Symbol Six, The Crowd, The Gears, Symbol Six
The Redwood, Los Angeles, CA
Friday, March 1, 2013
Admission $10.00
Time: 9:00 PM

Here was an insane line-up put on by Symbol Six (with some help from the folks at the Redwood) to celebrate the re-release of their original 19981 Posh Boy release. The show was a combination of record release party and book signing party. Edward Colver was present signing his book Blight at the End of the Funnel and I shared a table with him and signed Last One To Die. Great stuff to buy, everything was dirt-cheap, and a bunch of really quirky things that you would normally have to hunt down online.

The night was set-up to honor some premier Posh Boy recording artists, The Crowd and Symbol Six. Obviously, not all of them can be included, but the cream of the crop was there. I hear that Mike Ness guy is doing well for himself.

The first band of the night was Symbol Six. For those of you, who haven’t seen them, combine the best hard rock with the best of the original Posh Boy sound, and then you got Symbol Six. And those that were there that night lucked out by getting to hear Symbol Six do their entire 1981 EP. What made this first set (Symbol Six opened and closed the show) so cool was original members Mark Conway (also from Neighborhood Watch) and Donny Brook (originally from The Necros) hopped onstage to play with the band.

The second band of the night was the original OC punk band, The Crowd. Just like last time I saw them, I’ll say here, a flawless set. These guys were great. The audience loved them, and there were a handful of guys doing the old HB Strut in front of the stage.

Highlight of the set was when they announced, “The next song is from a compilation called Beach Blvd.,” people hollered up a storm. Great set.

The third band of the night was the always great Axel P. Reese and the guys from the Gears. This is one of the bands that I never got around to seeing “Back in the day.” Well, I wish I had seen them. Axel has pipes, the guy can really sing. Let’s not forget bassist Mike Manifold, he’s definitely one of the best bass players out there.

They did the bulk of the music from their album, and Axel really worked the crowd. I bought their CD on the last time I saw them.

Now, the last band of the night, the band that has stripped James Brown of the title of “Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” Symbol Six. They are one of the very few bands that played back in the eighties that seem to have more young fans than the older throwback crowd.

Symbol Six played their classic tracks from the Posh Boy EP, Ego, Symbol Six, Taxation, and Beverlywood. The great thing about these tracks is as they are being played everybody in the joint is singing along, and pumping their fists. In many ways these songs don’t belong to Symbol Six anymore, they are the soundtrack to my generation’s youth, our anthems (doesn’t mean we’ll be collecting royalties, though).

And then faster that you can turn from the Spice channel to Desperate Housewives when your wife walks in the room, Symbol Six steamrolls into their modern classics, like Dog Days (which Gizz Lazlo of Soul Trash, The Freeze and Badtown Boys hopped onstage to sing with the band), and Go. And again everybody is singing along, and pumping their fists, but this time it’s everybody who is about ten years younger than me (that is if I was 35, it’s my story . . . I could be 35).

The audience was a definite who’s who of punk rock, Kat of Legal Weapon, Jack Rivera of The Simpletones, and somebody from Queens of The Stone Age, and a truckload of other people whose names I couldn’t place.

If you have a chance to see any of these bands, go. You won’t have a chance to sit down, nor will you want to.

All in all, a great show. The PA was good, clear view of the bands, and I had fun. My overall assessment, this one is for the record books!

LAST ONE TO DIE is officially out, order at: https://www.createspace.com/3669330