Show Reviews

Rating Scale:

* This band was terrible and sounded like sheer utter crap!!!

** This band was okay, but needs improvement.

*** This band was very good.

**** This band was excellent!!!

***** This band is one of the best bands I've ever seen!!!

BAND: Substandard

GENRE: Punk Rawk!

DATE: December 4th, 1999

VENUE: The Oven, Houston, TX

RATING: ***

REVIEW: These guys were rockin'! I liked the last song they played about being f---ed in the a--! (please note I do not condone this behavior) They had really fast jams and occasionally some ska guitar licks thrown in. They got the crowd jumpin' around and a few punks were skankin' (sorta)

BAND: The Drop-outs

GENRE: Punk Rawk!

DATE: December 4th, 1999

VENUE: The Oven

RATING: ***

REVIEW: Theses guys were rockin'. Their bass player jammed some phat grooves on his MusicMan bass! The singer sang really fast! I liked the drummer's fuzzy drums!

BAND: Spoon

GENRE: Alternative?

DATE: December 1999

VENUE: some place in Austin, TX

RATING: **

REVIEW: They were ok but nothing spectacular.

BAND: Insane Clown Posse

GENRE: whitey rap

DATE: December 1999

VENUE: a big outdoor park in Austin, TX

RATING: ***

REVIEW: Insane Clown Posse are hilarious. Violent J said "Shaggy take your pants off!" I thought that was funny!

BAND: Long Beach Dub All-stars

GENRE: ska-punk

DATE: December 31st, 1999

VENUE: Henry J Kaiser Auditorium in Oakland, California

RATING: **1/2

REVIEW: they are ok. some of their songs are kind of boring.

BAND: PRIMUS

GENRE: thrash-funk?

DATE: December 31st, 1999

VENUE: Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium in Oakland, California

RATING: *****

REVIEW: PRIMUS is the best band in the ENTIRE WORLD! They are really good! I like them alot!!! For more reviews on PRIMUS, check out my special Primus Show Reviews Page.

BAND: Whyioughtas

GENRE: Punk Rock

DATE: January 22, 2000

VENUE: Ashland Street Theatre in Houston, TX

RATING: ***

REVIEW: This band from florida had interesting drumming. They sold me a neet 2$ punk rock comp CD! Thanks!

BAND: 40 Second Skandals

GENRE: Ska-Punk

DATE: January 22, 2000

VENUE: Ashland Street Theatre in Houston, TX

RATING: ****

REVIEW: I really liked this band from Austin! For some reason they kinda reminded me of the Violent Femmes (if they played Ska). They got the crowd (including myself) skankin' and jumpin'

BAND: O'Doyle Rules

GENRE: Punk with a bit o' Ska

DATE: January 22, 2000

VENUE: Ashland Street Theatre in Houston, TX

RATING: ***

REVIEW: O'Doyle Rules seemed a little more punky than usual, but it was cool. I dug breaks into ska. Ska is cool. Ska is happy! It makes me happy! Hooray for Ska!

BAND: Texas Johnny Brown

GENRE: Blues

DATE: April 15, 2000

VENUE: Houston International Festival 2000

RATING: ****

REVIEW: These guys were excellent. They were high quality blues!

BAND: Pierce Elevated

GENRE: Emo/Indie/punk

DATE: April 15, 2000

VENUE: Mausoleum in Houston, TX

RATING: **1/2

REVIEW: This band used to be called Inbred Whiteboy. Now with a new drummer, and minus one guitar player, they rocked out pretty hard. I really liked the music, but the vocals need some work. I think Eric Dick was a little drunk. He had really cool basslines though.

BAND: The Melvins

GENRE: sludge metal

DATE: May 7th, 2000

VENUE: Fitzgerald's in Houston, TX

RATING: ***

REVIEW: The Melvins were very weird. They played two sets. The first set, they played a cover of the song "Tequila", and a country song. They also did a cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with some dude from the audience on vocals! It was funny. The second set started out with the guitarist doing all these weird effects with a set up of pedals. He had a long metallic string and whipped it around on stage. It was all hooked up to his amp through the pedal system and was amplified and made extra loud scary sounds. They played their original songs. Alot of them were really slow and mind numbingly sludgy. Overall a decent band. Before the show, me and my friends Robb Zipp, Max Keller, and Tom got to meet the afro headed lead singer, King Buzzo. We did a neet interview for Robb's webzine, The Zipp.

