hope you realize my love and respect for you all. But I have to get into this bullshit right about now. I had my 2 guitars and amp chillin and I was sipping my drink and trying to relax after the show. The bassist from RAtbag Hero comes up and starts poking around at my guitars, like hes about to carry one away. I just watched him for a minute, then I was like ‘Whats up dude? where you going with that?’. I tried to say it in an almost joking way. He gave me a real hard look then and mumbled something and walked away. I’m thinking, what the fuck is this about? So I walked up to him and asked ‘are you looking for a guitar?’ and he admitted he was. I started to help him look but just then Charles walked up and said that he had already loaded his bass, so all was well.

So this bassist has been unfriendly and even a bit rude at this point. Unlike Weber and Charles who are extremely nice and everything. Then he really gets hardcore. I’m standing there with Hilger, Jessica and some others. So Ratbag Hero is leaving, their driver Charles told me he had to work an 18 hour shift on Sunday (ouch!) so he was eager to leave, it was like 215 am anyways. So this bassist then goes and starts motioning like he wants a hug from my girlfriend.

Time for another tangent: Some guys would step in right now and get all jealous or whatever. First of all, I trust my girlfriend and I’m standing right there anyways. But I’m more curious at that point, like what the fuck is this all about? Did they become quick friends at some point during the night? What’s the deal? I’m eager to know. So I lounged back in my chair and played it cool and sipped my drink. I could tell that even Jessica was a bit confused by this fellows advances but eventually gave him a half hearted hug. Within the next 5 minutes I watched him massaging some chicks neck. I didn’t know her so I thought nothing of it. But the very drunk Weber was like, “Hey man, what the fuck is that all about?” I watched and listened on, I guess that Weber knew that chick and knew she was unavailable or something, to the effect that it was a waste of time to be massaging on this chick. In another minute, I watched this dude actaully accost one of the bartenders (the nastier of the 2, the other was the very fine Rhonda(here with Hilger)), but like grabbing her in some kind of bear hug. Weber laughed at this also and Charles said that This guy has a problem with this shit, that hes always hitting on odd chicks all crazy like that, that a couple times hes had to stop him cause he would be hitting on friends girlfriends and shit like that.

All I can say is that if you’re going to pull manuvers and shit like that, get some game. And I wasn’t trying to be a dick dude, when I asked about the missing guitar. I tried a couple times to crack stupid jokes with this guy to lighten the mood and he looked at me like I was speaking LAtin. I have no idea what his problem is, but he may want to consider being nicer to people like me, who are just looking for a little bit of band camaraderie. On the other hand, you’ve got Charles, who me and him are fucking embracing and shit, and giving each other props and showing some real band love. When this bassist first got to the club I pointed to my Sox hat when I saw he had a Sox jacket on. I wore that Sox hat on purpose cause Ratbag Hero is from the southside. I don’t know shit about baseball, I just wanted to represent and show that I am down with them. Again, he just mumbled something and walked away. I don’t know what the deal is with this fellow, but its his loss, not to just have a good time and chill, rather then being a jerk and hitting on all the chicks in the place with no regard for who they are with or anything.

Enough about that. This show was a fucknig success. Shooting Blanks I am in awe of. MAtt Blanks is the fucking man. Im am much obliged to these bands for having Low Profile out. We have alot of love for all these bands and mad respect. Thank you for having us, hope I can return the favor one day.

Low Profile live at the Mutiny
Saturday May 31st, 2003
with Shooting Blanks, Ratbag Hero and Parr-5

So we practiced like normal on this day at noon. Then I went and chowed a late breakfast after practice and went home and chilled. Watched Chinese Connection. I left for the Mutiny around 7:20. I got prime parking right in front of the place. Perfect.
So I go in and the Bossman is sittin at the bar. I load in and then help him load in. He says he’s hungry so we go out to walk around and find something to eat. He says that he wants a piece pizza and I look across the street and there is a place with a sign in the window ‘Slices’. So we go chow at that place. Good pizza. Kinda different. Very crunchy. And we got to watch the Spanish channel.
We were laughing at some crazy shit they were doin.
So all the bands arrive and load in. We chill and talk to the guys from Shooting Blanks and Ratbag. We didn’t know Parr-5 at all but they were all very cool guys. Andrew and Bill from the Powerknobs showed up. Much love guys. Glad u came and got drunk with us. Jessica showed up too. Supportin the RG, the 708!
Bossman and I played some pool and bullied the jukebox for a while. I was playing some Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, Scorpions, Motley Crue, Halen, and Alice Cooper. Then we met this dude who worked there who had jet black ratted out hair and looked like Nikki Sixx. He was awesome. He busted out his bass which he had in the back room. It was pretty awesome. Then I had to bust out my Nikki Blackbird bass and let him jam on it. It made his day. He was so thrilled I let him play it. Then while we were setting up, we were standing around and I let him play it outta the big ass amp. He jammed the bass to Too Fast For Love by the Crue. What a guy. He ended up playing the whole Shout at the Devil album and a bunch of songs off of the Too Fast For Love album on the jukebox. Awesome guy. I was calling him Nikki all night. He told me his name but I quickly forgot.
Rhonda the hot bartender with the huge tits was great too. Lookin so fine in the tight pants and hot pink furry top. I was luvin it. It was such a friendly atmosphere. Ed, the owner is great. Lets u do your thing and just wants everyone to have fun.
So Parr-5 take a while setting up and doing soundcheck. Bossman is real anxious to get the show started so we don’t end up goin on at 2am or later and get cut off cuz of close. It was hard to be patient. It sucks waiting thru bands but these bands were good so that made it a lil better.
They play their set. Very good pop punk. Very melodic vocals. Lots of backups. They were tight fo sho.
Ratbag Hero r up next. They rocked a lil harder. Also very tight. A great bunch of guys. Charles does sound and runs the punk rock night Sundays at Bigwig and had to work the next day so he was having trouble getting the boys out of the club at around close cuz he had to be up early for work. Hope he made it okay.
Shooting Blanks played next. They rocked the house. Matt was throwing shapes and getting crazy ripping on his axe. Dan is the shit. John tears it up and falls all over the place. And fuckin Deech man, u rock dude. These guys r great. They played a shorter set to please us. It was alright by that time. We were real anxious to play and didn’t really wanna play last but it all worked out fine. They played Silly Goose when someone called it out. They played She Luvs Me Cuz I Rock, Sheila and Ignore Me. I recognized all those. They ended with Home Sweet Home and me and Nikki ran up to sing back ups. Well, I sang back ups and Nikki took over and pretty much sang the whole song. It was awesome.
So we played last. It was past 1 at this point I’m sure. Or actually, I’m not sure what fuckin time it was. We were all a bit out of it. Such a long fuckin day. So crazy to be playin a hardcore set at 1 in the morning. I used the bassists amp from Ratbag Hero. Thanks dude, sounded great. That thing was huge. Bossman used his own amp. So our set was something like this:

