Babes In Toyland - Reunited In The California Desert

I feel like I just emerged from an awesome time machine. It took me back to the 90's, right in the middle of a frenzied punk show that was all I cared about in that given moment. We left Venice in some of the worst traffic I've ever encountered (like it almost made us cry) to head to the desert for the long-awaited and hoped for Babes In Toyland reunion at Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown. Like, I mean we left at 3 pm, and we were late for the 9 pm show. Yeah. L.A. traffic has been grizzly lately, something has to be done to help the people. It's wrecking our buzz.

The buzz that we didn't yet have when we walked down the dirt road toward Pappy's ... already hearing the punk rock of my Minneapolis youth pounding out of the building, as we ran to get there and avoid being hit by all of the zillions of stars in the sky. Wow.

The sold out venue was packed with fans, many of whom I overheard say they'd just flown in from Minneapolis, or Europe, or Australia (or just up the road) just to see this seminal and inspirational to many band. We completely missed the opening band, Deap Vally, but I heard people say they ruled, and the lead singer's Mom told me they did too. Awesome.

Kat Bjelland, Lori Barbero, and Maureen Herman were already tearing it up when we got there, and the fans were ecstatic, in an arms raised froth, yelling for their favorite jams. As it was so packed (and we were late), I didn't really get to take awesome notes, or hardly any photos where you can see anything on the stage (Pappy's could maybe raise the stage a couple feet to avoid this dilemma). No matter, it was awesome, Babes In Toyland are as awesome as ever (maybe even better, playing soberly and TIGHT), and that's all you really need to know. As well as what they played, so here's the set list I snagged.

And here's a crappy snippet from the thick of it, of the absolute rock being thrown down by these fiery dames. It was so heavy, even superfan Peaches was seen throwing arms up and head back in true respect. Even with a bunch of tech difficulties, this band was BACK. YESSS!

It was all over too soon (especially after that drive), but that freed everyone up to catch up and congratulate, and celebrate the fact that the Babes are back!

I met up with my bass playing friend, Maureen Herman, and just gushed all over her at how great it was. As we walked together to the back area, a fan (one of the ones who had flown in from Minneapolis) told her that she had loved them since she was 11, and she was now 33, and this was, like, the happiest day of her life. You could tell she meant it. How great is that? Your band breaks up, life's drama ensues over a bunch of years, you overcome that drama, get the band back together, and the response is so huge the rafters were still shaking, and then you're told that you gave someone the happiest day of her life. I'd say it went pretty well.

At one point in the show, Bjelland said, "This is our first show in a really long time, so we're kind of nervous." That didn't show at all. Then she said she hoped we wouldn't mind if she didn't play with her E string. Nope, and that didn't show at all either. Fans were too blissed out to really notice anything other than that their Babes In Toyland were playing live in 2015 right in front of their faces. It was actually pretty emotional for fans and the band alike, prompting Barbero to say, "I'm seriously going to start crying in one second... No, that's bbq smoke in my eye." To which Bjelland said, "Bullshit." And she was right. The shit was REAL.

Bjelland is sort of fascinating because she speaks in this tiny, sweet, little voice, then unleashes this absolute blood-curdling ROAR when she snarls out "CEASE TO EXIST!!" (during "Swamp Pussy") ... a good analogy for women all-around, I guess.

Fans hung around after the show and the band hung out for them, signing merch, taking photos, hearing stories about how far fans came and how much it meant to them. It was just great.

And then we stared at the stars until the sun came up over the pastel desert, got back into more hours of traffic, and clambered out of the time machine (car) to wonder if it was all just a really good flashback, or did it really just happen?

Turns out it happened. And will continue to happen, with shows all over the place, starting with The Roxy in Hollywood tomorrow night (for which tickets sold out in two minutes a few months back and why I shlepped to the desert to see them first), which you know is just going to kill it. Really do try and see these impressive ladies - pretty much every woman in rock and roll today owes them a massive debt - you will be rocked back to the future.

