Laura and I went to the Hot Snakes show last night at the Magic Stick. Neither of us had been there, so we had a bit of difficultly parking. We found the actual place just fine, but we had to settle for street parking a couple blocks away.
To summarize the Magic Stick: Hellhole. The main room isn't too bad, though a bit run down. The pool tables are all 7 footers, and are thus worthless. The bartender was quite the jerk, but what else would I expect? The bathroom was, by far, the worst of it all. Laura was so disgusted by the her bathroom that she wouldn't even describe it. The mens room had two stalls and two urinals, yet no stall doors or seats even. The funniest part was there was just a random roll of toliet paper sitting toward the middle of the room. Who would use that? No door, no seat, just a random roll sitting in the filth of many punks? I will pass. Strike one.
I knew there were supposed to be two opening bands, but I figured they would start playing soon after the doors opened. We got there at 7:30 PM, the doors didn't open until 8 PM, yet we waited and waited and waited.... The first band (Red Hot Legends) finally started at 9:30 PM! They sucked. Musically, not bad. Their vocalist, on the other hand, was so horrid that we couldn't understand a single lyric. Strike two.
A good 40 minutes after the first band screeched to a halt, the second band (The Cudas) got on stage. Musically, pretty basic without flourish, melodical but plodding. The band had two main singers and a female backup singer/keyboardist. You could just tell the two guys were vying for top spot in the band. The guy who called the shots was a cheesy chach, the other guy had a much better voice. Gotta love band conflict. Their lyrics though, simply pathetic. Strike three.
Finally, praise god, the Hot Snakes got on stage sometime after 11 PM. I am not even sure when they started, my eyes were watering because I was so over tired. Without any build up or chatting with the audience, they launched into I Hate the Kids. I was a bit unsure of their quality live at first, but then I think their sound engineer tweaked something. The sound was very faithful to the albums, but with pure raw energy. They also played 10th Planet, Automatic Midnight, If Credit Matters I'll Take Credit, Light Up The Stars, No Hands, Our Work Fills The Pews, Past Lives, Gar Forgets His Insulin, XOX, Who Died, Suicide Invoice and Ben Gurion (wow, I remembered almost all of them).
Laura and I actually left during their show because I was so tired. Hopefully I didn't miss much. Luckily, I got to hear my favorite three songs (I Hate The Kids, If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit and Suicide Invoice). It's so hard to rock out when you have to get up before 6 AM the next day. The show was amazing, thus all strikes are taken back.
To summarize the Magic Stick: Hellhole. The main room isn't too bad, though a bit run down. The pool tables are all 7 footers, and are thus worthless. The bartender was quite the jerk, but what else would I expect? The bathroom was, by far, the worst of it all. Laura was so disgusted by the her bathroom that she wouldn't even describe it. The mens room had two stalls and two urinals, yet no stall doors or seats even. The funniest part was there was just a random roll of toliet paper sitting toward the middle of the room. Who would use that? No door, no seat, just a random roll sitting in the filth of many punks? I will pass. Strike one.
I knew there were supposed to be two opening bands, but I figured they would start playing soon after the doors opened. We got there at 7:30 PM, the doors didn't open until 8 PM, yet we waited and waited and waited.... The first band (Red Hot Legends) finally started at 9:30 PM! They sucked. Musically, not bad. Their vocalist, on the other hand, was so horrid that we couldn't understand a single lyric. Strike two.
A good 40 minutes after the first band screeched to a halt, the second band (The Cudas) got on stage. Musically, pretty basic without flourish, melodical but plodding. The band had two main singers and a female backup singer/keyboardist. You could just tell the two guys were vying for top spot in the band. The guy who called the shots was a cheesy chach, the other guy had a much better voice. Gotta love band conflict. Their lyrics though, simply pathetic. Strike three.
Finally, praise god, the Hot Snakes got on stage sometime after 11 PM. I am not even sure when they started, my eyes were watering because I was so over tired. Without any build up or chatting with the audience, they launched into I Hate the Kids. I was a bit unsure of their quality live at first, but then I think their sound engineer tweaked something. The sound was very faithful to the albums, but with pure raw energy. They also played 10th Planet, Automatic Midnight, If Credit Matters I'll Take Credit, Light Up The Stars, No Hands, Our Work Fills The Pews, Past Lives, Gar Forgets His Insulin, XOX, Who Died, Suicide Invoice and Ben Gurion (wow, I remembered almost all of them).
Laura and I actually left during their show because I was so tired. Hopefully I didn't miss much. Luckily, I got to hear my favorite three songs (I Hate The Kids, If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit and Suicide Invoice). It's so hard to rock out when you have to get up before 6 AM the next day. The show was amazing, thus all strikes are taken back.