Voodoo Glow Skulls - House Of Blues, Orlando, FL 02.27.03
Posted by Ryan T. Murphy on 03.05.2003
... Or “Roger Miret & The Disasters are fucking awesome”
So last night me & my friend Little Ryan (an actual smaller friend also named Ryan, not a euphemism for anything) head out to Downtown Disney for the Voodoo Glow Skulls show. First off, tickets were $14, which is a little high for only 3 bands with marginal headlining experience. But we were in no position to argue prices. Doors had already opened but the place was absolutely barren. Apparently none of the usual junior high punx were allowed out on a school night. We get inside and I run into some regulars on the local scene, including a promoter named Shawn that I talk to now & then and a big dude with a mullet named Chunk that stepped on my sister in a pit once. Chunk’s summation of the new school punx: “I feel a little out of place because I’m one of the only people here with long hair. And that includes most of the girls.”
Only about 15 minutes after the start of the show, Roger Miret & the Disasters came on. Any real punks (not punx who spell rock like rawk) would know Roger Miret as the former frontman of Agnostic Front. The Disasters are on Hellcat and are a pretty notable band, but they play around Orlando ALL the time, so I guess they count as part of the local scene. This was my first time seeing them though. I was blown away. I liked them from the first few songs, although everyone else seemed to be less than impressed. They picked up steam towards the middle of the set, with some energetic pure punk rock. Songs about skinheads without any OIs, songs not about skinheads but with some OIs, and a sick fucking track called “Smash it Up” about New York City made the Disasters’ set one of the best I’ve seen out of any band in months. Some of the kids in the crowd were a bit hostile toward the band, since The Disasters have an excellent old school punk type sound. Apparently the idea of seeing a band that didn’t either try to be funny all the time or bitch about their girlfriends didn’t set well with some of them. An anemic pit got started, in the loosest sense of the word. It was like 3 kids running around without even coming into contact with one another. I’d have jumped in and fucked shit up but I’m a bit past the whole ‘moshing’ stage to begin with. I’d rather ride the front and enjoy the music without going home with bruises. ‘sides, that’s where all the girls are. One kid also ran up and, for whatever reason, decided to jump on my back. Said Little Ryan: “I guess he just needed to feel ‘punk’ for a minute.”
Between sets I went to go take a piss and was directed to the handicap stall. On the wall in there was the HOB calendar for this month. I only mention this because it contained a cute little jab at the pop punk kids, as the show we were at was listed as “Punk” whereas the Sum 41 show that’s going to be this weekend only got called “Rock.” I’m sure that didn’t settle well with some of the Punker than Thou types, but I really don’t give a shit what the House of Blues corporation in conjunction with Disney feels about who’s punk or not anyway.
Local ska luminaries Spitvalves were on next. I’ve met these guys more times than I’ve seen them, since I always leave early with my friends who’ve been seeing them live for like 5 years. I have their first album though, so I was relatively familiar with their stuff. Not familiar enough though, apparently, since Spitvalves fell back on their notability on the Orlando scene to crank out a full audience participation set. Its good to see a local band get to the point where they can focus half their set around audience callouts and singalongs, and to go as far as to take audience requests for songs. Unfortunately, it had the effect of A) making the Spitvalves performance seem lethargic and B) making all the audience members feel on the spot. I only know the words to a few of the songs, so I was just out of the loop I suppose. They blew through a bunch of their older, more ska oriented stuff (the ska dance anthem “Skaboobidabiska” and the more horn-focused tempo shifter “New Deal” amongst others) mixed in with their newer stuff. The band members in Spitvalves seem to be falling into the hardcore trend nowadays. Thus, they have turned up the distortion and downplayed the horn section’s involvement. Many local scenesters have dubbed them “HornXCore”. They’ve actually split off into a hardcore side project called Overdale, who I haven’t seen yet. The set was still really energetic and crowd pleasing, and Spitvalves are still a fundamentally good band. It just seems as though the band is getting complacent with their music nowadays, and are getting bored with where they’re at. They all look young, but they’re the elder statesmen of the Orlando scene. But, they still whip every crowd they play in front of into a frenzy, and manage to get shows filled up. By the end of their set the place was close to packed. Said Promoter Shawn: “Where did all these little kids come from?”
Between sets, me & Little Ryan went to get some water and ran into a Hispanic-accented street punk in a leather jacket with an Adicts logo on the back. I’ve seen him around before, and he stopped over to compliment Little Ryan’s autographed Misfits shirt. This lead to a discussion between me & Little Ryan about how many Hispanic street punks we’ve met, usually from South America. I think street punk is really big in Chile and Venezuela, can anyone confirm or deny this?
Voodoo Glow Skulls are one of those bands on my list of ‘bands I need to listen to more of but never have gotten around to it.’ Despite a relatively short turnaround time, VGS came out on stage with a movie quote blaring, smoke machines, and a huge VGS logo behind the drums. They took their spots on stage and as the lights came up, their lead singer was adorned with a suit and a lucha mask, ala Los Straitjackets. (Ok, technically it wasn’t a lucha mask, as far as I know it was a Dark Patriot mask. Any Doug Gilbert/VGS fans who know if this is true?) VGS have a killer blend of hardcore punk and ska, with an almost perfect balance. I didn’t recognize a lot of the songs since I haven’t gotten into them enough yet, but they were all really distinctive and entertaining. The mid-song banter was kept relatively low, and after the mask and suit came off, the lead singer lead us into a song called “El Cocqui” about the Mexican boogeyman. That’s one thing about VGS, they blend in Spanish influences with their already distinctive sound. The whole crowd was going insane throughout the set, with a friendly blend of dancing and a circle pit towards the back. Near the end I took a break and went to stand under the air conditioner. We waited until the second to last song, a popular track called “Fat Randy” that Little Ryan had been waiting for all night, and then left in the middle of the last song. Afterward, we went outside and hung out with Promoter Shawn as him & Little Ryan traded stories of the show they were at here in Orlando where the Misfits broke up onstage.
P.S. I’ll be doing Monday news from now on, and I’ll try and have an interview with Andrew WK next week, and if not just a show review.
The 411: All in all, a killer show and a fun night. Anytime I have 2 bands that I know I need to hear more of, it was a worthwhile show.
