I rarely like to go
out on a weeknight to see bands. Especially bands from Las Vegas.
Especially bands from Las Vegas on a weeknight at the Viper Room.
The Viper Room is located on the Sunset Strip and gained most of
its notoriety when a famous celebrity died on the sidewalk in front
of the club. I don't like it because the door people have an over
inflated sense of entitlement and I have to take out a loan to buy
a beer there. So this was my mood when I arrived at 10:30 on a Thursday
night.
I must say that the band was a pleasant surprise.
EPSTEIN'S MOTHER launched into their set like seasoned professionals.
I'm sure performing on the Las Vegas strip makes the Sunset Strip
seem tame so EM's laid back, crowd friendly style shouldn't have
come as much of a surprise. The pack of fans that had followed them
from Las Vegas and the fact that their New York PR team was also
there probably didn't hurt their feeling of well being either. EPSTEIN'S
MOTHER is a band on the rise.
Their music, initially, seems to be somewhere
between John Mellencamp (early please) and the Gin Blossoms, but
in the in the end they have a style uniquely their own. The lyrics,
what I could hear of them over the sadly buzzing speakers of the
Viper Room, were the stuff of middle class working man rock, but
with a precision and depth that is lacking from most music today.
"My Favorite Song" has the singer bemoaning his horrible day that
includes a truck breakdown, and how he finds a momentary oasis from
the world when his favorite song comes on the radio. Corny, true,
but who can't identify? MY favorite song, and the one I wearing
out on their CD titled SUBTLE, was "Gone" a haunting tale of abuse
with a faint ray of hope.
Overall, I say if you get the chance to see these
boys, just do it. They play regularly in Vegas and their shows are
listed on their web site
On a personal note, after the band quit and the
lights came up, my 40 year old computer nerd husband, who must have
stuck out as especially dangerous in his plaid shirt and math professor
sweater, got kicked out of the club for pointing a laser pointer
at the ballroom light. No warning, no polite "could you put that
away, please?" Just get out. If I hadn't noticed the large bouncer
walking him out the door I would have thought he was in the bathroom.
I love L.A.
Carlye Archibeque
LUCKY 7
& SEX WITH LURCH
The Troubadour
January 23, 2001
Another weeknight show,
this time at the Troubadour, where the bouncers are nicer, but the
sound system has so much bass it resets your heartbeat. The band:
LUCKY 7 from San Diego which boasts over 3 million down loads off
of MP3.com. Commercially savvy, they have been using street teams
to spread the word about their music and from all the press they've
been getting regarding their internet success it seems to be working.
As for the live music, they are very punk and
a couple of the fans that followed them up from San Diego formed
the world's smallest mosh pit in front of the stage as the band
began their throbbing set. Fueled by the standard screaming guitars
and physical acrobatics that have made punk a mainstay in American
music there is little to mark them as unique in the scene. Between
the relentless, unmelodic pounding of the guitars and the super
bass sound of the Troubadour it was something akin to bliss when
the band paused between sets.
The lead singer sounded like he was an inch away
from losing his voice, and after hearing the bass player step in
to sing a song I was hoping he would lose his voice and the bass
player would have to step in for him. With a decent singer and some
further concentration on melodies they might make a good K-ROQ band,
but at this point they should be content with being gods of the
internet.
I didn't come to see the band that followed LUCKY
7, but after catching glimpses of their wardrobe and being fascinated
by the number of drag queens entering the Troubadour, I felt that
I should really see what was up. SEX WITH LERCH was an amazingly
fun psychedelic cross-dressing haze of wow. The lead singer and
the three backup singers are all men dressed as women. The singer
wore frilly blonde hair plenty of make-up and bright pink sixties
faux fur pants with the buns cut out and spiral designs drawn on
said buns. The back up singers wore an array of leather and lace.
Behind the band, but never far out of the audience consciousness
was a very large man dressed as Lerch with a silver serving tray
in one hand and a feather duster in the other. He danced ala Laugh
In with a blank expression wearing a black tux as the band bopped
to its retro glam surf style songs. Then off to the side was some
crazy bird doing art and drilling baby dolls. This is all I know
about them and this is all I need to know.