Hate
Figure It Out
Grudge
En Guarde
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
Coming Down
Breakin The Law (originally by Judas Priest)
Carl Panzram
Mr Pig (for Jessica)
Spinal Remains (originally by the Misfits)
King of the Hill
Wild Colonial Boy (originally by the Powerknobs) for Andrew and Bill

So the Bossman breaks a string within 30 seconds of the first song. The same thing that happened to me at US Beer Co. So he busts out the Kramer and uses that for the rest of the show but we were a lil worried cuz that guitar is known to break strings very easily and isn’t too great of a backup but it had no issues. And I wore pants to this show which was a mistake. All day was windy and shitty out. I should have brought shorts and changed into them. The weird thing is, I wore pants the first time we played here too. I don’t do that too often.
We added all the covers into the set. Had to play Wild Colonial Boy for the Powerknobs. We heard Andrew call it out so we played that shit for them. And since Jessica called out Mr. Pig, we played it. We were throwing shapes and getting rowdy. A few people sang along to Breakin the Law. It was a fun and tiring set. We were all soaked in sweat and totally beat. Bossman collapsed on the floor afterwards. We hung out for a while afterwards. Just sat and chilled. Tried to calm down. Took our time loading out. Ed was in no rush to kick us out.
So we said our goodbyes and headed on our way. Our set was tight as fuck. We had a lot of fun. Everyone got a long and it was a nice, friendly atmosphere. Gotta luv that. And such a great jukebox. So thanks to Shooting Blanks for offering us the show. We’ll do it again anytime.

-ERIK

Show #49: US Beer Company, Chicago

Jason Sebastian is the digital camera toting Knob lover who is friends with Andy. Andy is the guitarist for the Symptoms and he also books gigs for US Beer Company. I emailed Andy 10 minutes after Jason told me we could get a show from him. Dan from Arena Venus also had emailed me a few days previous and asked if we could get a gig in Chicago for them. Well it all worked fucking perfectly, I talked to Andy and got both bands on the bill.

So the ride wasn’t too bad and suprisingly neither was the parking. Loaded in and saw the stage in back of the room with the bar. Then I was told that we weren’t playing there, but ‘downstairs’. Checked out the scene down there and it was pretty bad ass: nice stage with drum riser, crazy blacklights and blacklight paint and glitter and shit on the walls, very nice. So it was decided that Arena Venus would play first and we would play second, followed by Silverback and Andy’s band, the Symptoms.

So I went upstairs to get a beer. I saw that they had a bunch of good shit on tap and I asked for whatever kind of Goose Island they had. I was told by the kind of hot and cordial bartender that they were out. She then told me how they had had a huge show the weekend before (which doesn’t make sense since this was Thursday) and the place got cleaned out. More then half the kegs were empty and they had hardly anything in bottles. I started drinking a slightly below average beer called Spaten. (My owly other choice was Bud Light or MGD, neither of which I will fucking touch). Ross and Andrew showed up and we started drinking. Me and Ross then tried a Dinkle Acher which was flat and dark as Coca Cola, wasn’t very good.

Bill Knobs showed up (making 3/5ths of the Powerknobs as Courtney of Arena Venus pointed out) and Arena Venus took the stage after many delays. They fucking rocked and played all the 3 songs I knew including my favorite ‘Red Violet’. I stood and watched them and closed my eyes and listened very carefully to all the insturments, it was awesome.

So at some point we took the stage. We had laid out the set list the week before but once we got there I was really not hyped about playing the opening song ‘Not Fun’. We went into it anyways and I was blanking out on the lyrics and music a bit for some reason. Rob hit a rim on a fill and I’m thinking that this song sucks dick. Then Hilger stops playing. For a second, I thought he was going to stop the song or something cause it sucked. As I sang and played, I looked at him from the corner of my eye and tried to figure out what the fuck he was doing. I saw him take off his bass and remove the strap. Then I thought that his straplocks gave out or something. Turns out he broke a string. I can’t remember that happening ever before, worse yet that it broke like 8 bars into the 1st song. Very odd. Me and Rob continued to play and Hilger eventually jumped back in. We then went into the 5 min. + insturmental ‘Empty Rantings of an Old Silly Man’, it seemed like it took hours but was fun to play. We played ‘Escape from the Island’ by Kiss for Kiss fan #1 and Hilgers co-worker Dave and it was one of the smoother songs in the set I thought. (sorry about the shitty pic Dave, it was way too dark in there. Come to another show and I promise to take a better one!)

I was sweating and not feeling well, I took a shot of Jagermeister which playing and I was not feeling too hot. I don’t know if I was just thrashing too hard or what. My chest hurt and I couldn’t catch my breath. We kept jamming and eventually just started picking songs and taking requests outside the set list. We closed with the ‘King of the Hill’ theme and people seemed to like that one. I went off stage and gave away a ton more stickers and some CDs. Hilger and Rob were tossing out T-shirts and everywhere I looked, someone was wearing one.

I hung out till the end, the other bands were good and full of nice people. The only thing that kept this show from being totally awesome was the lack of good beer. It was a blast though as every show is.

Oh yeah, and while The Symptoms were playing, Hilger told me to take a pic of this chicks ass. So I did. Better watch out when the Bigbossman has the camera shootin’, cause I’ll make ya famous!!

