December 28th, 2007 I had a chance to take in a show that sounded like a flyer you would find in an ancient pair of pants. The Germs, with the Adolescents, on the sunset strip. Some thought shows like this would never happen again after the death of Germs front man Darby Crash, but they were wrong.
I knew I was in for a weird mix as soon as I hit the line in front of the Key club’s box office. Punk rock crowds are generally an eclectic bunch, but this night the age difference was the one that stuck out the most. The line looked something like a parent teacher conference night at the local junior high school.
Old grizzled punks, (I’d guess some of the more gnarled punks there were easily in there 50’s) stood in line with kids who couldn’t have been much older than 12 years old. The line stretched down Sunset Blvd. about 100 feet, mostly leather and spikes, more representative of the Germs crowd, but mixed in there were many skate punk, suburbanite themed punks as well, more representative of the Adolescents general draw.
By the time I was inside, the Adolescents were on. I went upstairs for a bird’s eye view of the crowd and from the wings of the second floor balcony, the pit was truly a sight to behold.
The crowd was moving as a dense, powerful mob, the music was fast, aggressive, and loud. Security didn’t seem to be working too much, telling me that the pit and general crowd were really into the show and having a good time, as opposed to fighting and mischief.
I was most impressed by Steve Soto’s sound on the bass. His sound is clean, sharp, and of course being a rhythm instrument, on point. Steve takes control of the beat of a song, and doesn’t waver from the tempo, a truly difficult task in the face of about 200 pitting punk rockers.
The band members seemed to be enjoying themselves as well, and making a great show of it. These guys, plain and simple, are punk rock pro’s. Between them they have all been members of bands that have gone on to make huge turns and changes in punk rock music, to name only a couple, Social Distortion, Agent Orange, Manic Hispanic, and Los Infernos all have hosted one or two of the Adolescents, and when they put on a show, their experience shows. They seemed to have all the moves to get a crowd into the evening and definitely they had the Key Club floor on fire.
However, the Germs were the headlining act, so after the Adolescents were done, and the crowd seemingly went outside for a cigarette, their gear was brought onstage. Don Bolles (drummer) took the opportunity to tune and set up his own drum rig, and I got to see Smear’s Hagstrom guitar up close.
Bolles went about tuning while aping the crowd a bit, in his big trapper’s hat, which as of late has become a mainstay in the Bolles wardrobe. It’s basically a huge furry hat, with earflaps and all, which didn’t seem necessary in the venue, although it wasn’t nearly as hot as it gets in the Key Club in summer.
For the Germs’ set I went down to the floor, stayed around the back third of the crowd, expecting the pit to be a bit overly enthusiastic in the first couple of songs, which it definitely was.
Shane West came out first, and seemingly nobody recognized him. It was when Pat Smear and Lorna Doom came out that the crowd realized the band was ready, and flowed back down to the pit area. Shane West made some snide remark I missed, the crowd started to throw some garbage on stage, their impatience growing (the Germs had taken about 5 minutes, once onstage, to actually start playing), but once the guitar chords started coming through the PA, the crowd went nuts.
The front half of the crowd, who had been standing around dutifully awaiting the music, became a mess of elbows and leather, skate tees and doc martens coming together as the Germs fans took over and led the room into a frantic paced mosh pit that spanned the entire dance floor.
While most of the kids in the room were absolutely into the music, and by the second song or so, it was sounding really aggressive and sharp however, some of the crowd was not impressed by West’s stage show. It must be something he’s used to, you don’t replace a martyred punk hero in a Seminole band, and expect everybody to be all right with it.
I’m positive West realized this, as between songs, he would fearlessly taunt the crowd, at times wearing a skull mask, and making gestures toward the crowd, seemingly meant to enrage them. For about two songs, he picked on a group of kids up front, taunting them about some unknown request they must have made to him. He let them have it for a while, almost seeming genuinely angry with them, but then on the next break, he dedicated a song to them, and when the song was “What We Do Is Secret” that same group of kids took over pit-wise.
By this time however, I noticed that most of the older punk heads in the club were nowhere to be found. About halfway through the set, I looked long and hard at the pit, and noticed it was looking especially juvenile. I did see some older punks hanging around the upstairs area, probably for a respite from the super aggro crowd on the first floor.
At about the same time, some in the crowd turned really ugly, throwing a beer or two right in the face of Lorna Doom, and sticking the finger at Shane West, really intrusive on the show. At one point West put on a mask, a kind of skull in a hood type deal, and said into the mic “Sorry, I’m stuck in my Halloween phase”. At the same time some punks next to me said he was sad, and that Halloween is every day for him. It was an interesting comment, but the people who said it, probably hadn’t been born yet when original front man Darby Crash passed away.
West has been performing as singer for the Germs for about 2 years now, and while most people would jump at the chance to sing in a well known band, it goes a lot deeper than that. Punk rock, first of all, is a music who’s focus, most of the time, is raw energy, so in that sense, West fits like a glove. His vocals are on point, raucous, and angry. He performs not as Darby Crash, but as Shane West, and he does a great job. If nobody had ever heard of the great Crash, than nobody would have a problem with West.
Another aspect of punk rock ethos however, is a sense of credibility, and a lot of the crowd didn’t seem to give West the benefit of the doubt here. For them, it was Crash, or nothing so many of them left, but the music was still good, the energy was way up there, as it should be, and the building was definitely rocking.
All in all the show was an excellent night of punk rock revelry, delivered by seasoned veterans of the scene. It was funny to think that some of the songs played that night were much older than most of the audience, but then again, a lot of that older, raw punk attitude was nostalgically present. Maybe it is Halloween for West every day, but he didn’t give out any lumps of coal, the Germs were definitely a treat.
