Wow! What an excellent night of high powered rock ‘n roll! I only came to see Mistress 77 as this was the release party for their excellent debut album “Can’t Stop”, which was reviewed HERE. Yes, the album came out last year on streaming services, but this celebration was for the actual physical release. So does that mean I can put it on my “best of” for 2024 list? If so, it’s probably going to be near the top!
I’m always at shows early to check out the opening bands. You just never know which one could be the next big thing. I had never heard of any of these openers, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed with any of them. This was one great night of hard driving rock ‘n roll. Too much for one post, but I’m going to squeeze it all in here to cover the whole night.
Funhouse were up first. And if you can guess, they were a Stooges tribute band. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’ll see any tribute band for a band that I like because I just like hearing the songs played loud and live. And that’s what this tribute band did: played songs that I like loud and live. Stooges-style.
Funhouse:
With four bands on the bill and one of them playing in the back bar, there was absolutely no break in the experience of the rock for the whole night. Once one band ended, another one started, and when that band ended, another one started and so on. So Soulseller got to play two sets, one before the Whiskey Dicks and one before Mistress 77. In case you couldn’t tell, they are named after the Hellacopter’s song and are obviously big fans of them, as not only their logo is the same font as what the early Hellacopters used, they sounded a lot like the early Hellacopters. And that’s a GREAT thing! The songs were loud, hard driving, and catchy. And more than a few people thought they were the best band of the night. Definitely the biggest surprise for me! I look forward to seeing them again. They got an album coming out in a couple weeks (July 19th, I think) with an album release party at the Casbah on July 27th (which I may have to miss because it’s during Comic Con and I will be exhausted). Looking forward to hearing this album! They sound incredibly promising!
Soulseller:
Then right after Soulseller, the Whiskey Dicks stormed the main stage. Found out that Tony from aMiniature is the guitarist in this band! Top notch guitarist with lots of great riffs. And they got a singer who’s brash, confident, uninhibited, and all over the place. A showman, demanding everyone’s attention at all times. In other words: a real lead singer! Think David Lee Roth or Axl Rose. Solid drummer and a steady bassist to round things out. Musically they were on the hard rockin’ blues side of the rock scale with some blazing solos, catchy choruses, and strong energy. They played the Casbah as if they were playing the LA Forum. They have one CD out and after I bought it saw that it was released 17 years ago! So I don’t know exactly what their deal is, if they’re still together or if this was just a one-off show to support Mistress 77, but I’d definitely be into seeing them again. The CD didn’t disappoint, being recorded at Doubletime Studios by Jeff Forrest who is basically the Jack Endino of San Diego. You can hear a track from it HERE.
They had good lighting and good stage presence, so I took a ton of pictures. Here’s a few of them:
After that, it was another excellent set by Soulseller at the back bar.
Then Mistress 77! This was their very first headlining show and they had a lot of friends and family in the audience to celebrate the vinyl release of their album “Can’t Stop”. If I’m not mistaken, they played the whole album. Which is fine because there’s not a bad track on it. Then finished the set off with some covers of the New York Dolls (well “Pills”, so actually a Bo Diddley cover) and the Sex Pistols. They were great, as expected. My only complaint would be that they didn’t play long enough! Only one backup singer this time (last time they had two) and it was announced as her last show with the band. Mistress 77 play top notch punk ‘n roll with backup singers. ’77 style punk rock, hence the name. I can’t recommend their album enough. If you want it on vinyl, you can get it at GarageRock Records. Or available on all streaming services.
Mistress 77:
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