I'd like to welcome everybody back to the Mercury Lounge for the sixteenth installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series. Tonight, I had the honor and the privilege of seeing The Germs, a band I have missed playing in NYC on many occasions. Not this time, bought my tickets around midnight last night. With public transportation not being friendly to me, I showed up about 9:30, same time the opening act 'The Krum Bums' were hitting the stage; The Germs slated to hit the stage at 10:30.As we all know, the original lead singer of the Germs, a man by the name of Jan Paul Beahm later known as Bobby Pyn and then even later and most infamously Darby Crash is dead. He had “overdosed on China white heroin in a suicide pact with close friend Casey Cola,” And if her name isn't storybook enough here's the kicker- “who ended up surviving”. At the age of 22 in 1980 Darby Crash and the Germs were done. In the rock and roll history books the Germs are one of the first and most influential L.A. Punk bands to come out when punk was forming into it's own. Put it this way, your band has to be good if Joan Jett was so much of a fan that she produces your only record. Crash's death gets overlooked in hindsight due to the fact that the very next day he committed suicide another rock musician died. Some guy named John Lennon, you may know him.
As mentioned before I walked in at about 9:30, just in time to pick up my Germs tee shirt for $15 and a sticker for $1. Then on my way to the main room I grabbed a Heineken for 7 bucks. The Krum Bums seemed to have just started there set. They were loud. Almost every band member (5) had a mic and was singing harmony somewhere on a song-or should I say screaming harmony. The lead singer set the table, he had a Rancid style mo hawk and tightened up in leather. The band looked like they were Punk, but they played this loud, heavy all over the place hardcore stuff. You all know the riff, really fast and as loud as possible then the complete 3 second stop and back into it. We've all seen this one before. By their third song (or by the time I finished that beer), I had enough and it was time to go back outside and schmooze with my fellow punk rockers.
I was smoking a cigarette when I noticed Pat Smear sneaking into the door avoiding contact with anyone with that same old smile he's been rocking for 30 years. The Mercury Lounge is great spot because there are so many other bars and hot spots on that same stretch of blocks that the tail that passes by this place is amazing. One chick had on a pink dress thing on and the skirt was really short (don't worry this part of the story goes somewhere), boobs almost coming out and she just looked way past drunk. She was with someone who looked like her boyfriend and they headed in. 10:30 was coming up on me fast, so I headed in to try and nail my usual front row spot. I get up front, and I see that drunk chick lying on the steps that lead up on stage. Now she stumbles up, and she's in full slut mode by now lying on stage lifting her legs up, bending all sorts of ways and she's asking people if they have “connections”(to the band). Right now I'm thinking “damn, her boyfriend is going to
go ballistic” but there was no boyfriend as she stood up and began to have her right boob pop out of her dress. And it wasn't even debatable, there was full nipple out. She was posing for pictures but is so whacked that she doesn't know her tit is hanging out while shes making these faces towards cameras. She was up there about ten minutes before event staff (one of the two dudes who are the event staff) tries to get her off stage and she's trying to make out with him. Then he escorts her out while myself and others booed the guy. I blurted out “hey, she coulda make a great riot girl.” The house music they were playing before the Germs came on consisted of heavy punk rock-and I can't believe they play D-7 by The Wipers. That was cool. But to the main eventAbout 10:39 here come the one, the only, THE GERMS!! On drums dressed in cub scout attire and a furry viking cap on was Mr. Don Bolles, he's a funny guy. Playing base the lovely Lorna Doom, who was outside on several occasions I just didn't know it was her. To be honest, she looked kind of like a high school teacher, but I got to tell you when she strapped that bass on-what is she 50 something?-I'd hit that. On guitar the one and only Pat Smear who gained more notoriety in the mid to late 90's when he played guitar in Nirvana for their In Utero tour and then with the Foo Fighters. And taking the place of Darby Crash, is Shane West-sporting a mo hawk and a glove on one hand that he said was “in memory of Micheal Jackson”. Shane West starred as Darby in the biopic of the Germs titled “What we do is secret”. The band members were so impressed with his portrayal that they decided to have him be the front man and reform the Germs. Don't think I'm fooled. In 2002 my girlfriend at the time dragged me to see “A Walk to Remember” starring Shane West opposite Mandy Moore. So it could have gone one of two ways: I could have enjoyed a great punk rock show or I could have made fun of this guy for an entire passage.
