I got too many great pictures of Handsome Dick and his band, so I will have to split this into two parts.
A band from Detroit called The Strains were supposed to open up the show, but one of the guys had a medical emergency and they had to get back home immediately. I hope everything is ok!
Since The Strains couldn’t play AND the San Diego Padres were facing an elimination playoff game, the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs went on a little bit later. The Padres were still on when they took the stage. Singer/guitarist Frank Meyer started off saying, “We get it. We understand. We’ll just be background music for your baseball game. We won’t take offense if you’re turning your heads to watch the game on TV.” Then they totally BLASTED through a 45 minute set of just total kick ass punk ‘n rockin’ roll. As God is my witness, within 5 seconds, I forgot there was even a baseball game going on!
The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs have been around for over 30 years and have an impressive history and a ton of releases. Led by Frank Meyer, they got a ton of connections, as they’ve had quite an impressive list of artists that they’ve recorded with. Cherie Curie, Wayne Kramer, Dennis Tek, Jeff Dahl, Sylvain Sylvain, and a lot more. Frank never rests. He’s currently in 5 bands that all tour (including Fear; he would be playing guitar for Handsome Dick as he has in the past, but the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs are doing their own thing now), has something like 8 books out, has directed a couple documentaries and I think some TV series too. I remember him doing some excellent writing and reviews for the KNAC website too back in the day when websites were just starting to be a thing.
I don’t think I have ever seen the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs before. It’s possible, but I don’t think so. I know I’ve met Frank before and it was at the Casbah, but it had to be one of the bands he was filling in for or something. And it wasn’t the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, because if it was, I would’ve certainly remembered them. Seriously, they ROCKED tonight! A full on pummeling onslaught of high energy punk ‘n roll. They wear their influences on their sleeves and you can tell by the bands they cover: The Saints, Stooges, Dictators, X, Dead Boys, and even Motley Crue, and they tonight they played a great version of MC5’s “Looking At You” for their last song, bringing the mike stands and into the audience to sing for them. Excellent set. Just incredible. My head is still spinning.
Handsome Dick Manitoba was up next. He, of course, is the legendary singer for the Dictators, who were punk before there was even a word called “punk” for this type of music. He has an all-star band backing him up who did a fine energetic job. You got Michael Butler (American Heartbreak, Jet Boy, and a short stint in Exodus) on bass, Craig Behrhorst (Two Bit Thief) on one guitar, Marc Kapetan (KMJ Radio and some local Fresno bands) on other guitar, and Scotty Slam (ex-Circus of Power) on drums. They were all more on the metal side of things (think having two Ross the Boss’s in the band instead of one Ross The Boss and one Scott Kempner), but were excellent. Handsome Dick was in great shape. Since he didn’t mention his age onstage, I won’t mention what it is, but you would’ve thought he was 30 years younger. He sounded great. Everyone sounded great. And we were all here to celebrate the legendary music of the Dictators. Oh, and let’s not forget Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom! He did a lot of talking in between some of the songs to tell the stories behind them. Things that everyone should know. This is history. He really should write an autobiography. The stories he could tell. There were some heartfelt mentions about fellow Dictators Ross The Boss (which was nice because I knew they were on bad terms the past couple years) and Scott Kempner. And also friend Cheetah Chrome, who are all no longer with us. The setlist was just about perfect. Someone kept shouting for “No Tomorrow” and while that wasn’t on the setlist, Dick passed the mike around so everyone did a short little acapella sing-a-long version of it. Other songs were “Who Will Save Rock ‘n Roll?”, “The Party Starts Now”, “Master Race Rock”, “Stay With Me” and “Baby Let’s Twist” (I had this played at our wedding reception!) among many others. “Kick Out The Jams” and “California Sun” closed off this excellent set. It should be noted that the Dictators covered “California Sun” on their Go Girl Crazy! album and the Ramones got the idea to cover it from THEM. Afterwards, Handsome Dick took photos with everyone and signed anything anyone wanted signed. Excellent night. I couldn’t get to sleep until 4am because my head was still buzzing with all the excitement of the night. My head is still reeling. One of the best $15 I’ve ever spent.
Here’s part 1 of my pictures of Handsome Dick Manitoba and band shots. I got a lot of good ones, so I’ll post part 2 in the next day or so.
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