Page 12
The Battalion
Thursday, April 27,1989
Reviews
Locals miss out on high-energy 3-band thrash show
By Keith Spera
REVIEWER
Shame on you, College Station.
The hippest, hottest, baddest, bra
shest show to come to town in ages
tears through the Parthenon Tues
day night, and only about 100 or so
folks show up.
Maybe the advertising was weak.
Maybe nobody likes to go out on
Tuesday nights. Maybe everyone is
studying for finals. Or maybe this
town is just plain lame.
Whatever the reason, a trio of
promising bands — one local, one
regional and one national in scope
— put on a high-energy show that
deserved a full house.
Thelonious Monster, the head
liner, was intense, funny, casual and
a lot more. But first, a word about
what preceded them.
Kicking off the show were local
thrash favorites Street Pizza. Vocalist
Pot Roast, guitarist Rev. P.D., drum
mer Scott Rot, and bassist Bill Ige-
rent careened through a sweaty set
of originals and cover tunes, accom
panied by a pack of high school-aged
slam dancers out on the dance floor.
A manic version of premier punk
band The Circle Jerks’ “Beat Me
Senseless” ended the set, during
which bassist Igerent, sporting-
shorts, long bleached-blond nair and
a pierced nose, beat his bass against
one of the Parthenon’s pretty white
Greek columns.
Next up was Dallas’s Hash Palace,
whose vocalist, Skippy, gets the
award for most heroic performance
of the evening. Early in Hash Pal
ace’s set, Skippy attempted to make a
flying leap off the drum riser. Un
fortunately, he slammed his head
into a lighting fixture that was hang
ing low from the Parthenon’s ceiling.
Skippy hit the ground hard, but
managed to sing the next line of the
song without missing a beat. A verti
cal lump as large as a child’s thumb
soon developed on Skippy's fore
head, requiring periodic applications
of an ice pack throughout the re
mainder of the show. Other than the
ice bag, you’d have never guessed he
was hurting. Now that’s profes
sional.
Smooth vocals, almost reminiscent
of the Pet Shop Boys, combined with
“artfully abrasive” music that would
be full of feedback-laden guitar one
moment and then descend into psy
chedelic swirls at another, character
ized their set. Highlights included
“White Trash” and Hash Palace’s
version of the Kinks’ “I’m Not Like
Everybody Else.” Their only flaw
was that the drum sound was coming
over the speakers so loud that it
drowned out the guitar at times.
Hash Palace could very well be the
next band out of Dallas to make it
big on the national scene. The man
who serves as Guadacanal Diary’s
manager and Robyn Hitchcock’s
lawyer also handles Hash Palace’s le
gal affairs, Skippy said. He men
tioned that several record compa
nies, including heavyweights Geffen
and A&M, have expressed interest
in the band. Keep an eye on them.
The only thing more fun than
watching Los Angeles’ Thelonious
That’s what happens
when you’re a critics’ band.
You get a critic and a
photographer and 12 other
people in the audience.”
— Bob Forrest,
lead singer,
Thelonious Monster
L.A. band Thelonious Monster played to a
crowd of about 100 at a triple-bill College Sta-
Photo by Frederick D. Joe
tion concert at the Parthenon.
Monster onstage was chatting with
their vocalist and frontman, Bob
Forrest, after the show. If everyone
is allotted a certain amount of excite
ment and unusual experiences in his
or her lifetime, then Forrest has
made up for at least 50 boring ac
countants’ lives.
Interesting experiences? How
about the time Forrest’s ex-girlf
riend Sabrina (who is not his wife
and not his ex-wife and not the
mother of his child, but who is the
lady whose name is tattooed on his
arm) was attacked by Guns ’N Roses
vocalist Axl Rose? She had at
tempted to spit on Axl while the
Gunners were playing in an L.A.
club a couple of years back.
Or what about when Forrest, on
the verge of a nervous breakdown,
pulled his car over on Sunset Boule
vard in front of the Geffen Records
building and crashed on the grass?
He was awakened by Guns ’N Roses
bassist Duff McKagan (whom For
rest has known for a few years and
remained buds with despite the Axl
incident) and McKagan’s dog, both
of whom were out for a stroll.