Low Profile live at US Beer Co in Chicago
Friday May 22nd, 2003
w/ Arena Venus, Silverback and the Symptoms

Great show all around. Besides the lack in choice for beers. I figured, US Beer Co…..u know, many choices in beers. Nope.
I was drinkin shitty Bud Light from the tap and the then they ran outta that and my last beer was a Budweiser. Fucking garbage.
So I got there first, parked illegally to run in and unload. I met the soundman who right away commented on my Fight shirt. He showed me a tattoo that JJ, the bassist in Fight, did for him. Props on that one dude. This guy was pretty cool all around. Then he tells me that we r not playing on the stage in the main bar. We r playing on the basement stage. So I just start loading in.
Williams and Rob arrive. Dave Evert, from my work shows up. We all carry our shit downstairs. All the bands r there and hanging out, drinking and whatnot. Bill, Ross and Andrew from the Powerknobs show up to support Low Profile and the 708. Jessica shows up. Thanks everyone for the support. Arena Venus r set up and do soundcheck. Then we chill a long time later and they start their set.
They fucking rock! We played with them at the Mutiny originally and they didn’t have all the original members. But tonight, they did and they were great. This band is just awesome. I can break down each member and rave about them and their talent and stage presence and besides that, they r wonderful and very nice people off stage. Courtney made a comment that they r too softcore compared to us but hey, we like to mix up our sets and who we play with. She must have gotten that thought from the Bossman yelling “Fuck Yeah” and “Into the Pit” in front of the stage the whole time. It was pretty funny. But they were great and it was a privelege to play with them again. We hooked em up with stickers, cd’s and tshirts and told them to sticker up Madison for us. We were up next. So we do a lil soundcheck. The stage is pretty awesome but I was blinded the whole time. Damn lights!
I bust out my Gibson Nikki bass and break my fucking A string within 30 seconds of the song. I really ripped on it and felt it break underneath my fingers and it felt good. At first, I was like “FUCK!” but then I realized my band kicks ass and they will jam the rest of the song till I get my back up axe ready. So I calmly put the Gibson in its case and grab the Ibanez and set it up. I jump in at a pretty decent time in the song and finish the song very out of tune. So I tune her up and go on with the set which was something like this:

Not Fun
Empty Rantings of an Old Silly Man
1-2-3-4
Escape From the Island (originally by Kiss)
What I Failed To Mention
All the Wrong Reasons
Kata
Breakin The Law (originally by Judas Priest)
Hot Mom
King of the Hill

Great set. It was a lot of fun. I don’t think we’ve ever played What I Failed To Mention live. It was a lot of fun and I think people dug it. Why wouldn’t they? I introduced it as a song about a one night stand I had. They all cheered for that one. I was surprised. 1-2-3-4 was a lot of fun too. We need to play those more often. Those r probably the 4 most “punk” songs we have. Kinda poppy and happy in a way. But I like em. Our rendition of King of the Hill was receive well too and people cheered wildly during the stalls part. We thrashed around and got wild on stage. I was jumping off the lil risers on the stage and on one jump, banged my head on a rafter pipe. It kinda knocked me silly and I stumbled but continued to play. The show must go on mutha fuckas!
And props to the soundman. On the line “U don’t know what its like” in Breakin the Law, he knew it was coming and he added some reverb type effect on the vocals and made it sound awesome.
So we r all sweaty and done with our set. Movin our shit outta the way for the Silverbacks to set up. They were great. Jason, the bassist, played an awesome Rickenbacker and the guitarist played a real nice SG. They rocked for sure. Very melodic bass and guitars, right into some noisy changes. I dug these guys a lot. And Jason played with his mic all up high and pointing down like Lemmy from Motorhead so I was yelling “the ACE OF SPADES” at him. They were great. Andy’s band the Symptoms played last. They were 3 piece and the bassist was a lil of a surprise to us. It was my buddy from the Prodigal Son who waved in front of the camera before I was going to snap a pic. Not the best of ways to make friends with me.
Anyways, fuck him. I shut him out and watched Andy and the drummer rock hardcore. And they were awesome. I dug this band and Andy is a true personality and a cool guy to have in the scene. I’d luv to play out with u guys again sometime. Set us up another show at US Beer asap. They ended with Night Train by Guns N Roses and Andy and the bassist switched instruments and Jason from Silverback sang. Pretty awesome.
So we loaded our shit out. So I hope Arena Venus got home safely and hope to set up another show with u guys sometime in the future. And I gotta say hey to Stella cuz I told her I would. And I’ll give a nice Marlon impression to end this mutha fucka:

“Stelllllllaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!”

-ERIK

Show #48: Blondies, Chicago

Low Profile live at Blondies Lounge on Diversey in Chicago
Saturday May 3rd.
With Squared Off, Piehole and Waxon 7

This show was crazy as all of our shows usually are. My buddy Dave Mazur called me about 2 hours before I was leaving to meet the band and I haven’t seen him in months so I invited him along to be my personal roadie and chaffeur and got to drive to the show in his fuckin Caddy.

So this place is on Diversey but is not marked Blondies anywhere. All there is is an Old Style sign hanging outside. This place is a corner Polish bar. Very small inside. I walk in and Williams is sitting there with a huge grin. We couldn’t believe 4 bands were gonna play in this place. There was so much equiptment and it was very crowded but it all turned out great. Jessica showed up a little later on. The people at the bar though were regular local Polish people. They were all very drunk and fun. This one guy was telling us crazy stories and singing Journey and AC/DC to me. He would shake my hand and not let go for like 3 or 4 minutes. He was crazy and the owner Blondie, this awesome Polish lady, threw down and got crazy with him and threatened him and kicked him out for being too drunk and fucking with people. It was awesome. She doesn’t let anyone get too out of line in her bar.

POLSKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Williams was drinking some crazy Polish beer he couldn’t pronounce so he would just ask for “Polish beer”. It was pretty funny.

So Waxon 7 take a while setting up. 4 piece. Hoser is setting up the PA and monitors and shit. They start their set. Good, fun punk rock. They had real nice equiptment. The guitarist ripped good solos and they were good all around. They covered Police Truck by Dead Kennedys. It was pretty awesome. They were real cool guys.

We were up next. Williams and I didn’t even use our amps. I used the bassists from Piehole. Thanks man, it sounded fine. He kept asking if it sounded okay and I just told him I didn’t care. Turn it up and I’m all good. Our set was something like this:

King of the Hill (intro)
Excited To Die
Spreading Yourself Thin (by Pie in the Sky)
En Guarde
Grudge
Figure It Out
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
Low Pro Pt 1
Solitaire
Mr. Pig
Boat Dreams From the Hill (originally by Jawbreaker)
Hate
Hot Mom
King of the Hill (outro)