Street Sweeper Social Club - First L.A. Show at The Roxy!

Street Sweeper Social Club ... "We're not just a band, we're a Social Club!", exclaimed co-front man Boots Riley several times during the band/Social Club's BLISTERING rock show last night at The Roxy in Los Angeles. Meaning, they're gonna melt your faces off with the heavy tunes, the lyrics are going to be equally molten, but it's not just to sing and play about, it's also to live it, and try to improve social CONDITIONS at the same time.

New Orleans has music-based Social Clubs, and that's what the guys decided to name the band after plain "Street Sweeper" was already taken. It makes total sense. They've all spent time helping out in New Orleans, and their rock really is about in-your-face examinations of what's going on in society today. Boots and guitarist/friend Tom Morello teamed up a couple of years ago, when Tom just handed Boots a tape of music and said, "We're in a new band together. Add lyrics to these jams." and off they went. Their first tour was opening for Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails on the NINJA tour last year, but they had yet to play in 80% of the band member's hometown of Los Angeles (Boots lives in Oakland) - until last night's KROQ sponsored sold-out throw down at The Roxy on Sunset.

The fans were ready for it too. I arrived too late to catch the opening acts (Hollis and The Memorials - who I saw just ending, and featured a shirtless drummer playing backwards at the front of the stage. Hmm.), but it was already pretty frenzied in the small room. Especially as it was clear that the Superfans were out, and many had probably maybe only seen Tom play his Rage riffs from a mile away on a Jumbotron at some festival, but never in a place so small you could see the individual sweat beads pour off his face as he executed said magic.

It felt exciting in there, like that concert build feeling when you hear the bass tuning behind the curtain, a couple drum beats, the stray guitar chord, each met with a rising swell of noise from the crowd. Suddenly old school hip hop on the P.A. turned into the Storm Trooper anthem from Star Wars ... ominous ... heavy ... Oh, MAN - the guys (and the crowd was heavily guy) down front were salivating ... Guitar Hero AND Star Wars all in one space/time continuum ... LIVE?! They were real, real happy, and vocally expressed it. Loudly.


The curtain rose, and SSSC stood there in their matching military coats and FBI style shades, meaning business. Boots said, "Los Angeles! I'm Boots Riley, he's Tom Morello, and we're Street Sweeper Social Club!" and with that they launched into the heavily rocking title track from their new-ish EP, The Ghettoblaster EP. It's hard, it's loud, and the place was slam dancing from the first chord. Even this one old guy, who I promise didn't stop dancing - hard - ever.


Tom has described the SSSC genre as "Revolutionary Party Music", and I don't think there's a better way to describe it. From the sheer poesy spat out by Boots, to the legendary guitar prowess of Tom, and the rock solid backing team of Kid Lighting/Dave Gibbs on bass, Carl Restivo on backing guitar, and Eric Gardner beating down the drums, the fact is there is going to be a party every time it's played, and it's serious enough that it could definitely incite a revolution. All you have to do is observe the fans FEELING it to know that.


"Somewhere In The World It's Midnight" is a party rocker from SSSC's self-titled debut album featuring Boots dancing like he does - inimitably - and Tom doing intricate guitar tuner solo moves, but underneath all that is some dead serious subject matter and a lyrical microscope focused on social injustice that oozes from everywhere.


Like:

Somewhere in the world it's 3 o'clock Time to get out of school and think, Somewhere in the world it's 5pm And quittin' time means it's time to drink, Somewhere in the world it's 8 o'clock Let's get fly, man, and go to the gig, But somewhere in the world it's midnight And the guerrillas just shot two pigs ...


Whoa. From there they went right into their stellar cover of MIA's "Paper Planes", that is clearly a fan favorite. It ruled. Everyone danced along, and had their finger guns in the air shooting away at that part. Then "Scars" ... just as crazy, (as when Tom pulled out his guitar plug and played a solo with it on his hand) and just as lyrically smart and witty.