BAND: The Missing Digits

GENRE: Punk Rawk!

DATE: May 27, 2000

VENUE: ZIPPFEST 2000 at the Oven in Houston, TX

RATING: ***

REVIEW: This group was a very decent souding punk band. I like the bass finger-style playing. He did some neet stuff and traveled all over that bass.

BAND: Secret Agent 8

GENRE: Ska!!!

DATE: May 27, 2000

VENUE: ZIPPFEST 2000 at the Mausoleum in Houston, TX

RATING: ****

REVIEW: This band was EXCELLENT. They made me want to dance! Unfortunately, there was no room to dance in the small crampt Mausoleum. Their horn section was really good. So was the bass player, and the drummer. Heck, the WHOLE BAND rocked.

BAND: Neural Nectar

GENRE: Metal with Turntables

DATE: May 27, 2000

VENUE: ZIPPFEST 2000 at The Oven in Houston, TX

RATING: **

REVIEW: This band was really good, I really liked the turntables. However, this band sounded a little empty because they didn't have a bass player. Get one guys! And make sure he is FUNKY!

BAND: Gestapo Pussy Ranch

GENRE: silly-punk

DATE: May 27, 2000

VENUE: ZIPPFEST 2000 at The Mausoleum in Houston, TX

RATING: **

REVIEW: This band featured The Whipping Boy, who is a DJ on 107.5 The Buzz (an alternative music station in Houston, TX). They were decent, probably intended to be a joke. Whip was wearing only boxer-briefs and dorky glasses with ugly fake teeth. I only saw one song before I went on over to see Simpleton Music.

BAND: Simpleton Music

GENRE: Rap-rock

DATE: May 27, 2000

VENUE: ZIPPFEST 2000 at The Oven in Houston, TX

RATING: ****

REVIEW: These guys were EXCELLENT! I loved the electric upright bass. Also the rapper busted out some rad flows. They got alot of people moving to the beat. Too bad I didn't have enough money to buy one of their CD's! Well maybe some other time.

BAND: Tall, Dark, and Lonesome with the One Armed Octopus Orchestra

GENRE: humor-punk

DATE: May 27, 2000

VENUE: ZIPPFEST 2000 at The Mausoleum in Houston, TX

RATING: ***

REVIEW: The lead singer of this band is Tall, Dark, and Lonesome. His band was the One Armed Octopus Orchestra. He did some odd/funny songs. Sorta reminded me of the band, Presidents of the USA.

BAND: Geek

GENRE: hardcoreish?

DATE: June 2, 2000

VENUE: Inner Sanctum

RATING: **1/2

REVIEW: They were ok. Not very original. Same old normal heavy music.

BAND: Violent Femmes

GENRE: psychotic-folk-rock

DATE: June 9, 2000

VENUE: Aerial Theatre at Bayou Place in Houston, TX

RATING: *****

REVIEW: THIS BAND WAS EXCELLENT!!! I've been waiting to see these guys for about 6 years!!! AWESOME show! I am still hoarse from singing along. I arrived at the Aerial Theatre a little late (after a near death experience of skidding out of control on 59 north because it was pouring rain), fortunately the Femmes had not started playing. They started with Sweet World of Angels and then continued into I Can Change from the South Park movie soundtrack. Over the next two hours they played a wide variety of songs (alot from Freak Magnet, and then at least one from each other album). They played all their radio hits such as Blister in the Sun, Kiss Off, and Add it up (in the encore). They played Its Gonna Rain a song about Noah's Ark, which hadn't been performed for at least 5 years (Gordon said). The encore lasted 30 additional minutes (making the total playing time 2 and a half hours) also included a cover of the country song Waltz Across Texas and the very strange A Story. The crowd was ok except for all the drunken mexican crowd surfers (come on its Violent Femmes, not a heavy metal show!!!!), who kept bashing heads of most of the people standing in the crowd NOT moshing. I managed to stay up front right in front of Brian Ritchie, the bass player. Brian Ritchie played his acoustic bass guitar and a MusicMan electric bass. He did an awesome solo during Color Me Once. He also did a fluegel horn solo, a conch shell solo, and a xyolphone solo (on Gone Daddy Gone. Brian Ritchie is my second favorite bass player, next to Les Claypool of Primus. On a couple of songs, the infamous Horns of Dilema played. Also, Sigmund Snopek the III played the keyboards in additon to Gordon Gano on lead vocals/guitar and Guy Hoffman on drums.