People went crazy for Folsom. The drummer from Piehole was on my side and was singing along with us. Even the local Polish drunks seemed to get into it. It was very cramped but that made the show all the more intense. We were jamming right in everyones faces. I didn’t have much space to move around in. We had to raise a lamp or we would have been banging our heads and guitars on it. These 2 awesome chicks who were very….uh…..interesting….and very fun…….and very hyper…..
knew the Jawbreaker song. They asked if I liked Jets To Brazil and I told them that I liked the first album all the way thru but didn’t care for the other 2 albums and they agreed so that was cool. And I was lucky enough to take a pic with them. They were very fun.
Piehole was up next. Willy, the lead singer and legendary street punk was so fucking awesome. What a frontman. Punk to the bone. The guitarist played a white Jackson so u know the Bossman was digging it. They rocked. The drummer played very flashy and was just awesome. I dug them fo sho. Even a local Polish drunk got into them. He stood in front of Willy and danced and clapped and he really seemed to get into it. I’m sure he’s never seen anything like this but he seemed to be entertained and thats great. Blondie was even dancing and getting down behind the bar.
Squared Off played last. I’ve never heard them before and we got the show from them so I didn’t know what to expect but they were awesome. 3 piece. Hoser, Ryan and Joe. They covered Seeing Red by Minor Threat and went right into Merchandise by Fugazi. They also covered ‘Rise Above’ by Black Flag. I was luvin it. Got to watch Ryan jam the little bass part in Merchandise. I was goin nuts. Can’t wait to play with these guys again. I didn’t know any of their songs but picked up their 3 song CD and have listened to it 3 times already. 3 songs go by pretty quick so I’ll have to get more of your songs. Hopefully their new CD will be done by the next show. And thanks for the Tshirts.
Fun was had by all at this show. It was a total success. When Hoser and Willy were dividing up the money with us, we just told them to buy Williams another Polish beer and they could keep the rest. Mazur felt a little too fucked up so I got to drive the Caddy back to Rob’s to unload. Thanks everyone involved. We had a blast.

-HILGER

We got this show after meeting Hoser of Squared Off at a gig we played with Smear Campaign at the Fireside Bowl. We practice Saturdays at noon, so we hoped to run through the set the day of the show. Hilger had to work so we planned to meet up at Rob’s at 7, run through a few songs, then load and jet. Well, idle hands lead to dranken 40’s. I downed a Schlitz Blue Bull before practice and was buzzing hard. I got to the club before my other band members or any others. There was no sign that said ‘Blondies’ or anything, just an Old Style sign. I checked the address and walked in. I saw a hardcore Polish bar full of regulars, and no possible place to play. I figured I was in the wrong bar and made a quick U-turn back out the door. I walked down the street to look for other bars, there were none. Then, I went in the alley and checked the dumpster. Many times they mark them with the bar’s name. I was right, it was marked and this was the place. So then I figured I’d stand outside and wait for more people to show up so I didn’t have to go back in alone. Soon after, the drummer from Squared OFf, Joe, walked up. We went in and ordered some beers. We started talking and everyone else started to show.

There was a dude in there who was really drunk. He was Puerto Rican and babbling about ‘Rock n Roll’. He would relate anything to Rock n Roll. He said, ‘I was in vietnam….and I just wanted that old time rock n roll!’. We were laughing hysterically at this dude, but he got annoying quick. He would shake your hand and hold it tight and not let go. And he would get up in your face and talk about all this nonsense. He sung a little big of ‘Stranglehold’ and he wanted to hear this Journey song so Hilger found it in the jukebox and put it on.

So we were all getting drunk and having fun. The other bands started to show up and it got real crowded in there. Somewhere along the way I ran out of money (and therefore beer) and also started to get pissed about this show. I think the 2 to a large extent go hand in hand. You couldn’t even stand or sit there was too much gear and people in there. Some crazy old punk rock looking dudes showed up and I was getting a little weirded out by it all. My girlfriend Jessica was on the way and I called her and said not to come. But she was almost there. So I said fuck it, might as well come in then. So this one crazy looking punk rock dude was charging people at the door, but many had slipped in earlier for free. So I figured fuck it, this guy is trying to rip people off or something. So when I walked in with Jessica he immediately tried to hit her up for the $5 and I said ‘Fuck that dude, shes with me’ like a total dick. I was really pissed about being here at this point, and I’m not exactly sure why. Later I apologized to the dude.

The first band was Waxon 7, they seemed to be taking forever to set up. They had too many members, too big of amps and their drummer had a music stand (???), they also replaced the lead mic with an old school type mic for image. Now I was getting real pissed at them and everyone there. I wanted to just drive home and go to bed or something, I don’t know. They played and I just wanted it to end. I was not listening to this band fairly at all. They finally finished then we had to wait longer while they tore down their shit.

Finally we got up there and set up. Hoser offered for us to use their amps for convienience since the bands after us would all be using them too. We don’t give a shit about sound or ‘tone'(whatever that is) so of course we agreed. Luckily for us the amps sounded excellent.

There’s no need to go into details of the set (it’s mostly just a blur anyways, as always) but when we were done my frown had turned upside down. It just felt really good and the people were feeling it. I was staring people down as I often do when I sing and play but some people were only like 2 feet away so they were getting scared which was fun. We finished and loaded our shit out and I was totally rejuvinated. I got some cash from my girlfriend and started drinking like a motherfucker.

Piehole was next. That punk dude at the door is their singer, his name is Willie. I learned his name from a dude named Jon from Windy City Music, some kind of local label/promoter. I met him previously at the Fireside, he was there to take pictures of MOTO and asked if I would send my pics to him via e-mail (I did). I asked him what he was doing at this show and he told me that he was there to interview Willie, and that he was ‘hard to get a hold of sometimes’. I guess this guy is somekind of fucking icon or something, I think hes also actaully from New York. Well Piehole was just fucking awesome, total old school. Their bassist was bashing the shit out of his bass and their drummer was around middle age or older but played perfectly. The guitarist was jamming on a JAckson and I showed my love for that. He was wearing a big cowboy hat and soe weird earrings and necklace/choker type of thing. When he showed up earlier he had a bag with him. I heard someone ask what was in the bag and he said ‘A big sandwich’ then he proceeded to eat the italian beef and drink an old style out of a mug. Fitting, but it grossed me out a bit.

Willie kept giving me the mic like I was their biggest fan and knew the songs. The bassist also kept motioning for me to sing into his mic. It was like a musical test: have someone sing you a melody once real quick when your drunk, then you sing the chorus next time it plays. Somehow I pulled it off on numerous song. Later the bassist said to the crowd ‘I’ve got Billy Milano Jr. over here!!’. I don’t see the resemblance between myself and the singer of MOD/SOD but I’ll defiantely take it as a huge compliment.