(But those words were not even close to crystal clear at The Roxy, and Boots' mike even went out a couple of times. The mix is often muddy. The Roxy could just use better sound all around, straight up. C'mon.)


A tip: You need to just put on headphones and go for a run sometime and listen to what Boots has to say, as from his original days as part of The Coup, to his solo spoken word performances, to Ghettoblasting now with Tom, his words are some of the socially wisest and most acidly funny as I've ever heard.

"The Oath" from the first album was up next, and had Tom blowing a referee whistle, and Boots urging Mofo's to FIGHT back ... I pledge to get their foot off my neck, instead, I shall demand my respect, I'll fight even if I won't win ... Again, serious as hell, but packaged in the rock fun that by now had the band stripped down to their SSSC T's, and the crowd surging like it might hurt in there.


The first song I ever heard from Boots and Tom together was in 2008 on The Nightwatchman's Justice Tour, "100 Little Curses". I wrote at the time, after hearing it just the once, that this group was going to kick the collective ass of the people all around the world. Hearing it last night, I believe that to be absolute fact. Tom opened it with an almost classical sounding sickly fancy guitar intro, that had fists in the air even before Boots lit up the chorus of,

"All my people in the place put your fists in the air, All my down mutherfuckas get up outta your chairs, All my real down peoples we got love for you here, 'cept for that muthafuckas right there, get 'em!"


Man, I love that tune. So did the entire place. All Tom has to do at the completion of one of his solos is raise his arm, and every arm in the room goes up in support. And he earns it. The sweat was pouring off his head and down his nose as he made his guitar speak just as eloquently as the rhymes put together by Boots. It's a truly incredible experience every time, and it's evident on his fans' faces that they are experiencing true awe. BadASS.


"Fight! Smash! Win!" and "Clap For The Killers" ("Double up for them gangsters, clap clap"!) was the next one-two punch. I swear I saw some NEW Boots dance moves, even as he struggled a moment with his mike inexplicably cutting out. These guys just BRING IT, every time. And you can see that they also MEAN it. Boots said then that nearly every show, someone says they really like the band, but the guitar player tries too hard to sound like Tom Morello. (Really, I've heard this a few times myself, hilariously.) To which Boots replies every time, "Our guitar player IS motherfucking Tom Morello!" ... and the house screamed in honor of that fact. To which Tom responded with his "Guitar Fury Remix" version of their song, "Promenade".


"Guitar Fury" is no hyperbole. This "Squaredance rap" song doesn't mince any words, and you really need to listen to them all, until they proudly wind up with, "My skin is black, my star is red!" But the real show stopper of this song is Tom's, indeed, FURY. His solo goes all over the place in gigantic Rage-y riffs, which last night wound up with the classic solo with his teeth that brought out camera phones, (and hankies for some, to weep with joy at what they just witnessed) and hoarse yells for more.


And they got one more, the conspiratorial, "Nobody Moves 'Til We Say Go", that builds from a whisper at one point, to the heaviest music mayhem riot imaginable. Or so we thought.

That was the last song of the regular set, but after they left and came right back, Tom picked up the mike and told the crowd how happy they were to be playing their first show in L.A. proper, for a hometown audience of whom Tom requested, "For this last song, I want to see everyone go absolutely apeshit from beginning to end!" Yeah, no problem there. Because the last song was their cover of LL Cool J's ever-dope, "Mama Said Knock You Out".

In this case, "Apeshit" meant that a full mosh pit swirled around the little Roxy floor in aggressive fashion, while Boots screamed "Oakland! L.A.!" over and over. Tom grabbed back the mike and just before his astounding feedback finale solo, said, "Everyone from my 87 year old Mother (Mary, who STOOD and rocked at the rail above the floor for the entire set!) to this Indie Rock kid at his first show down front, I want to see you all JUMP! ELEVATE!!!"