BAND: Estradasphere

GENRE: mixture of jazz and death metal

DATE: June 13, 2000

VENUE: Fitzgerald's in Houston, TX

RATING: *****

REVIEW: This band from Santa Cruz, CA was amazing. They came on and had a dramatic opening with some guy getting in a fight with the guy selling T-shirts. This band had a violin, a keyboard, a saxophone, percussion, guitar and an upright bass/electric bass player. They started out playing a heavy metal opening. They keyboadist was a chick with KISS make up on. They then suddenly went into jazzy music which lasted for a long time. They sounded so awesome, you could tell they were professionals. During the course of the performance, the violin, the saxophone, and the upright bass all had solos, which were awesome. Also, some dancers came out during a couple songs and danced with flaming objects. The keyboardist also jumped out into the crowd with pom poms and did a cheer. They said she was Atrocity, the Death Metal Cheerleader. The band did a cover of Super Mario Brothers, and a death metal rendition of Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin. Overall, they reminded me of Mr. Bungle with a violin added. Very creative quality music.

BAND: Secret Chiefs 3

GENRE: Middle Eastern mixed with rock and metal

DATE: June 13, 2000

VENUE: Fitzgerald's in Houston, TX

RATING: *****

REVIEW: This band was utterly amazing. They played 3 different sets, each with different costumes and a different feel. The first set was sorta heavy middle eastern influenced music. The second set was almost straight up middle eastern music. The third set was a combination of middle eastern with dashes of metal thrown in. They might have played a fourth set, but we left before that occured. This band had two violins, an upright bass/electric bass player (same guy from Estradasphere), percussion, saxophone, and a guitar. Some of the members of this band are in Mr. Bungle, a well known band. During some of the songs the flame dancers came out and did crazy dances with flaming objects. On the last song, the members of Estradasphere came on stage and they all played together. It was intense. Overall, this band was very high quality and you could tell that they were professional musicians.

BAND: The Bloodhound Gang

GENRE: parody/comic rap rock

DATE: December, 5, 2000

VENUE: Numbers in Houston, TX

RATING: ****1/2

REVIEW:The Bloodhound Gang are really funny. They had wacky stage antics. Jimmy Pop said he'd give someone 20 dollars if the person would french kiss him on stage. A GUY frenched him for 20 bucks!!! GROSS!!! The bass player (a very muscular dude) went off stage and played his bass on top of the bar (he had a wireless system I think). He pulled down his pants to reveal that he had boxers with the American flag on them. He said that since George W. Bush was probably going to be President, and that he was from Texas, that we should honor him by pledging allegiance to the flag pants. I tell ya, they are crazy wacky guys. Also they were going to pay a hundred dollars to the person that could drink 24 warm Dr. Peppers without spilling or vomiting a drop. This kid tried to do it but he failed, he vomited two times on stage!!! GROSS!!! Also they gave a free t-shirt to this underage dude who wet his pants on stage. It was a dude (I think the bass player) from a local band called Liquid Youth. Very funny. They played some songs I wasn't familiar with plus there two great hits, Fire Water Burn and The Bad Touch (Discovery Channel). Overall a very funny show and jammin silly rap rock music.

BAND: Modest Mouse

GENRE: unclassifiable

DATE:February 23 2001

VENUE: Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA

RATING: *****

Well we all had a wonderful road trip! (Robb Zipp, Me, Tom, Jason, and a bunch o' other people) to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Me and Jason checked out Modest Mouse at the Contemporary Arts Center. They kicked ass! They deffinately have a style that is all their own... they sing about all sorts of things... Jason knows more about them than I do... such as road trips, doing cocaine, the circular futility of life, and other stuff. The lead singer dude really got into it... you could tell that he was putting his whole self into it... excellent show... songs they played that I recognized were Do The Cockroach, Cowboy Dan, and others. excellent bending harmonics!