Squared Off was last. As they were setting up, I looked out the door of the bar and saw a paddy wagon. Now that’s definately not a good thing. I hollered for Hoser to quit yelling in the mic then 2 cops walked in. I tried to be very cordial and asked if it was a bit too loud. He said that it was and they were nice about it. The drummer from Piehole walked up and said something to them and they left just like that. Very smooth on his part. Squared off covered songs by Black Flag, Fugazi and Minor Threat and it doesn’t get any better then that. They rocked hardcore and Hoser was using a dope fucking SG that he custom made himself with a weird pickguard, I complimented him on it later.

After their set, Rob, Hilger and Dave Mazur took off. Mazur was very drunk. I stayed and kept drunking. Willie busted out the money from the door which I think was around $70 or $80, not bad. He tried to hand me a $20 and I refused it, I ordered 2 more beers (I cannot spell or say the name, I’ve had them before and I just told the bartender I wanted 2 ‘polish beers’ please), handed Willie one and stood on a stool and yelled ‘Nostrovya!!!’ as loud as I could and guzzled 2 beers at once. At one point I stepped outside and the guitarists from Waxon 7 and Piehole were hitting a joint. I could smell it a mile away. I guess that was a guitarist circle. I stuck around till the end and helped Squared Off load out the PA and all their gear.

Show #46: Fireside Bowl, Chicago

This is our 11th time playing here, but first in 2 years. i found myself telling alot of people that statistic because i myself am amazed by it. this is my personally 13th time there, i played there twice with C.F.D., my first band.

so we got there and found out we were playing 2nd of 4 bands. i think a lot of people (hilger said it and i agreed) that reality was a little off kilter that day, either from partying over the weekend and/or the daylight savings bullshit that ‘the man’ uses to steal an hour from us. how dare he!

so bill knobs of The Powerknobs showed up and we had a drink while the 1st band played. smear campaign was the headliner but they were soundchecking early before any of the bands. i see 1st thing that the singer is wearing like a softball jersey that says ‘south cicero’. now as if it wasnt crazy enough to be representin cicero, hes representina small part of it. that is definately down. they came off stage after their soundcheck and we start talking to them all (actually, i never did speak even once, nor did any of us, to the guitarist. he was definately awesome but just did his own thing i guess. so i go right up to the bassist, hes wearning a flannel shirt, and some bgi ass fuckin boots, like construction boots. so i just asked him, ‘hey dude, are you a fucking construction worker or what?’. he said that no, with a laugh, that he was a mechanic. i asked him for a smoke and he pulled out a very rare cigerette. he had pall mall menthol. i related a story to everyone about my dead grandfather. he smoked cigars but sometimes he would buy cigerettes — pall malls. but he didnt smoke them, he would lite them and just drive around with the thing burning in his mouth. they were definately unfiltered, but they arent shorties like lucky strikes. so anyways, the members of smear campaign are very cool, very friendly, were all laughing together.

bill knobs and i go have a beer, didnt even step out to the see the 1st band. they are called scissors. pop punk from elmhurst, or so i was told (what i was told as far as their home, im quite sure it was pop punk. i could hear it in the bar). and we were next. the set felt really good, wasnt very tired. it was real cold in the place, hilger and i were the only 2 with shorts on. i think it kept me awake. i kept wiping my head with a towel but wasnt that sweaty. the set was done quick and we gave out 10 cds to people we didnt know in about 20 seconds. they we hit the bar. the bartender thought our last song (‘summertime’ by crimpshrine) was fifteen (same singer, jeff ott) so i gave him props for being so close.

moto played, they had some wicked guitars. their singer/guitarist had an ampeg guitar which are rare. the one he had was old but looked pretty awesome. smear campaign played and matt was pretty drunk. he took his shirt off first. i can understand that, youre hot up there and sweating. then he took off his pants. well i was only out there to take some pics and then i went back to the bar. but i guess that he took a shit in his drawers on stage. thats pretty sick. i dont even know what to say about that.

matt from smear campaign was in there getting tanked in the bar afterwards. he buddy who he called momo was there, we were talking about the dirtiest suburbs. i said riverside, i made momo guess and he named dixon, i brought up robbins, but the worst is ford heights (ford city?) fuck if i know what its called. i aint going there. momo said how he used to sell those steaks door to door, and he said the trick is, ‘youre not selling the meal, youre selling the deal’. sound advice. then a guy named jon from windy city punk, i guess they are a label. he said that moto was signed with them and he saw me take pics. he wanted to get a copy of the pics and of course i obliged him. i emailed the 4 i took for the site (see them here). there was this one other dude, i had seen him talking to bill eariler. i figured he was his friend. he looked kind of weird, had dark skin…i dont know. so me and bill are sitting at a table and this guy starts asking me what kind of guitars i play and shit. he said that he missed our set, he got there late. and hes grilling me about guitars, amps, effects…i could keep up with his ass though. we started even spitting some shit about ohm’s law and other electrical theories. he told me he was a veteran, and that he could get military surplus tubes, which they used in old radios but work fine in an amp. thats insane. eventually he left and i asked bill who he was. he said he had no fucking clue, that the guy had come up to him to and grilled him about guitars too. i saw a mohican punk kid talking to some other dudes and i heard him ask them ‘have you ever heard of skokie’? refering to the band. i heard it an the dude said no. i said that i had. so we talked for a while about skokie, i said that they had a big ass black dude singing which of course is very fucking odd. i saw skokie play with strung out and straight faced several years ago also at the fireside. i told him about the show and he had one of ours cds, which he got from hilger after the show. he talked about a couple of bands he was in, we started talking about oi! music. i had to bring up skrewdriver becasue they are pretty cool although they are fucking nazis, its hardcore, crazy shit which hobo platis had gotten me into. ive downloaded a couple of songs and read about the singer and the band, theyre nuts. anyways, i said that i wasnt into the nazi shit. so i asked him ‘are you a nazi?’ and he said no, in fact he said he was jewish! hes from skokie of course. so we all had a good laugh at that. and right now i am listening to ‘nigger ( i hate your face)’ on repeat because of this dude. he was fucking cool. if youre reading this, holler at me!

The sound man, stan, was a class act. the fireside sound must have improved because it sounded great in there, better than our last few gigs. i was really surprised. and when i was going to leave i had to holler at stan who was at the bar also now. i also saw sitting next to him jon from windy city punk and another guy who i assume to be another windy city punk guy, he had a british accent. he broke the news to me, he said “hey man, did you see that guy up there? he shit himself” but in a british accent. i was shocked. thats insane.

i eventually went home, ate, passed out till like 2 am, woke up cleaned my house, walked to the gas station to get a soda in a fucking sleet storm and now its 5 am. so im posting this and going to bed. hey hilger, make sure you cover anything i forgot. it was another awesome show.