And ELEVATE is exactly what we all did in there last night. Not just physically off of our feet, which certainly happened, to a person. But much more importantly, we elevated in heart, mind, consciousness, and spirit. That's what great music, raw wisdom, eye-opening commentary, camaraderie with friends and strangers alike, and yeah, even some good mosh bruises reminding you that you LIVED hard last night, will do for you. Every time.

Street Sweeper Social Club is a club that's basic tenets are to:

1) Feed the poor.
2) Fight the power. And ...
3) Rock the fuck out!

Now that is a club everyone should want to be a part of. And as evidenced by the beaming faces streaming out of The Roxy last night, not just be a part of, but really know what it means to be elevated ... right off your feet.

Get involved. Get E-volved!


*Photos by PaulGronner.com

Live On The Sunset Strip ... JANE'S ADDICTION!

There may be no better way to kick off a weekend of celebrating Independence and Freedom than to have your mind blown by Jane's Addiction. BLOWN!

Juana's Adiccion kicked off the Bing Sunset Strip Summer Concert Series at The Roxy last Friday night, in a show for FANS, called "Fan's Addiction". They weren't fronting. The people crowding the house were ALL Superfans, - you could tell. Fans that may not have ever seen Jane's live, or if they had, it had been a loooong while. The only way to get tickets was to win them from the band's website, Tweeting with Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro to win, or standing on line at The Roxy all day long (Rewarded in most cases. That's how packed it was). That makes for an extra special show, as out were the jaded seen it all types, and IN were the fans that count Jane's as one of their ALL-time favorite bands.


Like me. At the first Lollapalooza I literally somehow healed myself from too much sun and tequila & oranges ruin just in time to squeeze down front and scream along with every word Perry sang. That was the only time I've ever bounced back so dramatically, and it was because of the music. Now THIS night, I felt great to begin with, so it was all even better. Years have passed, both since that first Lollapalooza Jane's experience, and since Jane's recorded their first album - Jane's Addiction - in this very same venue. I am now blessed to call (longtime/former Venice dwellers) Perry and Etty Farrell friends, but that hasn't affected the fervor with which I revere the music, not one iota. It does, however, help a bit to get in the door to such a memorable evening.

Not an easy task. Those people had been lined up all day with the hopes of getting in The Roxy, and they were going to go OFF once inside. To behold such a spectacle, that - leaping ahead - HYPER ... I heard a lot of chatter after the show saying it had been the very best show many had EVER seen.

That show began with an opening set, not by some random up and comer band like usually is the case, but by a custom-made (by Perry) revue designed to shock and awe, put on by our own Venice Beach Freak Show! Todd Ray yelled "Where are the Freaks in the house?!" to unanimous applause from the house, and his cast of characters - Larry the Mexican Wolf Boy, Murrugun the Mystic, Brett the Sword Swallower, and The Rubber Boy - came out and had the crowd screaming the entire time.


Larry was hairy, Brett swallowed three swords at once (!), the Rubber Boy was jump-roping with his own arms, but Murrugun was the craziest. He pierced his flesh with metal skewers, all the way through, to where you had to either look away or risk throwing up. Yipes. The screams and gasps were authentic, and there's much more of that craziness to be seen each weekend on the Venice Boardwalk.


The skewers did not stop there. As tangible excitement built (like that old feeling you used to get pre-BIG show), next to take the stage were two tattooed and lingerie-clad ladies, one of whom took metal longass needles and inserted them through one cheek and out the other, licking it when it came out for good measure. More shrieking went down for that, but NOTHING compared to when both girls were suddenly hooked up to harnesses attached to metal rods in their backs ... flesh stretched out and crazy to where I had sympathy pain in my own piercing the next day, no joke.


Up they flew, swinging around from the ceiling, when the curtain dramatically rose and Jane's Addiction was revealed, blasting the opening notes of "Whores"!


