Made it up to Long Beach to see a special afternoon show with Rockfiles (Billy Bremner’s tribute to Rockpile) headlining, but the opening bands were what I was really excited about.
Rockfiles, which was Rockpile’s Billy Bremner and friends doing a tribute to the super group, Rockpile, headlined the show. It was the band everyone there was excited to see. It was interesting to watch all the members of the other bands helping them out, lending them their guitars, drums, and amps, and rocking out to the band as their played most of their “Seconds Of Pleasure” album (and more, including “So It Goes” and “Heart Of The City”). Also interesting to watch some of the other guitarists watch Bremner play, maybe trying to learn some new licks or seeing how he does things. Bremner played great and not “played great for an older guy”, he played great! Period. And made playing guitar look so easy.
Before Rockfile, Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders played a smokin’ set of rock ‘n roll. Even when Pat brought out his acoustic guitar for a few numbers, it didn’t slow things down one bit. They’re going to Australia next week and guess what? I will be there for a few of the shows too! Look for an interview with Pat Todd on this very blog soon! And of course some reviews of the Australian shows.
The Crazy Squeeze also stormed through a set of very catchy, loud rock ‘n roll. It was my second time seeing them (and at the same place too!) and they didn’t disappoint. I swear one of their guitarists (the one with the hat) is in a band at every show I see up in LA. I wanted to ask him how many bands he is in right now, but didn’t want to bug him. How can you keep that all together? Inquiring minds want to know. Very enjoyable high energy rock. I want to see them again. And again.
Opening the whole show, was the Juvenile Wrecks. It always scares me when a band sets up keyboards. Like REALLY scares me. The hope is that they’re going to sound like Jerry Lee Lewis, but sometimes they end up sounding like Flock Of Seagulls. My fears got a little comforted when the guitarists started playing some really cool rock ‘n roll riffs while setting up. Ok! And my fears got completely squashed when they burst into a 45 minute set of pure unadulterated New York Dolls influenced rock ‘n roll. I guess you can say every band on this bill was influenced in one way or another by the Dolls, and none of them disappointed. Juvenile Wrecks are on Spotify right now with a CD and LP being worked on for the tracks and I’ll be first in line to pick one up!
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