CHEETAH CHROME and The STREET WALKIN' CHEETAHS rock Post-Gallery Show

 

Cheetah Chrome and the Street Walkin'
Cheetahs at the Monty Bar,
(plus Evita Corby in the
background) and the mortal
remains of an American Bison
(supplying convenient devil horns
for Bruce Duff, below with
fellow Cheetah Frank Meyer.)

Whoo hoo! Cheetah Chrome blasting his solo and Dead Boys material with The Street Walkin' Cheetahs at Monty Bar downtown L.A. in conjunction with Lethal Amount Gallery's photography exhibit of Dead Boys pics next door, 2.2.16. Ames Flames sang "Sonic Reducer," John Tyree did sound, and the show closed with Iggy and The Stooges' "Search And Destroy," referential to Cheetah's (and the S. W. Cheetahs and Tyree's) appearance a year ago at James Williamson's Re-Licked live show. The onslaught continues, and Cheetah and Co. put on a great punk show for the masses these days...

 

 PHOTO OPS:

Backstage: Evita Corby with Ames Flames, Bobby Richey and Mark Lee of The Humpers

 At the Lethal Amount photo exhibition: Evita Corby with Bobby Richey; Evita with Anna Badua and Michael D'Amico

 Evita Corby, Cheetah Chrome at Lethal Amount photo exhibit

 Frank Infante (Blondie), Evita Corby, Cheetah Chrome backstage at Monty Bar

 Above, Evita, Cheetah.

 Multi-instrumentalist John Tyree (pictured below with Street Walkin' Cheetahs' set list) mixed the sound, while the McDonald brothers of Redd Kross DJ-ed.

 In the audience: this couple were an entire movie of emotions...

CELEBRATING ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN LOS ANGELES

 

For St. Patrick's Day. Our celebrations used to include consuming green bagels fresh from Western Bagel Bakery and my drawing St. Patrick and assorted snakes for my better half's elementary school classes, whereupon he'd have the kids make papal mitre headgear out of newspapers and drive the "snakes" out of the classroom. (For Scottish celebrations, he had the little kids toss cardboard mailing tubes that substituted for Scottish cabers. Very humorous to have all Latino kids in assorted Highland Games.) But he's now retired, so... behold below, a review of Darby O'Gill and the Little People by an actual Irish lad who, albeit cheekily, agrees with me that this is the scariest film ever made...imagine, a wailing personification of Death appearing at your door to take your loved ones away forever...scared the crap out of me when I was young:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzX2h2npCXk

KING'S X LIVE at the WHISKY A GoGo 3.1.16: the magnificent three in a club setting...

(Oblique headline reference: Seven Samurai → The Magnificent Seven → the magnificent three from Texas)

March 1, 2016 proved a stone killer treat to see arena habitues, the great KING'S X within the audience-friendly confines of a packed Whisky A Gogo, while playing a virtual "best of" set. (Above photos, bassist/vocalist Doug Pinnick, drummer Jerry Gaskill and guitarist Ty Tabor, grinning because it's great to be king!) This was huge!

Also huge-- It took me over a quarter of a century to photograph King's X, one of my alltime favorite bands ever. Why was that? 

In one of its many heydays, I remember these working the Heavy Metal festivals with 5ft. plank walls around their immediate stages, no stairs nor ladders, with the only access being security guards literally hauling the pro photographer(s) over the wall to shoot, then grabbing and depositing you back over the wall after an allotted time.  I do recall a few security guys/Metal fanboys getting appreciably into the Goth/death/speed/satanic or whatever mood by growling "Are you ready for .... Slayer?!?" to us or some such nonsuch which added to the overall sense of the absurd in this highly organized mayhem.

And long, tall Texans (by way of Illinois and currently California) King's X was (and is) a top flight act that only could be seen in these precarious arena and festival caliber circumstances. No more scaling sheer walls for yours truly post-numerous car crashes and physical setbacks (although 'am grateful to still be able to ride my horse, jog or hike with the dogs.) Without mega-special personal considerations, those days and nights of photographing metal fetes are behind me, I who photographed Buffalo Springfield live back in the day, age-wise.

King's X remain known for their power trio rapidfire tightness, total instrumental prowess, fascinating (read: never ever boring despite Prog accusations) melodic excursions, and one of the best American singers ever in Pinnick.

 This major gig celebrated the return of drummer Gaskill after the acknowledged setback of his two serious heart attacks. In fact half the space between songs brought forth crowd cheers of "Jerry! Jerry!" in encouragement of his only recent recovery. The audience's gratitude was so much in force that the encore of "Goldilox" from the band's much beloved debut album Out of the Silent Planet prompted the crowd to sing the entire song before singer Pinnick could even begin. Instead, he sat on the stage edge in awe... These effusive displays of audience affection apparently are commonplace at King's X shows.

 

                                                                                         

           
Official Set List

with Groove Machine added somewhere in there:

 The World Around Me / Pillow / Flies And Blue Skies/

Vegetable/(Thinking And Wondering) What I'm Gonna Do / Everybody Knows A Little Bit Of Something /

A Box / Over My Head / Over And Over /  Pleiades/

   We Were Born To Be Loved / Go Tell Somebody / Dogman / (encore:) Goldilox

        

 Openers

The Hard Way, an eclectic ensemble wailing its brand of metal.

Middle-slotted act Kings of Spade accomplished what many contend cannot be done: totally win over an audience impatient for the headliner. Much of this hinged on the powerhouse vocals of consummate punk-looking Kasi Nunes (below,) the solid beats of friendly drummer Matt Kato (at bottom) and the band's bold and willing interaction with the crowd. The (normally malevolent provincial L.A. gang challenge) query of "where are you from" was met with the cheery rejoinder of "We're from Hawaii!"

 

THE ART OF ELYSE WYMAN, 2016

February art exhibit "Sign Language," mixed media and objets trouve`by ELYSE WYMAN, seen below with my mother and assorted grim art patrons at the show's opening night at Bergamot Galleries, Santa Monica, Calif. Elyse was my roommate at UCLA art school and never stopped her fine art endeavors, to much acclaim over time.

My better half Mr. Twister pictured with my mother and 

Karin Spritzler, another fine artist friend from back in the day.

 Below, George and Crickette Oswald, yet more arty friends

 from back in the day...

Guest photographer © 2016 Kurt Ingham: Karin, yours truly

 and my mother gape in awe at Elyse's art...

BEFORE THE RAIN: MR. TWISTER, GIA, SARABELLE and A BALL

Mr. Twister, Gia, Sarabelle, and A Ball...