The Key Club in Hollywood March
21, 2002
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The powder cage cherry bomb explosive five hale from the pit of New York's still thriving underground Punk scene. They have been tearing it up East Coast to West since their inception in 1997. I have noticed them playing in town before, yet I felt compelled to decline on the Toilet Boys experience until now! |
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The days of bands with a real flare for showmanship are all but gone and forgotten. Most modern rock bands, punk and metal alike are content to thrash or bob about the stage with underwhelming style while presenting music that is less than overwhelming. Then there's the Toilet Boys… Wild camp and frivolous tongue in check humor with a bad attitude. These enigmatic, spastic punk rockers the Toilet Boys weld a high-octane sound and set the stage on fire. The show took me by surprise. Sure I read the accounts of some pyrotechnic flames of glory. Reading is one thing, but as they say "seeing is believing". Originally, I had written this band off and threw them away with all the other gimmick-band rejects. I confess I was guilty of judging a book by its cover upon my first sight of the bands androgynous frontman. The mere suggestion of a gimmick is enough to usually turn me off of a band (I guess maybe this is teaching me a much needed lesson). With the downbeat of the first song, I was in over my head. |
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| The first set was a band I'd never heard of called Mojo Rib. They did a decent enough job. I wasn't too sure what I thought of them at first but they had one or two songs that were really good. After Mojo Rib was a band I know well from the LA indie punk scene the B-Movie Rats. As usual they came on, played well and engaged the crowd. I think they even filled the house with some of their own fans. The band that went out just before the headliners was another legendary underground New York Punk act who adopted the noniker Candy Ass. Yes, like the name might suggest they are like a sassy hard candy treat. That sums them up both in appearance and musically. Candy Ass is made up of four cute bad ass babes with plenty of attitude and a need to shove it your face through drums, bass, guitar, and vocals. The lead singer comes off as part Blondie crossed with a wicked Fairy from hell. (you can ckeck it out at www.candy-ass.com) | ||
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| Finally the headliners took the stage. I was excited as I watched them come out. Having played the latest self titled CD (self produced by the band on their own label Master Plan Entertainment) I already knew what I was in for some good music. First on stage was the one-two punch of the bombastic rhythm section Eddie, the drummer and Chris, who recently joined the band on bass. Next the double assault attack of the two axemen Rocket and the ever "piro-active" Sean. Last on the stage was the glam-slam androgen frontman Guy. The crowd went spastic from the moment they hit the stage, and Guy stepped out and proclaimed with out hesitation loud and clear that "The Party Starts NOW!" They played powerfully, passionately, proficiently, yet displaying a nice sense of drama, theatrics, and fun (something you rarely see in bands today). This was like a wild punk rock sideshow. Musically the songs work well, make you want to sing along. You can't help but move some part of your body along to the tunes. They come on sounding like a reminder of punk rocks golden age mixed in with the poppy 80's vibe like that of the Go Go's (only with a more relevant lyrical content). They played a number of songs off the new self-titled album like "Saturday Nite", "Hollywood", "good Times Roll", and "Rock 'N' Roll Whore". The musical mixture makes a nice cocktail of a pop-punch spiked with 100 proof power-punk. To make sure you get a real show they throw in some fire-play for added excitement. While playing well and with a very nice amount of stage presence they manages to pull off some pretty extravagant pyrotechnics. | ||
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| The lead guitar-slinger Sean has a number of special guitars that he uses for different effects including one that's equipped with a cannon that shots confetti into the room. As Guy seduces you with his vocals and his moves, the band plays chaos around him. The stage is laced with explosive supercharged blast of fire and sparkles. They give off giant rain showers of glistening hail as the backdrop of the stage. Sean the "fire-breathing rocker" blows enormous clouds of fire just above the crowd. At other points the guys are all shooting blast of fire or sparkler showers from the end of their guitars. And would you guess they deliver all this and never drop a beat? And when they have exhausted all their explosive resources, they still give you more… stopping just short musical over kill. The Toilet Boys give good show, and brought it home with one last song to thrill! Playing a cover of the Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop" | ||
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| To find out more and keep up with when the Toilet Boys are coming to town again check the bands home page at toiletboys.com | ||
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© 2002 TheSceneLA.com |
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