Low Profile Live
Sunday April 6th
Fireside Bowl
with Scissors, Moto, and Smear Campaign
Alright.  This show was very cool and fun.  Bill Knobs and Jessica both showed up so thanks to them right off the bat. also eorl and his old friend.   We met up at Rob’s at 4:30 and loaded up and drove to the Fireside.  We loaded in and found out that we played second.  Smear Campaign were on stage setting up while we were loading in.  They played a sound check and then got off stage and took their equiptment off which was kinda weird.  They said they were playing last and were gonna go get drunk first.  And I’m sure they play better when their drunk.  At least for the singer.
So Scissors play first.  They were poppy punk type shit.  I watched like one and a half songs and got bored so went to go hang out.
We were up next.  We represented to the fullest.  And we’re down with Smear Campaign.  They were representin Cicero which is in the 708 so u guys r cool with us.  And don’t think that if your not from the 708 we’ll hate u or whatever.  I think people think that sometimes.  Its not the case.  Be cool to Low Profile and we’ll be down for life.  So our set was:
Kamakazi 9-11
Brown
Character Profile
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Chimerical
Grudge
Hot Mom
Summertime  (originally by Crimpshrine)
We rocked the fucking house.  Jessica was our loudest fan as usual yelling out Low Profile and 708 thru out the show. The drummer and singer from Smear Campaign were digging us too.   Thanks for the support guys.
Moto was up next.  They played with their leathers on and everything.  They rocked for sure.  And I mean straight up rock.  4 piece with 2 guitars.  Their first song was called Metal Man.  It was kinda goofy but alright.
Then Smear Campaign played.  They were fucking insane.  The drummer was probably the funnest to watch.  He thrashed around like a wild man.  Props to the bassist.  He plays with no pick and all fingers.  They were wild.  They had a song called Hulk For President.  It was funny as hell.  Williams had to sing along on the big choruses.  Matt shit his pants at one point during the show and proceeded to wipe while still on stage and then got very close to being fully naked.
So then we hung out a bit.  The singer from Smear Campaign offered us a show which we took on the spot.  They were very nice and fun to talk to and hang out with.  We got paid a whopping $15.00 which is cool cause we can split it easily 3 ways.  Eric blew his cash on a last free drink.  I blew mine on a healthy McDonalds breakfast the morning after the show.
-HILGER

Show #45: Big Wig, Chicago

From left to right: of the Powerknobs — Gaynor, Andrew, Bill, Ross, and Matt from Shooting Blanks.

Prior to the this Sunday gig, Hilger and I were holed up in a Rockford hotel getting smashed for a couple of days. We were supposed to play the Divine Cup in the city but the entire venue closed down. We already had the hotel booked for this scheduled show and figured fuck it, we’ll go anyways even if we can’t play.

So I wasn’t feeling all that hot as I finally got to the club Sunday night. There were 3 bands booked: us, Shooting Blanks and another band who I knew nothing about called Dead by Midnight. Their name sounded cool and I hoped they would be dark and heavy. Shooting Blanks is a great bunch of fellows who have a picture of a cock on their website for their drummer, Dan’s, pic. They offered us the show thru Fellowship of the Punk. Well we all took seperate cars and got to the club. We loaded in and I had a few words with Charles from Ratbag Hero who runs the joint. Well, he runs it on the ‘Distortion Sundays’; the rest of the week its a classy type of nightclub where they probably have the hot chicks that would laugh and spit on you. Well maybe not you, but probably me. Well Charles is a great person and very fucking friendly and nice. HE explained that there were actaully going to be 4 bands — The Fonzarellies from Omaha, Nebraska were in town and were personal friends of his. So now we were going to play 4th. I wasn’t exactly excited about that but as I told Charles, he is the boss and I wouldn’t question his authority. We are not some kind of fucking rock star band nor am I an ego maniac. We are just glad to have the show. So we loaded in our shit and I sat down to drink some water in an attempt to clear my fuzzy and clouded albeit technically sober mind. Much to my own joy, they projected ‘The Chinese Connection’ on the wall, which I very much enjoyed as well as the numerous AFI albums which played throughout the night. Charles hooked the band up with 3 free drinks per member, and 1/2 off all drinks after that. Then, the opportunity of a lifetime. Charles informed us that Dead by Midnight still had not showed. He said that if they weren’t there in another 10 minutes, we should just set up and we could play first. Thank god, the band actaully did show up as we were sound checking, too late for them. That band ended up being about 45 min. late to load in, then just left when they were informed that they could not bring their underage girlfriends into the club. Fucking losers.

Well we went into our set eventually without a set list for what I believe was the 1st time ever. My guitar was also having a bit of trouble staying in tune as we opened with ‘Hangin Around’ by Screeching Weasel. We ripped thru a nice mix of covers and originals, playing ‘Wild Colonial Boy’ by the great Powerknobs when I saw that 4 of the 5 members had showed up for the show. By the time our set ended I was quite sweaty and very short of breath. I eventually recovered enough to suck down 6 or 7 vodka/redbulls. That got me really fired up.

Next was Shooting Blanks. Their drummer Dan (the cock) had had a long discussion with me prior to our set about, of all things, King Diamond. To make things even stranger, he didn’t seem to be familliar with very common punk acts like Screeching Weasel who the DJ was playing inbetween bands. He told me a crazy story about one of his friends who was so shaken by listening to too much King Diamond that he threw all his albums and tapes away in the middle of the night because he didn’t want them in his house. Well back to their set. They raged on for a good set, their singer, Matt, was throwing shapes with the best of them. They had the twin guitar attack and Matt blazed some nice leads to add some originality to their pop punk sound. And also, he played a Jackson guitar, and everyone knows I have much love for Jacksons.

Last up was the touring band, The Fonzarellies. Hilger is a #1 Motley Crue fan and after repeated forced listenings, I have become a fan myself. Well the singer of the Fonzarellies looked just like fucking Nikki Sixx, from his black eyeliner to wild hair and tons of fucking tattoos. He even had the sunglasses in his hair to round out the ensamble. They busted out some wicked fucking guitars and amps. The singer asked the crowd as they were sound checking “does it sound OK?” to which I replied, “No, its too quiet. Turn it up!” although it was loud as a motherfucker to begin with. But they were glad to oblige me and crank it up to 11. They closed with a 10 min. version of one of their songs that really kicked ass. Their singer was trying to talk to us(the crowd) but we really couldn’t unfortunately understand him as the vocals were too distorted and evreything was so fucking loud.