To say that people went absolutely eyes-crossed crazy is too subtle ... all you could do was just scream senselessly at how Amaze-balls it all was. Perry dodged the girls as he sang, sometimes stopping to give them a swing push, as Dave tore through a possessed-like solo. I talked with many music biz folks after the show, and all agreed that it was one of the all-time Best Openings To A Show. Ev. Er.


The band was in perfect form from the outset: Perry smiling and having a ball; Dave skulking about the stage tearing his guitar to pieces, Stephen Perkins grinning like a little kid as he beat the daylights out of his drum kit, and Duff McKagan replacing Eric Avery seamlessly on the bass. The stage was done up as kind of an altar, with white Christmas lights hanging around a saintly painting and colorful Day Of The Dead-like accessories.


Awesome. (I'll be using that adjective a lot as we continue, I suspect).


"Ain't No Right" and "Had A Dad" immediately followed the spectacular opening number, and found Perry slapping fives with everyone down front, swigging from a bottle of red wine, and shimmy dancing along with the band he's fronted for over two decades, but performing his heart out like it was his first time.


He is the ultimate front man, he really is, and you can see the joy he gets out of these kind of moments coming off of him, like heat wave mirages (though it may really have been heat mirages, as it was a sweaty inferno of excitement in there). Dave calmly puffed away on a cigarette and shrugged his classic riffs out like it was no big deal. But it was.


Awesome. The crowd alone could tell you that, as they were SO into it for every last note and word played, you thought some would have to be carried out on gurneys.


Between songs, Perry said, "I'm talking to my homies in L.A. ... Kiss my ass, Boston!" (Referring, of course, to our recent NBA Smackdown with the Celtics - Ha!) L.A. was more than receptive too ... particularly when the "Everybody, everybody ..." opening to "Ted, Just Admit It" began, and Mrs. Farrell and her dancing partner, Stephanie Spanski, came out in black lingerie with feather butts, to bump and grind around the band. The guys (probably a bunch of girls too) in the place needed bibs at this point, so hot were these two.


Etty is a gorgeous woman - inside and out - and somehow managed to look like a wind machine was permanently on her - as cool and vampy (despite the heat), she pranced around her husband. The true love between them shone as bright as the spotlights. (I don't exaggerate in this case. They're the same at home as they are steaming up a stage. Theirs is a real and enviable love. So there.)


When the opening chords to "Mountain Song" started up, the audience was just GONE. Completely out of their minds. I personally was so happy to be there, I felt like I was vibrating like the breeze that comes out of speakers when you're too close - especially when I got a little Perry shout-out ("Cash in now, Carol ... Cash in now!") that pretty much made my Summer. When the resulting furor rose at that behemoth of a number's end, Perry said, "Do you know how much I love hearing that shit?!" Mad adulation - We meant the song, but he meant the cheering. There was a mutual love fest going on in the room, no doubt about it.


It continued with a crazy tearing through of "Been Caught Stealing", with Perry taking someone's cell camera and mugging for it, shaking his ass, and generally beaming throughout, while Stephen's curly-haired mohawk flopped around as he delivered a proper flogging to the song. Dave is just a blast to watch, and Duff is straight badass.


The slightly ominous tones of the dramatic "3 Days" started up, and Etty and Stephanie came out to flank Perry ("Three lovers in three ways ...") wearing black gags. Sexy, dark, edgy, DOPE as ever. For real, this band has held up almost miraculously, and makes a whole lot of newer bands seem like lint to pick off. Tight, almost telepathic tone changes, illustrated how being in it for the long haul makes for serious musical excellence. Duff as the new guy crunched out the bass lines like he was practicing them in night school after his GNR day job. Perfection. The song builds and builds, until Perry singing "All of us with wings .." felt undoubtedly true. Perkins took a blistering solo, and then it all exploded in such a way that left the room breathless ... but still yelling.


