The Aquabats, The Hippos, and Digital Unicorn 
BY JOSH 

December 18th- the Glasshouse, Pomona CA 
Well, my excursion to Pomona to see the Aquabats sure was an adventure… it all started at about 6:15 on Saturday night when I arrived at Jessica's house. After doing some zine-related stuff there, Jessica, Melissa (our ride), and I finally got on the road at about 7:00. To say that the trip there was an easy ride would pretty much be a lie. We got lost. Oh yes, we got lost… the dreaded occurance. 
Luckily it didn’t take us too terribly long to get back on track, and we made it to the show by 7:45, only to see that the line to get into the Glasshouse went around the block. With frowns on our faces and tickets in hand, we endured the line and finally made it in. 

By the time we did make it in, we had missed all the bands but the Hippos and the Aquabats. It was a bummer but it wasn’t a total loss cause the bands that we were there to see hadn't gone on yet. 

Now, finally on to the actual music, the Hippos were great. I don’t really like em, but I liked their performance that night. It wasn’t nessasarily the most energetic in the world, but I really did enjoy it. They played a few really good songs that I need to remind myself to ask my more ska-oriented friends about. This was all cool cause last time I saw the Hippos they pretty much sucked and I was about to puke I was so bored. The fact that they kept a punk like me entertained with their poppy third wave ska that I usually hate was almost disturbing, but I really enjoyed their set. 

Now for the Aquabats. These guys quite simply are the greatest live band ever (next to gwar, or so im told cause ive never seen em). I love these guys, and I'm not really into a lot of this new ska stuff. The only times I had ever seen these guys before that night, was twice for free at two different malls, and I thought they played good then. HA!! I was so very wrong. Before the bats started I was cursing over the obcenely high price I paid for addmitance into the show, and about 20 seconds into their set I completely forgot about it. This is an amazing stage band. I almost forgot a few times that my real job there was to take pics, when I found myself happily singing along to great songs like “red sweater”, and “idiot box”. There was one part where the bat commander fought the giant mutant baby, and when he finally is about to dish out the “death blow” with a plastic axe, he stops his assault. Naturally so, being the “good guy” bat commander, it would be a bad example for him to set to the “kids” to kill the giant baby. At this he starts a speech on “how would you feel if you were a giant mutant baby, and you were about to be axed by a guy in a funny costume?” and it was hilarious. Of course the crowd was screaming for blood, but I guess that is just society today. Then there was the part of the set where the bat commander pauses in the middle of “midget pirates” to talk about the midget pirated of willygoat. Of course he went into a long speech about the mean midget pirates. It was great. One of the best parts of the show was the encore. They played my favorite bats song “playdough”, while a giant floating eye of death hung ominously over the stage. The show was full of other cool things that happened, but I can't begin to get into all of them. All I have to say is that bands like the Aquabats restore my faith in new music these days. And now I really must stop writing, because im getting a major headache writing about the bats, while listening to AFI. It just doesn’t work. All I have left to say is, GO SEE THE AQUABATS!!!