Another highlight of the night was when I walked to one of many 24 hour Mexican resturants in the area to score some grub before I started drinking as I was fucking famished. I ordered 2 steak tacos and the guy asked if I wanted everything on those. I told him I did, but oddly enough their idea of ‘everything’ was basically just onions and cilantro. Not that that is entirely bad, I fucking ate it all anyways. And after the Fonzarellies were done, we were all sitting around getting drunk and the DJ was spinning some old school punk rock like the Stooges. Hilger handed me the new Powerknobs CD which Rob had just scored and told me to give it to the DJ to play. HE was very skeptical at first but eventually played ‘I’m Bored’ much to the surprise of the Knobs who were present. That DJ even got a little silly, making use of the night clubs DJ’s gear like a flanger which he kicked in on the later half of the song.

–satan165, low profile

Low Profile review of show Sunday March 30th, 2003 at Bigwig
With Shooting Blanks and the Fonzarellies

This was one of the funnest shows I’ve played. I was expecting to feel like shit cause Williams and I were “coming down from a 48 hour bender”. No shit. We partied our asses off at a hotel in Rockford. We ate a lot, drank a lot and did other …um…….stuff………..
So I was feeling surprisingly well considering the situation. I’m not sure about the big bossman though. I think he felt better after he had a few drinks in him.
So we meet up at Rob’s at 7 to load up. We all drove separate. When we got to the Bigwig, we met Charles who was extremely friendly and all around nice. So we load in and were due to play last which sucked but oh well.
I’m not sure exactly what happened but we ended up playing first which was fine with the three of us. We played Nature of the Way Things Work for our soundcheck. Then we just chilled till a little after 9 and then started our set.
4 of the 5 Powerknobs showed up. Thanks for the support guys. And our biggest and loudest fan, Jessica, was there. We didn’t make a set list whatsoever and just called out songs as we felt like it. So our set was something like this:

Hangin Around (originally by Screeching Weasel)
Low Pro Pt. 1
Wild Colonial Boy (originally by the Powerknobs)
Solitaire
Zamboni
Figure It Out
Stabbed In the Back (originally by Youth of Today)
Take A Stand (also by Youth of Today)
Mr. Pig (requested by Jessica)
Summertime (originally by Crimpshrine)
Hot Mom

It was a good set. We ripped thru the songs. Rob said he couldn’t hear the bass whatsoever so that sucked for him but I didn’t notice any major fuck ups besides me not being able to recognize Figure It Out. I remember Williams just started the song and it starts with guitar and I was trying to think of all the songs that start with guitar so I’m going thru them, Hate? Grudge? Oh, shit. Its Figure It Out. So I started on B. Went to A. And then finally realized the first note was G#. I’m dumb like that.
Shooting Blanks were up next. These guys were great. We talked with Dan (the dick with glasses) for a while before the show. We talked a lot about music and bands and shit. He told me that King Diamond was also in Mercyful Fate. So u learn something new everyday. I’ll have to check that shit out.
They rocked for sure. They were 4 piece. 2 guitars. Very fun and energetic to watch. We heckled and yelled back and forth at them. The song about Britney was hysterical. I wanna cum on her tits too! And Matt, I got your back, man! U guys r down with Low Profile. Thanks for the show. I got a burned CD from Matt with 8 songs on it. Props.
Up next were the Fonzarellies from Omaha, Nebraska. These guys were great. I was truly impressed. They were also 4 piece, same lineup. The singer was sleeved up with tats and sported a Social D shirt. I requested a Social D song and he said that he knew how to play some Social D but the band didn’t. Oh well. These guys were awesome. Very professional, very talented, etc. I got their CD and 2 comps and hooked them up with some greens for their 7 hour drive home. I also gave them all the money that was in the donations bucket. Touring bands gotta get paid and they always get our share of the profits. Thats a Low Profile custom.
So the whole night was great. I got pretty drunk. They played great music like AFI, the Misfits, Clash, Bouncing Souls, Screeching Weasel and Williams had the DJ guy play the Powerknobs CD. They also played Bruce Lee’s the Chinese Connection up on the wall and then later had some Japanimation shit on which was cool to watch while your drunk and chillin. I had a blast. I hope everyone else did too. Good bands, good music, and a Bruce Lee movie. Fucking A.

Show #44: Mutiny, Chicago

Friday January 31st at the Mutiny in Chicago
Low Profile
The Steve Gattemayer Band
The Powerknobs
Arena Venus
Fucking awesome.
I could leave the review at that.  But I know u all want the long ass, unedited Hilger version of how the whole thing went down right?  Right?
Alright then.  We met up at Rob’s at 8.  Eric tells us that we r voted to play last.  That kinda sucks.  No that really sucks.  Oh well.  So we load up and drive to the club.  Its on Western right off Fullerton.  Its a nice place.  A nice dive.  Perfect for us.  So we load in and hang out for a long time.  Arena Venus r set up.  We’re hanging out talking with the Knobs and everyone else.  My sister shows up with Kelly who is a friend of my families.  That was cool.  Then two guys that I work with Jim Cavanaugh and Mike Phillips, showed up.  Leo “Bones” Toal(shown here, with Rob) and Dave Metko showed up.  It was great.

Even some mexican dude came into the bar and was trying to sell us some homemade tamales! And what the hell, even the great Dr.’ Z’s dad, Dr. Z Sr. showed up!(shown here, with Powerknobs bassist, Andrew)