GENRE: thrash funk

DATE:February 24 2001

VENUE: Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA

RATING: *****

I drove from Houston to see Modest Mouse the first night and then Frog Brigade the next... plus a little Mardi Gras action on the side! What A Weekend!!!! Colonel Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade rocked the house (or should I say Contemporary Arts Center)! The started with "Thela Hun Ginjeet" by King Crimson, and then they did some cover of the Beatles' tunes, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (which was subsituted "Colonel Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade!") and "A Little Help from My Friends". They did the Sausage tunes "Shattering Song" and "Girls For Single Men", the Holy Mackarel tunes "Hendershot" and "Calling Kyle" (on electric upright with the bow!) and the Primus classic "Harold of The Rocks" At one point Les whipped out this weird one string electric upright bass thingy and beat the shit out of it with a drum stick. It looked custom built and had a hinged pull lever at the top that would stretch the string out and fucked shit up! It was fucking awesome! It jammed hard! Also, I think Les was talking to me... because he was looking right at me and he said "Now Eenor is going to Mess with YOUR mind!" It was so surreal... as if the whole place went away and it was just les talking to me. Well anyway... awesome show! The last song they played was, "Tomorrow Never Knows" which is a cover by some band... I am not sure who though... but it was a jam that lasted for quite some time... They were joined by members of Galactic (the headling act) It was amazing and Les set his bass on delay so that it kept playing a line even when he walked off stage. The band jammed along for awhile until they all walked off stage at different points. Finally it was down to the two drummers: Jay Lane and the drummer of Galactic. THey just jammed and traded solos to the delayed bass until the too got off stage and all that was left was the eerie bass delay...which too faded away...

GENRE: electronic/avant garde/sorta-rap

DATE:April 14, 2001

VENUE:Rice University, KTRU Outdoor Show

RATING: ****

This group was WEIRD! It featured Mr. Quintron on the Drum Buddy (a device he invented). He played an organ and used the Drum Buddy to make weird sounds. Miss Pussycat accompanied with moracas and yelled weird stuff. They were joined later by weird rapping people from Rhinestone records. I think one was named MC Tracheotomy or something weird like that. Well, here is a link to their website Mr. Quintron Unfortunately I didn't see the whole show cuz me and Jason had to go to work.

GENRE: psychotic folk

DATE:July 1st, 2001

VENUE:Dynafest 2001 @ Houston City Hall

RATING: *****

Well I just got back from a pretty cool concert. It was the Violent Femmes! And it was even more cool because the show was right in front of Houston's City Hall. At one end of the park was city hall with its big neon clock and at the other end was the downtown skyscrapers. It was quite surreal seeing my 2nd favorite band play against the back-drop of our city's skyline. The Violent Femmes headlined a festival called "Dynafest" I have never heard of this festival, but I read in the Houston Press about it. I got off work at 6 and road my bike downtown. The bike ride from River Oaks theatre was not too bad and I didn't have to worry about parking - just locked my bike to a fence. I saw a bit of The Hunger and then I ran into TheZipp.com Show's own Joel Parker and his girlfriend and another dude. A guy was taking polaroids for money so I got a polaroid of us all. I then watched the whole set of Blue October. They were from Houston and their music was rock with an electric violin added. They were pretty good. The violinist did a really long solo. The final band of course was the Violent Femmes. They played alot of their classics off their first album and 2nd album (Hallowed Ground). They also played a few newer tunes like "Life Is An Adventure" and "Rejoice and Be Happy" They did an encore with "Add It Up" Femmes shows are alot like a big sing-alongs because their lyrics are so singable. The whole crowd got down by singing along and a crazy drunk girl was dancing next to me the whole show and shouting "hell yeah! the Violent Femmes rock!!!" and she seemed to know most of the lyrics. They also played "Dance Mother F U C K E R Dance!" I really got down to that one! Brian Ritchie jammed that bass like none other! He kicks ass. Also, Gordon Gano's Lyrical Aptitudeness (now I'm using BIG WORDS!) knocked me off my socks! The Horns of Dilema were present on a couple songs. Yes. I think that is aboot it!