Black Lips @ Echoplex, 10/20/07

Just a day after missing Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug's main side project Sunset Rubdown at the El Rey (still bummed, I had my ticket, but ended up meeting up with co-workers at Union Cattle in Hermosa Beach for one too many drinks), Black Lips played at the Echoplex.

I arrived there early enough to catch openers The Spits and Pierced Arrows. The Spits, who are known for wearing crazy costumes live, had one of the craziest fucking pits I have been in in a while. These 30-years old or so bald Seattle dudes came out looking like skinhead Klansmen in loose white cotton sheet gowns, ink dots on their foreheads, and the guy on the keys was wearing a big fuzzy sasquatch-esque body suit and a welding helmet (think Homer in the opening credits for the Simpsons.)

They pumped out crunchy and raw power-chord punk that reminded me of Suicidal Tendencies with a synth, and even The Ramones on some tracks. Lots of singing-along, crowd surfing, and just an all out wild crowd. I had no idea this band had such a following!


I pretty much sat out the second band and then I worked my way up front to see Black Lips. Holy cow! I FUCKING LOVED THIS SHOW! I can't get over it! These guys have such a raw sound live. You can hear the crackle in the guitar's reverbed distortion as if someone is punching a Twin Reverb while the pickups are being run on a fading battery (I have an Eric Clapton Strat that uses Lace Sensors, and these active pickups sound exactly the same when the 9-volt is running low).

They really sound like a bunch of high school kids in the 60's getting drunk and singing along to old-school garage punk, and they do it extremely well, with catchy hooks that don't grow repetitive or annoying.

While their stage presence didn't include bodily fluid centered antics that they have become infamous for (urinating, masochism, vomiting, nudity, etc.), they still had a fucking awesome set and I really didn't miss the absence of cocks and barf on stage.

The crowd was really into it: yelling and singing along, pitting, crowd surfing, etc. but a lot of fans were also flicking them off and cussing them out and telling them to do crazy shit like "make out with each other!" and "take out your cock!" and "what the fuck happened to the good ol' days you motherfuckers!?!?" Some people were even throwing beer cups at them and they were getting splashed a bit. Nobody seemed to mind much except for thickly moustached bassist/vocalist Jared Swilley, who looked at the crowd, wide-eyed, with a look of contained-anger.

The band did well of keeping their cool until grillz-sporting guitarist Ian St. Pe broke a beer bottle on stage and the band was forced to pack it up with 5 songs left to play! Sucked! Everyone waited at least half an hour for them to come back on, booing and yelling, but they weren't allowed. Probably now banned from the Echoplex...