48 San Diego Reader December 15, 2016


X times 4. Anybody who caught X when they were wee lads playing shows in Los Angeles circa 1977 is about to feel old: X is on the brink of turning the big 4-0. “The reason we’re doing


four nights is because it’s the 40th anniversary next year,


you see that, and you look around and think, Shit, where’s Tomata du Plenty? Where’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce? Where’s all the Ramones? Then you think, Fuck, I’m here. This is great!” The band has four nights


booked in four cities: Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., and here at


the inside track


L.A. punk by farming out most of the chapters to the players involved in the scene. Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s gives an account of what it was like to be a young female at the onset of this era, while Dave Alvin (the Blasters) chronicles how the roots players fought hard to win over punk crowds. As Chula Vista native Rob-


ert Lopez (the Zeros/El Vez) describes in his chapter, there really wasn’t a punk scene in San Diego when L.A.’s took off. So, what was it like for X when they first played in San Diego? “There was a pretty serious


which is mind-blowing...and wonderful,” X singer/bassist John Doe says. “That’s the one thing that getting older teaches you, that you have a lot more gratitude for getting there. You


the Casbah Thursday through Sunday, with openers that include Mike Watt and the Blasters. The group has about 40 songs ready in their arsenal for the shows.


X man John Doe (second from left): “The one thing that getting older teaches you is that you have a lot more gratitude for getting there.”


have a birthday when you’re 30 and you think, Oh, my god, I’m 30! By the time you have a birthday when you’re 60, you’re, like, Fuck yeah! I made it! There were plenty of people in punk rock that didn’t. When


WEDNESDAY • DEC. 14 WILD CHILD


WALTER LUKENS THURSDAY • DEC. 15 X • mike watt and the secondmen SUNDAY • DEC. 18


X • CHRIS SHIFFLETT AND THE DEAD PEASANTS


MONDAY • DEC. 19


THE LULLS • GARY WILSON WELL WELL WELL


TUESDAY • DEC. 20


RETOX • THE DABBERS CRIME DESIRE


WEDNESDAY • DEC. 21 MANUAL SCAN LOS FANTASMAS


THURSDAY • DEC. 22


GARY SHUFFLER’S BIRTHDAY ZIGGY SHUFFLEDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS ARIEL LEVINE


FRIDAY • DEC. 23


EL VEZ MERRY MEXMAS THE BASSICS


PONY DEATH RIDE casbahmusic.com


888-512-7469 • casbahmusic.com SATURDAY • DEC. 24


COCKTAILS • LIVE MUSIC • 21 w/ID 2501 KETTNER BLVD.


EXILE ON KETTNER BLVD HIP HOP BATTLE BOT


WEDNESDAY • DEC. 28 OFF!


FOREIGN BODIES THURSDAY • DEC. 29


MELVINS • REDD KROSS FANNY AND THE ATTA BOYS THE SLEEPWALKERS


SATURDAY • DEC. 31 CASH’D OUT


HIS FLYRITE BOYS THE BEDBREAKERS


FRIDAY • DEC. 30 BIG SANDY AND


TUESDAY • DEC. 27 DJ ARTISTIC’S


Besides celebrating the 40th


anniversary of his band, Doe is also the proud new parent of his first book,Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk. The book tells the story of the early days of


rivalry between San Diego and L.A.,” Doe explains, “where people in San Diego felt a little like the kid sister or brother and they had to show us how punk rock they were. It got pretty insane. I remember one of the theater shows we did. It was a rundown place that maybe held 1000 people. Someone was climbing up onto the stage, and she was kind of known for getting onstage and starting fights. It was right near Exene [Cervenka, singer], so I just walked over there and started trying to push her off the stage. Then she grabbed me and, out of the corner of their eye one of our stage crew saw these two people, didn’t even realize one was me, and just pushed us both into the pit. Great! Thanks! By the way, you just threw one of your employ-


ers into the mosh pit!” — Dryw Keltz


Chris Robinson (center): “Dylan’s still the reason hundreds of thousands of us came out — we see him as a spark, a pinnacle.”


