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Musink Music and Tattoo Festival


by Gary Schwind

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Orange County Fairgrounds Feb 19-21, 2010. (Review is for the second night of the fest).

Musink is a three-day celebration of music and tattoos. When we first arrived, we walked through the building where the tattoo shops were set up. The room was filled with people with varying degrees of ink coverage and the buzzing of tattoo needles. One guy had his whole torso covered, and the one tattoo that caught my eye was Hannibal Lecter in his mask.

But people with tattoos up to their neck are not the reason I attended this event. I went to see The Head Cat, and I ended up probably 20 feet away from Lemmy. How cool is that? But before The Head Cat came onstage, Jim Rose provided some between-set entertainment. He brought to the stage a shirtless man wearing a dartboard on his back. Jim Rose then invited audience members to come and throw darts at the board. The person closest to the bullseye would win a prize. So in case you're wondering, the guy did take several darts in his back, which were then yanked out by another member of the sideshow.

The Head Cat took the stage and breezed through tunes like "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Fool's Paradise," and "Rock This Town." (For the record, I have now seen a live performance of "Rock This Town" by each member of The Stray Cats not named Brian Setzer.) There is something pretty cool about seeing Lemmy perform these classic rock and roll tunes. The band had good energy throughout the show, and definitely had the crowd singing along and moving.

Then came more antics from Jim Rose and company. This time, he treated the audience to: a woman getting a dollar bill stapled (yes, stapled) to her head, and the human dartboard being clobbered over the head with a frying pan. He held the microphone against the guy's head and proceeded to smack the guy six times with the pan. Let me tell you, there isn't anything incredibly pleasant about the amplified sound of frying pan meeting skull.

When that was out of the way, it was time for Buzzcocks. Let me tell you something. If anyone tells you punk is dead, that person simply hasn't seen Buzzcocks recently. This is a band that has been around for 30 years, and still brings that punk energy and ethic to the stage. The Buzzcocks set can best be described with two words: fast, loud. Even my silicone earplugs were powerless against the onslaught of sound. Despite the earplugs, I still left with my ears ringing. The band barely took a breath between songs while audience members pumped their fists and sang along to their favorites.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see more of the event, but I got to see some legends. And that is always a good thing. Many thanks to Goldenvoice for hooking me up with the pass.

The Dallas Texas edition of the festival is coming up on April 9th - 11th. See www.musink.org/ for all of the details


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