Schizophonics played a completely sold out show at the Casbah on Dec 28 with Mittens, Mistress 77 (see takinaride at facebook for those photos) opening on the main stage and Los Pinche Pinches playing the back bar.
It’s always really interesting watching the guitarist for the Schizophonics, Pat Beers, set up before going onstage. Besides lugging and plugging the amps in, he’s very meticulous about stringing his guitars up, even the way he stretches the strings. Duct tape goes around the various wires and cables which are aligned in a manner to make sure they are not going to be tripped over. Stage is made sure to be clear of any debris. Oh, and ONE guitar pedal is used to get all those crazy sounds he gets from his guitar. Things are nice and calm. That is, until the Schizophonics hit the stage.
Then the chaos begins. And what night of chaos it was! Drummer Lety is just pounding it on the drums. She’s one of the best drummers in San Diego history. And that’s saying quite a lot! Bassist Sarah is off to the side and along with Lety, providing a very solid foundation for the chaos of Pat Beers on guitar. Imagine Jimi Hendrix, Angus Young and all of the Stooges combined into one person. That is Pat Beers. But he has his own identity and sound. You’re not going to mistake him for anyone else and I don’t think anyone else can do what he does the way he does it. Everyone in the Schizophonics gel together all get into this intense groove with the whole stage being taken up with Pat flipping and flopping all over the place all while playing his guitar and singing. And when I say “all over the place”, I mean all over the stage AND the front row AND the Casbah floor. And that wasn’t all that happened. Beer was spilt! Paramedics were even called! They even teased the intro to “Living After Midnight” by Judas Priest in between one of the songs, which was really a weird thing to hear at a Schizophonics show. My friend Thad (from the Heartaches) was next to me and said “They’re not joking.” Huh? Um. Ok. At the end of the set, it was time for a few covers including “Looking At You” by the MC5 dedicated to Otto, the Casbah sound guy who passed away last year at this time. Then the bass amp blew up! They got another one from one of the other bands and then Thad was invited to come up onstage and they covered AC/DC’s “Riff Raff”, which totally blew my mind!
Anyways, here’s the pictures of most of what I was able to capture of this night:
Leave a Reply