As soon as the first chord was strummed complete hell broke lose at 212 E Houston Street. I usually mean that in a figurative sense-as in the atmosphere, head nodding, etc. This time when I say hell broke loose I mean I'm physically bruised from the hardcore moshing and dudes jumping on stage and attempting to stage dive. I'm right in front, I'm getting pushed into other people constantly while trying to hold my camera steady because I was taking really long videos. I think Pat was trying to knock my camera out of my hand with his head stock, he was whaling away. Pat Smear,
definitely under-appreciated punk rock guitarist. He uses one switch, no pedals. The overall way he controls the sound of each song with how powerful his playing is. The riffs bleeding through the amps in unison with Shanye West's (He called himself Shanye- yes like Kanye)
rambling aggressive lyrics and style. He was nuts. He fell
off stage at one point I may have it on video, he had the Henry Rollins lean into the crowd thing going. He spilled water on us. Like I said before he was once Landon Carter and now he's Darby Crash. There were three main people that really kept the mosh going. I'm not even sure if it's a mosh it was just like a couple dudes bouncing off each other and slipping on the wet floor. Everything was with reckless abandonment except when one of them fell to the floor-that was when they were brought back to their feet quickly by their fellow moshers. But one of these dudes got on stage, sang some lyrics into the mic with Shanye, dived off stage and was caught by people, and then tumbled off of that crowd and landed into vacant space on the floor-trust me he hit the deck hard. But hey man, we're at a punk rock show this
kicks ass. You could see Lorna smiling when she sees this, as if she's proud that there's still some people who know how to have fun. I mean, I'm bruised up, got poked in the eye, slapped in the face and my hair pulled and I was NOT participating-I wonder what these dudes will feel like in the morning. No one fought, people even lit up cigarettes and no one cared. They played every song in their catalog in about a hour, they went off stage 11:43pm. Such a fun time, so hard rocking. So punk, so.. well so friggin Germs!! amazing.Keep checking back in the next couple of days as I will have added some videos to this. Thanks to everyone who gives a crap. Next stop is the Borgata in Atlantic City- Stone Temple Pilots with the Meat Puppets opening! going to be insane
to date the best place in the city I've been to for seeing a rock concert. The first opener is different from last night, as tonight we will be hearing a band called “Dynasty Electric” along with Retribution Gospel Choir and the almighty Meat Puppets. Last night I got there early and TK Webb and the Visions went on at 8:30, so for tonight I caught the 8:30 ferry into the city and figure for once in my life I'll be the guy who only shows up for the headliner, like the rest of those people- I mean come on now I've had to go to my actual job before and morning after both these shows-I'm a little tired. So I had planned to miss “Dynasty Electric”.
so good now I can enjoy. It was a really interesting cool sound. Kind of electronica but when the guitar player all of a sudden pulled out a saxophone and started whaling on it the crowd if it wasn't already was won over. And DeVeau was definitely hot. She was all over the stage. She stood on the table that the amps where on if front of me and literally it was wild man. My face to face with a vagina in the tightest pants ever. I heard Ted is the one who got her in on this gig. A freaking Theremin, now there's something I haven't seen live before or even heard of before. Good set.
