WHITEY KIRST & THE WEB OF SPIDER

California hard rock fans had been destined to witness brand new supergroup Whitey Kirst & The Web of Spider open for Iggy And The Stooges this September. Fate fabricated other plans, breaking Iggy's foot onstage in Romania (up on Youtube already LINK) just
before the U.S. leg (hah!) of their 2011 tour season. As this happened within days of W.O.S.'s planned Hollywood appearance, the band suddenly found themselves gigless en route (a long one as some trekked all the way from the Great White North.)

Enter fun lovin' attorney, fellow Canadian-born, full-time Disney-employed, part-time guardian angel Annemarie Sulatycky. She rustled up some ad hoc gigs (two of the three) which provided fans of bluesy but metal-esque hardest rock a chance to espy these superstar players in rather smallish clubs instead of the arenas which might better contain their massive sound. L.A's respective Three of Clubs, Skinny's Lounge and Redwood Bar were the lucky venues, and anyone who made it to these shows saw a helluva good band. My shots were taken at the Sept. 5th one at Skinny's.

The band's pedigree as follows: W.O.S. singer/songwriter/guitarist Whitey Kirst was axeman for Iggy Pop's solo outing band known variously and vicariously as The Trolls or The Fuckups, from 1990 through 2003 along with his drumming brother Alex Kirst (recently killed by moron hit and run driver.) He recognized, on my business card, the spiffy Star-Spangled Banner, redwhite&blue leather jacket worn by Iggy at our 1990 studio photo session as belonging to a friend of his. Even at the time The Ig had admitted he'd borrowed it just for our session, impressing me with his resourcefulness. When I apologized online for misspelling Whitey's last name as "Hirst" he graciously wrote that he hoped the typo would get him into the San Simeon, California Hearst Castle.Bassist Stefan Adika was same for the L.A. Guns and an ensemble I'd seen (obviously before its figurehead's passing) the Dee Dee Ramone Band. Tommy Clufetos drums heavily, showily and passionately for Ozzy Osborne as well, having gigged with Rob Zombie, Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper heretofore.

Tommy Clufetos

Stefan Adika

Leap of
faith
from
drum kit by
Whitehorn
Kirst

Photo Ops section:

Left to right, Whitey Kirst, Stefan Adika, Josh Kirst, Jimmy Recca, Anne Marie

Below, Anne Marie and Jimmy Recca (formerly bassist of the 1971 vintage Stooges and the post-Stooge/post-MC5 Ron Asheton/Machine Gun Thompson enclave The New Order.)

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