Don’t forget about the riot a few
days ago in Phoenix that erupted
during a Monster show. It seems
that a drunk positioned himself in
front of Bob and started flipping
him off and yelling obscenities while
the band performed an acoustic
song. Bob came offstage and offered
the guy his money back if he’d leave.
The guy started to swing at Bob, Bob
pushed him, and then several
friends of the band attacked the guy.
General mayhem followed, during
which everyone in the band slugged
someone, except Bob — who was*the
only one to go to jail.
The hottest rumors out of L.A.?
Bob Forrest, lead singer of Thelonious Monster, tells a story in
song at the Parthenon on April 25.
Ask Bob. These days the rumors
are:
• Sammy Hagar (whose people*
may be suing Thelonious Monster 1
for their song “Sammy Hagar Week
end”) soon will be out and Diamond
Dave Lee Roth will be back in Van
Halen;
• Living Colour will be the open
ing act for the fall Rolling Stones
tour; longtime Stones bassist Bill
Wyman won’t tour with them (sup
posedly guitarist Ron Wood will play
bass and ex-Stones guitarist Mick
Taylor will come back on board on
guitar).
Forrest knows that rock ’n’ roll is
not all fun and games. Along with
the tales of outrageous living come
the stories of bands overwhelmed by
either success or failure, and then
searching for solace in heroin. Bob
expressed frustrations about know
ing that even though his band is
good, they still have to go out on the
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road and not get paid at all for two
of their first three shows, and then
drive 700 miles from FI PasotoCol-
lege Station to play for a handfulol
people.
But frustrations were put aside
for the show. Thelonious Monster
opened their set with the introduc
tory song that Cheap Trick used on
their Cheap Trick at Budokan
bum and then ran through a set that
was partially the result of audience
requests.
Live, Thelonoius Monster is like a
well-organized hurricane, with Bolt
being an eye of sincerity and dark)
in the middle of the swirling storm
of music around him. They takethe
rawness of thrash and combine
with skillful musicianship and dk
cernihle vocals that make sure the
music’s message is understood.
In torn T-shirts and boots,
guitars slung low, the musicians of
Thelonious Monster made a three
dimensional visual show, moving
around the entire stage while For
rest clung to the microphone
spun his tales.
Forrest filled the spaces between
songs with bits of his wide repertoire
of stories. After relating the tale of
the disastrous tour thus far, Forresi
told the audience “If you thint
you’re bummin’, you got another
thing coming,” and then led the
band through a short version of
“There’s No Business Like Shot
Business.”
As an intro to a powerful version
of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Al
ways Get What You Want,” Forresi
joked, “That’s the thing about us-
we can play other bands’ stuff. Not
very good, necessarily, but we can
play them.”
They also performed cover songs
by Led Zepplin and Black Flag,
which, despite Forrest’s disclaimer,
they did a good job on.
During the requests portion of the
show, Forrest seemed surprised
when an audience member knew the
of one of Thelonious
name o t one
Monster’s songs. 1 requested
“Sammy Hagar Weekend,” a moving
tribute/indictment of the rock V rol
scene that appears on their latest
Relativity Records album, Storm
Weather.
Forrest asked how I knew about
that song. When 1 told him 1 write
for the entertainment section of The
Battalion, he laughed and said.
“That’s what happens when you’rea
critics’ band. You get a critic and a
photographer and 12 other people
m the audience.”
Speaking of photograhers, a Bar-
talion photographer became part of
the show when Forrest grabbed his
camera and started taking pictures
of the band in the middle of a song
He was still attached to the camera
by a cable connecting it to a batten
pack on his belt, so he followed For
rest around the stage as he snapped
pictures of his bamlmates.
A rocked-up rendition of Iran
Chapman’s “For Mv Lover” and
vii - - -
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howling version of the 60-year
Blind Lemon Jefferson classic “Set
That My Grave Is Kept Clean,’
(Thelonious Monster does bod
songs on Stormy Weather), and an
encore presentation of Robin Trott
er’s “Day of the Eagle” highlighted!
set that had few baa moments.
Here is a band that is talented, hai
an attitude, puts on an incredibk
live show, and has something to sa'
with their music. Next time the'
come around, maybe the crowd the)
deserve will show up.
Rock
like t\
By Had Blnion
CORRESPONDt
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