city-I'm from the fucking desert man” and I said how I'd never experienced life like, living outside of the 5 boroughs and he's like “Yea like I can't even imagine it. So much goin on all the time. It's like the opposite for me." Someone had mentioned that they saw a picture of him hanging out with the dudes from Ween from this afternoon when the Pups played an afternoon show in Philly before tonights show. He's like "Wait a minute-from like this afternoon? they're on the internet already? then says "that's crazy man the world went and got itself in a hurry”- and did the funny voice as he continued quoting Brooks from 'Shawshank Redemption'. Then of course some guy gets out of a cab, another fan and starts saying stuff like “man Cris I'm so glad to see that you're all better and stuff. And he also mentioned how he's a lawyer and he was looking into Cris's case when he went to jail and didn't take it or something. Not for nothing, we're out here having fun-does the first thing out of everyone's mouth have to try and remind the guy of a part of his life that's behind him. Funny story though, Cris says “When I was sitting in prison a friend of mine, this girl, had like a shitload of coffee mugs made up that said 'FREE CRIS' on them. She was trying to raise money-I mean, I know your hearts in the right place and everything but I don't exactly think the feds are saying wow look at these great cups, open the gates.” After that the merch clerk, same as last night, very nice guy; comes over with someone and says “Cris this guy is a huge fan, and one of NY's Finest.” Then the laywer dude is like “wow man , you could have been of use a few years ago” and then Cris's eye's widen as he says “Yea you could say that again”. Then Cris's phone rings and he picks it up but doesn't leave the circle like so I say to the dude next to me who just got his CD autographed(and help with getting me another signed ticket stub with his sharpie), I'm like “Can you believe we're standing on the street having discussion with Cris fucking Kirkwood?”and I said it as if I didn't meet him in December which I did, because I didn't want this dude thinking that he wasn't exclusive-he was loving it. The crowd disbands leaving just me and Cris and I didn't want to keep him any longer so I said “ight man, I'm gonna catch you in there-rock on” and he's like “Yea I gotta head in anyway, I have to say hi to Ted's mom” then he surprises me. Cris says as he puts his hand out of a shake “yea man see you inside-it's Jay right?” and I was like “Yea it's Jay like the letter” and then we both headed inside. He knows my name. Great stuff.
to everyone around me saying things like “Wow this is so fucking cool” or “I hope they play Attacked by Monsters”. They hit the stage at 12:01 AM; after midnight, now I feel like I'm at an actual rock concert. The Grateful Dead used to start show's at midnight and play til 8AM, damn do I wish that would be the case tonight. Bands don't do things like that anymore, but in reality they rocked harder then they did the night before. Last night almost seems like a test drive compared to tonight, being they played a similar set of songs with a few exceptions. The drift off solo's during songs were absolutely epic. The version of “Up on the Sun”(I clocked that version at 13 minutes at least) with Alan Sparhawk again coming out to play it with them and they also covered a song that, to be honest was so filled with heavy riffing feedback driven guitars that I have the slightest clue what it was. Eric Pollard, the drummer from RGC sang on Plateau with them, but only did the chorus parts-sort of like singing harmony. When the RGC boys headed off stage I tapped Eric's shoulder and said to him “man, welcome to the greatest day of your life!”. It had to be an experience for them, not only touring but sharing a stage with the brothers Meat. “Aura Borialis” was great, I love that damn song man. They played it last night as well, I'm not sure if I had it down Cris's vocals on “Station” (Curt makes him sing that one) were better sounding then last night, I think they added more monitors in his vocals because the harmonies were different sounding also. And I gotta tell you I can't get that song “Rotten Shame” out of my head, it sounds like a throwback Puppets song when it's on the latest record. Then the fastest, hardest version of Lake of Fire to date-Curt always fools the crowd like-he starts this really sweet melodic couple of chords and you're trying to figure what song its going to be then out of no where it's Lake of Fire. Meat Puppets show's are indescribable so pardon me if begin to lack adjectives after these two crazy nights. They ran off stage after that(with me getting the sole hand shake from Cris on the way off stage (I'm telling you we are total BFF now) and everyone was wondering if they were coming back out-everyone turning to me asking me if they came out for an encore last night and the answer was no they didn't-but last night they played Backwater and now they're off stage without playing it. Don't worry, here they come after about 10 minutes get up on stage and play “Backwater” like a millisecond slower version. The rhythm section was slower pace but Curt was going full force. Absolutely just played the shit out of that Strat to end they officially went off stage at 1:35AM. Unbelievable, the Meat Puppets once again fail to disappoint.