the Observatory North Park on December 16. In between the phone signal cutting out in Appalachia, he took some questions. Where am I reaching you? “Our bus broke down


outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, we’re six hours behind today. But never fear. We have the frontier spirit.” Your favorite San


Diego stories? “For us, in the Chris


Robinson band, San Diego is early days, at the Casbah. The black box, with planes flying over and rattling your skull. One of the first places to show us any love at all. Lines around the block. “A few years ago, playing


Humphreys by the Bay — I’m a massive NBA fan, and Bill Walton was giving me a reprimand about me turning


THE SCREAMIN’ YEEHAWS YPSITUCKY


THURSDAY • JAN. 5


VOODOO GLOW SKULLS THE PORKERS


FRIDAY • JAN. 6 SOUL DJ REVUE


SATURDAY • JAN. 7 FU MANCHU • 16


BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION BOWIEPHONICS ARIEL LEVINE


SUNDAY • JAN. 8 DAVID BOWIE


DJS CLAIRE • MRMAZEE LITTLE ROBERT


TUESDAY • JAN. 10 BROWNOUT PRESENTS BROWN SABBATH


WEDNESDAY • JAN. 11 DOROTHY


facebook.com/CasbahMusic instagram.com/casbahsandiego Motorheads! Blazing through the Borrego badlands


After church somebody on a dirt bike says, “Let’s make a run to the Salton Sea,” and they suck up their guts, strap on kidney belts to keep their innards from sloshing around,


duck into their helmets, kick-start their lean, multi-colored, knobby- tired bikes, and scream out across the desert in weaving packs, leaping gulches, fl ying off hills, careening


through sandy washes like madmen with paroxysms of the right wrist, creating their own intricate network of criss-crossing pathways through the desert.


sdreader.com/news/from-archives


Finally — the 1,500 best stories from 44 years of the Reader — fully transcribed. An ongoing project through the end of 2016.


THE DEVIL’S THREE WAY BUCK-O-NINE


WEDNESDAY • JAN. 4 BEHIND THE WAGON


conscious? “Not really. Dylan’s still


the reason hundreds of thousands of us came out — we see him as a spark, as a pinnacle. But it’s the books that you’re reading and the films that you see and the loves gained and lost, it all starts to become who you are. It becomes part of this larger idea, wanting those things to be soulful and dynamic. And representative of you. “There was a little more


melancholy to some of the songs, a little more serious- ness. We knew our original bass player wasn’t going to be on the session, so it was just the four of us, seques- tered. We had the luxury to do that.” The publicist said


to ask you about recre- ational substances.


Mr. Robinson’s fron- tier spirit. Ex–Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson brings the Chris Robinson Brotherhood to


around and respecting Kobe Bryant. Getting a good talk- ing to.” Were bits of Dylan and the Band in this new stuff,


“The publicist said that? I’m too busy to recreational


anything! I turn 50 this year.” — Andrew Hamlin


Rockin’ Cranberries? “I joined the group about 13 years ago and bought the company 9 years later. We have between 45 and 50 singers, depending on the season,” says Angelica Eclar Ryan, speaking with me on a windswept weekend morn- ing. We’re talking about the Full Measure Carolers, along with singer Molly Whittaker. The group takes the Christ- mas season very seriously. “We go out in groups of


four or five,” Ryan explains, “either as Dickens carolers doing traditional material or as the Rockin’ Cranberries, which is a nod to 1950s doo- wop. Frostbite is a modern, Pentatonix-style group, and the Holly Bells combine bell ringing with either a tradi- tional or doo-wop style.” “We have everything


organized by range,” says Whittaker. “We have a list of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses. We’re all indepen- dent contractors, so we let Angelica know our availabil- ity, then she starts scheduling the hundreds of gigs over the month of December.” What kind of gigs are


these? “Of course we do the malls,” says Ryan. “We do everything from the Ritz- Carlton to SeaWorld and (continued on page 50)


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