Jan
08
2010

Who Says Rock Is Dead?!?

Los Guys, Steve Larson, Strange Young Things

Friday, January 8, 2010 - 11:52:05 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Tonight was just one of those nights. ie - rock filled.

We started out with Los Guys at Tempe Market Place. The last time they played here (Dec 5th) we enjoyed it, but we one our way to other things (Stephen Ashbrook and beyond), so it was cool to go down for the full gig tonight. There is just something cool about this gig. You wouldn't have thunk it, but it just is cool. It probably has to do with the huge stage. Watching both Mark & PC I thought many things. Two such things were that a) These guys are well into their 40's and are still rockin' and cool ass. It's really worth sticking around for, if you ask me. b) Being the biggest band in Tempe ain't a bad thing. Fuck anyone who thinks otherwise!

Los Guys finished at 10, in time for us to head over to the new Sucker Punch Sally's Diner downtown. It opened this week, and Larson was breaking in the stage with Chip Hanna tonight and tomorrow night. It wasn't entirely what I expected, and the place was hardly recognizable from when it was Ruby Tuesdays. I only went there once, but it seemed like quite a bit had changed inside.

It wasn't until about 10:30 that Steve actually played, and was really something. The times I've seen Steve of late, with the exception of Wednesday night, something has seemed off. But tonight was different, it was the sort of Larson show that I remember fondly, with Steve seeming in good spirits and top of the world again. That in itself was just something to see, and made you feel good about the world! Plus, the loop machine was back, which added to the all round rocktastic Steve Larson experience, and harked back to what I remember seeing Steve to be like!

While in there I noticed that the roof looked like what I think Wong's roof was like, which was cool. And throughout Steve's set, it wasn't lost on me that we were sitting on Mill Ave., only a few paces from where Wongs once stood.

Steve's set had all the usual suspects therein. I was particularly glad to hear Just Like Heaven again! I don't feel like it's been a proper Larson show until that one comes out.

We stayed for one song by Chip before leaving - for Yucca Tap Room. On the way back to the car, I made a point to walk through the Wong's lot - probably my first time doing so, since it was fenced off the last time I tried to.

On the way to Yucca we were able to drive past the old building that housed Merlins back in the day. Despite my failed attempts in researching it's location, I completely accidently stumbled across it earlier this week. Pretty cool.

At Yucca The Sugar Thieves were still playing. We attempted to go in, but aborted - the place was absolutely backed, which was quite impressive given how many people were also outside! We ended up waiting in the car until Strange Young Things went on. It cleared out somewhat, but it was actually really nice to see that they had a decent crowd stay for pretty much their entire set. And they in no short part took full advantage of it. About 20 seconds into Bang The Dash we both couldn't believe that we'd considered just going home when we initially saw how crowded The Yucca was. It only took 20 seconds of Strange Young Things to know that such a thought was criminal. The boys were balls to the wall (as usual) and it was a complete party from the opening song until the last one. And as usual (at least at Yucca), there was no keeping Corey on stage! Heads up, or your going to be taken out by him, or tripped up by his guitar lead!

Post Comment



All fields are required. Email addresses will not be published, but are required for anti-spam purposas.

Switch Styles

About Style Switching.

!Weblog Index

Dec January 2010 Feb
SU MO TU WE TH FR SA
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

Categories

RSS FeedRSS Feed