3-15-01 STINKY'S PEEP SHOW:
To set the scene:You walk in the door of Stinky's and are faced w/ a big,beautiful mama shaking her thing on the bar to a diverse set of dj tunes like The Dead Boys and Turbonegro.At the other end of the bar is an island with another darked haired red lipsticked amazon (one of the girls from the Bobbyteens), and further back is the secret peep show-tonite's is called 'Something Green This Way Comes' or some shit, which I guess was in honor of St Paddy's day but I imagine a naked green alien girl doing contortionist moves. The place is full and lots of familiar faces pop up here and there-Fat Mike, Orlando from Special Forces, James Kotter (the original OMA bassplayer)etc... The first band was Geraldine from Ohio during which I found out the TurboACs were a no-show due to a car accident (?) The Explosion came on and blew the place up w/ a barrage of tight, high energy sound and a genuine unaffected ability to tear shit up. Sweet guys too. The highlight was their cover of Wire's '12xU' and they seemed pleased that there were actually people in the crowd who recognized the song. One Man Army came on with the evening's 'Brandon replacement', Chip from the US Bombs, who was sporting a camoflage getup and perpetual, big, Billy Zoom grin. They played a loose, no setlist set-calling out for requests then allowing Chip to lead into each song because he didn't know the names of the songs-just how to play 'em. And did he PLAY them. He seriously kicked ass-considering the only practice he and Jack and Heiko had together was in the dressing room a few hours before the show. He fit in like a glove and sang plenty of backup which was enhanced by extremely eager crowd participation during 'Dead End Stories'. Although it must have sucked for the kids not to make it to the over 21 show, it was awesome to see that a lot of old timers like myself are in OMA's fanbase-it says alot for a current band to be able to speak to the discerning tastes of folks who saw The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers back in the day. A partial list of what they played:'Money in the Bank', 'Bootlegger's Son', 'Red Light Tinge','The Old songs', 'Looming Disaster','Down the Block', 'One in the Same', 'Lonely Road to Nowhere', the rarely performed 'Another Time' and 'Stuck in the Avenues', and of course finished with Last Word Spoken ( My personal fave song on the last record) Two final extra special treats to mention: They covered a US Bombs song with Jack affecting Dwayne Peter's Johnny Rotton snarl vocals to a T.....and then a SURPRISE NEW SONG who's revolution-themed lyrics were apparently written in the van on the way to the show-it was fast and described by some as discharge/GBH-ish. Thats it. I think we all can definately look forward to their next tour AND the new record!!!!
2-23-01 THE FILLMORE:
I was in a rush and forgot my camera. The best picture is that one with Jack and the tortilla's on those girl's site, anyway. That pretty much sums it up.A tortilla even knocked Heiko's hat off. The whole place reeked of tortillas a chocolate (the chocolate was used during the wrestling). A lot of Bay Area band members and punk scensters were wrestlers but I can't say who because its supposed to be a mystery. Jello Biafra was there, wandering around. I totally disagree with those girls assessment that Greg was just 'ok'./ He kicked ass, the songs were really strong and had a bigger,splashier quality to them. Alot of other folks (who have been going to OMA shows for years now) agreed. They also did a cool cover of an Eater song.