So Ross from the Knobs feeds us some slices and Dominoes Dots.  Thanks Ross.  We chill and talk with Steve Gattemayer who is fucking awesome.  He was telling us some wild stories about Cincinatti.  All night I kept yelling at him “SG representin Cincinatti”.  He would just laugh.  He thougt Eric and i were a trip.
Arena Venus start their set.  They r a 4 piece with a chick singer.  They were alright.
Then the Powerknobs played.  They fucking rocked the house.  But Bill needs mutha fuckin strap locks.  Or just duct tape that strap on for good.  At one point he broke a string and Eric restrung the bitch during a song. They played all the songs we wanted to hear.  They opened with the Powerknobs theme song which is instrumental and went right into Wild Colonial Boy.  Eric and I went nuts.  They played Library Girl, My Baby’s in the CIA and All Night Party Action.  They played Bats Blood and Eric and I got to sing, or yell the chorus with Dr. Z.  who was going wild on the vocals.  Then as a tribute to RG Connect, they did a rendition of Straight 708’n.  I think it may have brought a tear to Eric’s eye.
Next the Steve Gattemayer band played.  They were a 3 piece.  Gattemayer sings and plays guitar.  They opened with a KISS tune, Detroit Rock City.  Eric and I were freaked out.  After that I was yelling for them to play Deuce or Strutter and Eric yelled for Black Diamond.  They were laughing at our enthusiasm.  They played a bunch of originals and made us wait for Strutter.  It was awesome.  Eric sang backups on the other mic.
Then we played.  We put up a sign that I made.  I just wrote on a piece of cardboard all ghetto:  www.lowpro708.com and then on the back:  Low Profile loves bizarrebooks.com.  We rocked fo sho.  We edited our set a bit.  Since Gattemayer played KISS, we had to play KISS.  Eric told him that we covered an obscure KISS song and he guessed that it would be off of the Elder which it is.  So our set went something like this:
Escape From the Island   (originally by KISS)
Solitaire
Kata #2
Low Profile Pt 1
Folsom Prison Blues    (originally by Johnny Cash)
Mr. Pig
The Empty Ramblings…..
Think About It
 the Grand Finale…….
Wild Colonial Boy            (originally by the Powerknobs)  feat Mr. Gaynor
encore………
Breakin the Law            (originally by Judas Priest)
After the show, we made SG take all the money out of the tip jar.  He couldn’t believe it.  He kept offering it to us and we wouldn’t take any of it.  Dave Metko kept apologizing in advance for any bad pictures he may have taken.  Eric told him that if he didn’t stop aplogizing, he’d kick his ass.  We talked with some crazy crack head dude outside the club about My Pet Monster, Voltron, other toys and cartoons from our childhood.  But he got a bit deeper with Eric telling him about how he plays from his heart and that he believes in it all.  I got a parking ticket and Eric told me not to pay it right away and to wait about a year till I get a notice in the mail telling me to pay it and this cracked out dude gives me the best advice.  He told me to pay it now while I have the money and get it out of the way.  “U may not have the money for that ticket in a year man.”  Thats pretty good advice coming from him.  So thats it.  The show was a blast.  U missed it.
-ERIK
Low Profile

 

Show #42: The Prodigal Son, Chicago

Low Profile live at the Prodigal Son / 2626 Halsted   Wednesday September 25th
with the Powerknobs and the Planet of the Planets
What a fucking show.  I could start all of my reviews with that line.  But seriously.  This show was a blast.  I emailed Brian who does booking for Prodigal Son and the Fireside and asked him to book us with the Powerknobs and he said they were playing the 25th and he would add our band.  So we got the show with like 10 days notice.  No problem for Low Profile though.  So we get there around 8.  We’re all hanging around and whatnot.  The bartender/soundman puts on a CD.  Eric and I recognize it.  “The Sinner” by Judas Priest.  We were going nuts.  So we got all rowdy about it and told him nice choice and he said “I only play Priest here.”  We were like “Fuckin A.”  So we sang along and acted like fools and had fun.  The other two bands showed up with their crews and we all talked and whatnot.  I think our antics made some people nervous but it was a friendly atmosphere.  And get this.  One of the weirdest things about this place is that they offer u free bacon and free juice.  I mean, cmon.  Bacon.  And I was told that it was salty as hell.  Probably to make u drink more.  But someone came up to Rob and I and told us about the free juice and bacon.  We didn’t get it and still don’t.  But that just added to the madness of the night.  Another cool thing about the place is that they had a great choice of beer.  Eric and Rob were drinking down some Red Stripes.  Whice r from Jamaica.  And Eric said that they had a beer that cost $13.50 for a bottle but it was much bigger bottle than average.
So whatever.  We play first.  Our set was:
Ghouls Night Out         originally by the Misfits
Carl Panzram
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Breakin The Law           originally by Judas Priest
Lachrymose
Grudge
Excited To Die
Hate
Low Profile part 1
And that was it.  We were going to play Want by Jawbreaker but we changed it last minute to Breakin The Law because the sound dude played the whole Priest album Sin After Sin.  I asked him what he thought of our version of the song and he said “You guys played that song so fucking raw.  It was awesome.”  What a guy.  So we were all hot and sweaty and we moved our shit outta the way so the next band could set up.  By the way.  Let me describe the stage.  It was a decent size but the ceiling was very low over the back half of the stage.  Maybe 6 and a half feet high.  Rob said he kept banging his sticks on the ceiling.  Then they had crazy homemade sound proofing along the back wall and on the roof.  They filled burlap potatoe type sacks and hung them to the wall.  It just looked crazy.  Again, adding the to madness of the whole experience of playing this show.
Right after us, the Planet of the Planets set up.  They were mind blowing.  I mean crazy music.  It didn’t make sense to me.  They were a four piece.  Drums, Guitar, Bass and then the fourth guy switched between playing guitar, keyboards or he would just sing.  They were great.  The guitarist wore a cowboy hat.  The singer dude wore these crazy old school sunglasses and Eric said he looked like he was in the witness protection program which was kinda true.  It looked like he was wearing a disguise.  The bassist played a 5 string and he ripped.  Parts of their songs would be very melodic and slow and then the tempo would speed up and they would play some noisy changes.   They were all very talented and I dug their music a lot.  The guitarist said in between songs that he always wanted to see Priest play live but now that he saw us play Breakin The Law, that made his day.  Fucking props.  They were very nice and cool to talk to and everything.  The singer made a comment on stage about Eric and I singing along to the song Screaming For Vengeance by Priest before the show.  He said something along the lines of “We don’t promote vengeance and we definately don’t scream for it.”  Pretty goofy.
Then the Powerknobs hit the stage.  They were great of course.  They r a 5 piece.  Drums, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards and a frontman singer who is just fucking awesome.  What a voice and what a frontman.  They covered an oldie by the Dave Clarke Five.  At least thats who I think originally played that song.   I think the song was called “Glad All Over”  They rocked it out for sure.  During one song the guitarist ripped a solo and started using his full Pabst Blue Ribbon can as a slide and made some crazy sounds and sloshed beer all over himself and his guitar but it was awesome.
 So like I said.  What a show.  It was a ton of fun.  I got to play my Nikki Sixx deluxe Gibson bass for the first time at a show.  It played great but went out of tune kinda quick.  Then I switched and used the Ball.  Eric played his maroon Jackson guitar.  I don’t think he really had any problems or anything.  No technical difficulties whatsoever.
So thats it.  Fun was had by all.  Well, most I should say.
-ERIK
Low Profile