Fresno Famous

This show was orginally booked at the Bel-Tower and it's a shame it had to be moved. This was a show heavy on theatrics and it would have been great to see what the bands could have done with some extra space and a crowd full of kids.

That said, there is something awesome (and a bit dangerous) seeing these bands thrash around a tiny-ass bar.

Thrashing Bastards: A guitar/drum duo from Visalia. To make an obvious (and probably cliched) comparison (sorry), think the Black Keys playing Black Flag. I loved.

This is the second band I've seen in two weeks (the first being Stab City) where the drummer lead the show. Seriously, the dude was a monster, creating a wall of sound that often drowned out the guitar. Also, the other dude's guitar kept cutting out, which didn't matter because they kept on like it was  nothing until the whole thing crescendoed into a mess of flailing bodies, cymbal stands and guitar feedback. Super impressed and ready to see/play with these guys again.

Seduce the Dead: There are a bazillion genres and sub genres of punk rock and there's probably a term to describe these guys, but I don't know it. Suffice it to say they play punk and rock and they do it loud and fast (super fast). The singer has a particular cadence and snotty sort of whine that I super enjoyed.

Culo a Boca: Christa Berry (one of the band's two singers) is sliding down the bar-top like a slip-and-slide, and she's totally captured my attention, when I feel a strange warmth on the back of my neck. I turn around just in time to miss the guitar player spitting out a flame of Barardi 151 (it is flameable, says so right on the bottle, and it stinks something fierce).

The music never stops.

Barstools get thrown (and picked up and re-thrown), some kind of liquid gets air blasted over the crowd and Ricardo Rodriguez (the other singer) does a back flop on the floor that looks like it had to hurt.

And that's all before Berry brings out a penis shaped leaf blower and covers the crowd in toilet paper (don't ask).

Our set: We closed with the mellowest set of the night.