I haven't seen The Bronx live in a lot longer than I thought. Way back in 2004, Mr. Brown, my cousin Charles and I discovered these guys at Chicago's Fireside Bowl when they opened for Dillinger Escape Plan on their Miss Machine tour, the first with Greg Puciato stepping in on vocals after original singer Dimitri Minakakis left the band. This was a fantastic show for many reasons - it was one of (if not THE) final time I attended a show at the Fireside (RIP); The Bronx were a f&*king revelation live that made me an instant die-hard fan, and Mr. Puciato began a reign of beautiful terror that proved he was up to the task of fronting the otherworldly machine that is D.E.P.
Anyway, shortly before flying out to L.A. a few weeks ago (I'm still here!), my good friends M-n-K surprised me by grabbing tickets to Alex's Bar's 24th Anniversary show with The Bronx, Negative Blast and R0BBER. Much like Tarantino's New Beverly Theatre, I lived in L.A. for 16 years and never made it to Alex's Bar, despite countless invites. So once again, I remedy that on this trip (I went to the New Bev last weekend).
Interestingly enough, this appears to be a year of full circles. Last month my good friend Dave and I locked down a trip to Brooklyn in June to see Dillinger play Calculating Infinity for it's 25th anniversary. The singer for the show is Dimitri, and I couldn't be more psyched. I haven't been to NYC since 2014 (I think) and Dimitri was the frontman of the band when I was introduced to them opening for Mr. Bungle in 1999 at Chicago's Metro.
Full Circle indeed.
Moment:
Jotting down some ideas last night at Santa Monica Brew Works, sipping on their gorgeous Nitro Irish Stout.
A good night. Met up with my A Most Horrible Library cohost, Chris, and caught up. We planned some new episodes, and I just generally unwound from a crazy work week.
Watch:
I've never really been a Troma fan, so it follows that I've never really cared about The Toxic Avenger. Macon Blair, however, gets all my love, so when I saw he was writing/directing this reboot, I knew I'd been giving it a chance.
Since first seeing Blair in Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin, I've been a fan of both men. Blair's 2017 directorial debut, I Do Not Feel At Home In This World Anymore, is a high point in Netflix's original feature films and has a cast that just blows me away. Then again, anyone who puts David Yow in their film is aces in my book, and a quick perusal of this new iteration of Toxie's IMDB page shows Mr. Yow is once again on hand. Hell yeah!
Playlist:
Damone - From The Attic
Damone - Out Here All Night
Mastodon - Leviathan
The Bronx - (I)
The Bronx - VI
Turnstile - GLOW ON
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Scratch Acid - The Greatest Gift
The Bronx - (II)
The National - Conversation 16 (Single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• IX: The Hermit
• VIII: Strength
• Six of Pentacles
Rest and recharge, confirmation I'm spending my one day off this week in the correct capacity.
Man, I LOVE every damn card in this deck.