Casper and the Bad Spirits
Les Deux, Rock Mondays
Hollywood, CA
February 22, 2010
By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
Photos by Genie Sanchez
(totallylikeduh.com)
Been hearing about this club for a while now. In the meaty part of Hollywood, on Las Palmas just off Hollywood Boulevard, Le Deux is THE hot club. Or one of them.
We know this because we recognize the parking lot. Seen it on TMZ. Drunken starlets spitting at paparazzi from the Navigator? This is the place. I’m a lawyer.
Mondays are for Rock, literally, they call it Rock Mondays. Ok, I 
get it. And there is a line out front when we arrive and it’s only 10 o’clock. “Yeah, this was a pretty cool secret, I guess the word got out,” is what Blitch, bass of Middle Finger Mob tells us. This is where it is happening now.
Casper Von DJ has been spinning there for a while and tonight his band, Casper and the Bad Spirits are playing. Smart bands and DJs use tweets and texts to promo shows and Casper is King. His fingers burn the tiny keyboards. And it works. He has a great following. Really cool crowd.
Half the club is the outdoor patio where you can smoke, mingle and drink. We do all three. It’s huge and packed. Lots of plush booths to sit and a big fountain in the middle filled with red rose petals. It’s gorgeous.
Inside the building, a carport-sized stage in a corner of the music room is elevated about 6 inches. Hard to see. The sound was awful but who cares. Such a cool club. And Casper’s voice was shot. Kept calling for whiskey. Which is normal anyway.
Casper and the Bad Spirits are hard rocking, dark, slamming, glam
, country punk band. To our screaming delight, guest guitarist is none other than the great Kevin Bombay. Looking good Mr. B.
Signature opening to the Bad Spirits is a voice over from some obscure 50s horror political Bible-banger docudrama with a homo-phobic message. Good times.
With their backs to the audience, slam bang, quick turn into the opening song “Trans Am” that hits like an 18-wheeler with bad breaks. The rest of the set: “Bitter Bruised & Broken,” (a better song title there ain’t), “Live Again,” “The Take,” “The Wait,” and “Love Sick.” And as local customs dictate, a cover song to finish, and what a beautiful choice, “Anything, Anything...” A song that even mentions marriage as a last ditch desperate offer to attain one’s goal. Like wow.
Intro’ing his band, Casper downplays the street cred of his side men. Solid citizens all. “If you’ve seen a band in the past fifteen years, you seen this guy,” is how master-blaster drummer Chad Stewert gets his due. Jason Decorso is on lead guitar with Ace VonJohnson also doing it to it. Muddy plays bass.
There was even a little bit of audience interaction. A very
drunk and fully-clothed young lady attempted a spontaneous duet with Casper on the finale. Falling down drunk, this chick displayed more animal magnetism than the skinny blonde go-go dancer on the patio wearing Paris Hilton’s old Gucci bathing suit. That’s hot.