antiMUSIC Reviews - The Music site with an attitude

Benefit for the Surfrider Foundation Featuring: T.S.O.L., Channel 3, Boobie Trap, and Spider

by Goth Brooks

When and Where? @ Chain Reaction - Anaheim, CA. 1/27/01

As much as the realization of old age creeping up on me set in on this night, I was just as stoked to have this night to relive my youth through the music I grew up on. Nostalgia lingered in the air on this night as all the first and second generations of Punks, and fans of Punk, came out in droves to enjoy the music of four great bands in support of a great cause. I almost felt guilty if not politically incorrect pulling up to Chain Reaction riding shotgun in my buddy Greg's (A.k.a. Chairbuster2000) shiny black BMW. Oh well, I couldn't afford to put gas in my broke dick '82 Honda Accord that night anyway so what the hell?

After a minor inconvenience getting into the show because of being cut off a certain bands guest list due to limited guests allowed per band member, Paul Lucas of the Surfrider Foundation came through and worked out this one small glitch by shelling out my cover charge out of his own pocket. Thanks Paul, and thanks to Tim Hill and Jon Halperin and everyone else at Chain Reaction for helping make it all possible to do this for such a great cause. As soon as I got inside Hector Martinez of SPIDER was up on stage screaming out a song that I figured out was called "Metal Detector" by the Punks in the front of the stage chanting the lyrics "Combing the beach with my metal detector/Combing the beach �cause I'm all alone" at the top of their lungs while the cyclone called the pit spun out of control right behind them. Pretty catchy lyrics from a "real school" Punk band that borrows more of their sound from old school English bands like Sham 69 or Cockney Rejects with their anthemic songwriting and sing along choruses than they borrow from any of the bands in their own group of contemporaries. SPIDER keeps it simple and keeps the spirit of Punk alive with their fast, melodic sound that's rounded out by Karl Izumi on guitar, Steve Westerkamp on bass, and Al Silva on drums. I'm glad I caught SPIDER live, and I'll definitely be going to see them again. I highly recommend SPIDER to anyone in need of a good Punk Rock fix.

There was just enough time in between the sets of SPIDER and BOOBIE TRAP to step outside and cool down a minute before going back inside to see Franki in her black patent leather dress and torn fishnet stockings, getting me steamed up all over again. BOOBIE TRAP is one of the best bands I've seen lately that's fronted by a chick, and in my own personal opinion Franki has more right to the title "Queen of Punk" than all those other pretenders to the throne. The first song of the set was a song called "Dirty Girl" that firmly embedded Franki's patented moaning in the back of my mind to fantasize about later. Franki uses sex as just one of the tools in her arsenal of tricks without overdoing it. Sure, there was more of the moaning throughout the bands set, and even simulated acts of strap-on, and oral sex with big boobied guest vocalist Mary during the song "Scream." But I dug it and the crowd got off on it too. Guitarist Danny rules with his derby hat and raunchy guitar playing, and the rest of the band that includes Tracy on drums, Scott on rhythm guitar, Dave on bass, and Franki on vocals of course, put on an incredibly good show despite the fact they were plagued by technical difficulties in the beginning of their set due to an overly anxious photographers inability to keep from tripping over guitar and microphone chords while trying to take pictures of the band from the stage. BOOBIE TRAP ROCKED! And I have the broken camera to prove it!

CHANNEL 3 is a legendary Southern California band that was formed in Cerritos, CA somewhere around 1980 and 1981. Throughout the bands twenty-year history, which includes changes in the line-up and changes in hairstyles, the band has not strayed from their original loud, fast formula of creating the music they practically own the rights to. I'd never seen CHANNEL 3 live before because they only seem to play shows on a very few and far between schedule these days. Now that I've had the chance to finally see them, I won't be forgetting how really great this band is any time soon. This used to be one of my favorite bands from Rodney Bigenheimer's playlist on the Rodney on the ROQ show. CHANNEL 3 co-founders Mike Magrann on vocals and guitar and Kimm Gardener on guitar and backing vocals, along with bassist Mitch McNally and drummer Al Silva (who's pulling double duty as drummer for CHANNEL 3 and SPIDER) tore through an incredible hour long set of songs from the bands musical catalog that spans their twenty year history and included all the best CHANNEL 3 had to offer their fans on this night. All the hits were there. We were treated to suped-up versions of all the best songs like "What about Me"; "Out of Control"; "Mannequin"; and "Catholic Boy." If you're one of those antiMUSIC readers who is down on punk you really ought to check these guys out because they're the kind of band whose music really transcends the labels, boundaries and musical genres that keep the listeners in the dark ages.

It was all about T.S.O.L. on this night. So legendary, so entertaining, and so f***in' great. All the things I love about this band were present at this show and the charismatic Jack Grisham played the prankster and the Punk Rock Ringleader with a style that is just untouchable. There they stood on the Chain Reaction stage with Jack pacing back and forth in his hot pink ruffled shirt and trademark kind of evil, kind of mischievous grin. The noise from the sold out Chain Reaction crowd was just deafening. Over the house speakers came the intro "Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Please welcome T.S.O.L.! Jack then told the crowd that he had to get injured by the end of the night because he didn't want to go to work on Monday morning. After the deafening roar going up a few decibels in reaction to this, Ron Emory led the band into �Superficial Love" and all hell just broke loose from that moment on as evidenced by Jack proclaiming "Looks like we've got ourselves a nice, human smashpit going on up here." T.S.O.L. must be just as entertained by their audience as their audience is entertained by them. "Superficial Love"; "Abolish Government"; "Anti-Cop"; "Weathered Statues" and "Code Blue," oh yeah! T.S.O.L. has a policy of playing everything they know, or everything they're able to remember, and don't play anything in any particular order, or with the use of set-lists as revealed to me by Ron Emory at the end of the show when I asked for one in order to reference songs in this review. The show highlight came when Jack asked for a volunteer from the audience, had his manager Bobby duct tape the 17 year old female volunteer to a plastic lawn chair and lifted the girl up over the heads of the people in the middle of the pit to be suspended there while the band played in the background. From where I was standing on stage between Mike Roche's bass cabinet and Jay O'Brien's drums it looked like it was more fun than it was scary. But that's what this whole night was all about. It was all in the name of having some fun!