"Ain't life great?! I'm having such a fucking good time!", yelled Perry after that one, but it could have been said by anyone there. Strangers would pass by and high-five me, unprovoked. The resulting photos of the night show nothing but joy on every face you focus on. The real kind of happy that can't be faked. Shiny, excited, wild eyes were everywhere, and they lit up even more when the band revved up again for "Stop!" Perry was as dancing maniac, and the band showed zero mercy to the surging crowd. When it got to the "Hum ... along with me, hum along with the t.v. ... Whoa-oh-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh-OH-oh ..." part - ALL voices joined as one, and you could tell the entire band was thrilled, knowing that their heydays were far from over.


The entire Sunset Strip was thrilled (if the noise carried like I think it did) for "Ocean Size". It was done to epic proportions, and as Perry sang, "Wish I was Ocean size ...", I wanted to tell him, "Perry, You are." Nothing felt bigger at that moment in time, and as they rocked us to our collective cores, nothing but that feeling felt better. The stoke that comes from a good old- fashioned rock out cannot be diminished, nor can the camaraderie that comes from sharing that experience with a bunch of other like-minded new friends.


That was it for the regular set, but it started the frenzy anew, as rabid men and women shouted for more. Pretty soon, some roadies came out and set up some steel drums, which earned their own cheers. Uh-oh. That could only mean one thing ... and it did.


Stephen came out and stood at the steel drum set, Dave and Duff brought out acoustics, while Perry and the Girls danced around to the more than classic, "Jane Says". There wasn't one word of it that wasn't shouted along with by the entire room. Not one. When they brought up the house lights for the band to see the crowd sing-along, all the faces reflected the same pure giddy happiness. By the way, I don't care if you think I'm being gushy about all of this, I'm merely reporting the simple facts of a SPECTACULAR show. It was truly one for the ages.


"How are you all?" {{ ROOOOOAAAARRR!!! }} "Remember how vibrant the music scene used to be in L.A.? {{ WOOOOOOOOO!!!! }} "Well, I don't keep track, I just keep going!"
{{ AAAAHHHHH!! }} "We recorded our first album here in 1987, and I insulted every record executive in this whole city ... I invited 'em all to come check out my balls!" {{ A-HAHAHAH! }} "Tonight felt like the Good Old Days ... but these ARE the days!" {{ YEAAA-whistles-AAAAA-shrieks -AAAAAH! }} And with that, Dave, Stephen and Duff each began banging on big drums in unison at the front of the stage, signaling the opening to ... "Chip Away"!


You could barely stand how great it was in there then. That song has always felt just HUGE to me, and tonight it was that much and more. Like Ho. Ly. SHIT (That was the dominant phrase being uttered by nearby fans)! Etty and Stephanie were leading the clapping, the guys in the band were banging the drums senseless, and everyone else was just jumping up and down (waitresses, bartenders, security, EVERYONE!) as Perry screamed, "I don't, I don't, I don't feel easy!", over and over until the fever pitched and it all finally had to come to an end. Not that anyone wanted it to.


Jane's Addiction came to the front of the stage, arm in arm, and stood there just soaking up the adulation for a beautiful moment of complete triumph. After all the years, hardships, fights, yes, addictions, memories, and completely righteous shows like this, they're still standing. And so are we. Not just standing either, but SOARING. The arms of everyone present did not come down and the throats did not stop straining with ragged effort and noise until the house lights came on, and we all realized that it was over over. And with that realization came the accompanying one: group-think/talk of it having been "One of the greatest shows I've ever ever seen, Man!"


It really was. Like old school shows, where people didn't want to leave, they just wanted to keep talking about it. When they were finally forced to leave, they kept talking about it on the sidewalk outside, and on up until right now, when I'm still talking about it. And I'll for sure never stop smiling about the memory of it.

So as the Summertime begins to roll, I thank Jane's Addiction for sharing their gifts, and that feeling of being rocked until you're hyperkid when relating the tale. For me, it's an escape, a treasure, and ...

"It brought peace to my mind in the Summertime ... and it rolled ...".







*All photographic excellence was committed by Paul Gronner.com.