LA, fo shiz

I just went to a punk show that was 100% LA. The dirty, rabid, angry, poor collection of people that I always sort of knew made up the LA music scene, but had never really witnessed it for myself (for a hint of pop has always been my comfort zone). The venue - called the Smell - was the most ghetto thing I've ever seen. First of all, it was in the downtown area, and not the nice part of downtown either; I was in a sweat about my safety and the safety of my car. And speaking of sweat, the Smell has zero ventillation, something like 90 degrees and totally airless (note: and it wasn't the crowd; there were only about 40 people there). The building is a narrow alley between two brick buildings, over which they put a heat-absorbing roof that traps all that is miserable about a heat wave like today.

Having said all that, I had a good time. Some of the music was ho hum, and a lot of it was barely punk, but it was entertaining, and very, very down-to-earth. "What does that even mean, down-to-earth?" There was something exciting and fun about the unprofessionalism, like me and everyone else were a part of the show.

The bands?

Year Future - definitely would see again. Thrash-brand punk.
Federation X - basically metal.
Business Lady - noise. Would never buy their cd, but I might be persuaded to see them live again. Their frontman has this androgeny + weird thing going on, which you know I'm all over.
Nudity - psychadelic. Boring!
The Pope - also thrashy, but too much for me. I draw the line at the Cookie Monster vocals.