By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)

Where do we start? We are writing this on Sunday night, watching the Tony Awards over the shoulder. Big whoop-de-do for “Rock of Ages,” a retro-Broadway show about rock on the Sunset Strip from the 80s. We saw the real deal Friday and Saturday night, past, present and future. With a side trip to Silver Lake.

So many bands. So many clubs. First off, big thanks to DJ Eric Ill for pulling the Blackboard Jungle Reunion together again. We celebrated the 20th Anniversary of BBJ with another unbelievable show at the Viper Room getting there just in time racing across town from the 4th Anniversary Show for Bootie LA at the Echoplex. But that was Saturday night. Let’s start with the preliminaries the night before.

No Thanks is playing the Cat Club. No T is the band BBJ’s Kenny Price and Joel Patterson call home these days. Getting help from Kevin Bombay on guitar and Matt Fuller when he isn’t elsewhere. Tonight’s added slinger was Joel Proto from Medieval Knievel also on tap tonight. That’s BBJ’s Britt’s current band. Are you keeping up?

Kevin Bombay had to leave the Cat Club for another gig- a memorial show for Gary Finneran at the Three of Clubs with a whole slew of bands; Motochrist, Silver Needle plus to pay tribute to a fallen friend. Our love to them all.

We walked up the street to the Roxy to catch Von Iva, a wicked wonderful full female band out of San Francisco wrapping up a tour and would not be back in LA for a while. Lead singer Jillian Iva is a combination of Iggy Pop and Liza Minelli. Swear to God. Glittered up in leather boot-heels and a slinky body stocking, kicking and screaming with some soulful pipes, Ms. Iva’s voice has a mellow center and a crystal clear delivery.

Promoting their new EP, “Girls on Film,” backed up on keyboards, and a tall, blonde drummer, Kelly Von Iva has a stripped down sound that was made manifest when Jillian straddled a chair during the opener. We also caught one song of their opening band, Silverlake’s own Shoegazers, Gliss, a very groovy band whose lead guitarist has more pedals than sense.

Saturday had us hitting the Echoplex in Silverlake for Bootie LA’s 4th Anniversary. Here’s where the Six-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon comes in. Global Smash Up Night Club (Munich, Boston, Beijing, NYC and beyond), Bootie’s co-founder Adrian’s old band Blue Period ran a showcase in San Francisco in the 90s called Club Glitz. This wonderful Punk-Glam-Metal Monthly is where we first heard Jet 68 with the former members of Blackboard Jungle and the future members of No Thanks. Sing it: We are the World.

For the special Bootie LA Fourth Anniversary show, Adrian brought down Smash Up Derby from home town San Francisco, the live Mashup band that is just too much fun. “Don’t Stop Believing” meets the Smashing Pumpkins. Seriously, the band is playing the Soft Cell and Adrian is singing The Dandy Warhols. Or was it the other way round? Time has been stopped and parallel universes are colliding. And the adorable feather skirt and matching boa is from Serious Clothing. Adrian’s is flame red and co-lead singer, Trixxie Carr is hot pink version to match her hair. Glitter and confetti are all over the place.

The rest of the Smash Up Derby Matty C. on drums with Jamie Cronander, Sam Henry, Jason Martine doing the guitars and such. With the amazing DJ Paul V spinning his mesmerizing mash ups pre and post. Maybe we love Mashups so much because of the underground element. They can never be sold. Check out their website for free downloads.

Jamming down Sunset, getting to the packed Viper Room a tad late, we missed special guest MC, Kim Fowley’s intro but caught the last few bars of Blackboard Jungle’s “California.” Kenny Price, Joel Patterson, Britt and Dave Zink were bought four score and seven friends worth of pure Rock and Roll power for two hours plus.

Fans flew in from Japan for this annual event. And New Jersey. Kenny joked, “We love you guys! It’s like the Grateful Dead have Dead Heads, you guys are Black Heads.” BBJ & friends ran through all the hits, faves and fun covers. Would you believe “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw?” This great band loves their fans, their music and clearly each other. It was a thing of beauty to see one more time.

Special guests were: Jeff Schroeder from the Smashing Pumpkins, The Swinging Things (Price’s first Hollywood hookup), Tommy Black from Golden State and Phil Lewis who killed on “Talk About Love.” But then again all these guys killed everything, every song, all night.

www.myspace.com/nothankstheband
www.myspace.com/medievalknieveltheband
www.myspace.com/gliss
www.myspace.com/voniva
www.myspace.com/bootiela
www.smashupderby.com
www.myspace.com/seriousclothingla
www.myspace.com/blackboardjungle