Dirty Power Showcase for Cliveaid
Blitch Interview
The Dragonfly
Hollywood , CA
May 15, 2007
By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
We went to a benefit show at the Dragonfly on a Wednesday night smack in the middle of May.
It was really a prequel to a benefit. Ten bands were competing for the opening slot at a big arena show coming in the fall benefiting Cliveaid, “rock & metal working to change lives.” This is a two year-old Brit-based non-profit for teenage cancers and MS. Their first big US show will be in LA on September 22.
Our friend, Blitch invited us. He co-produced with Jen X Management. This was a delightful evening; great bands, a gorgeous crowd of good time rockers who brought all their friends. There was a lot of love in the room. Corny? Yeah, I know. But once in a while it actually happens.
One of the highlights of the evening was the club DJ, Mrs. Johnny Jetson; playing “Living” by the Steve Miller Blues Band written and sung by the amazing Tim Davis. Tim Davis!! Hadn't heard this song in years. We knew right then this was a very special evening.
The ten bands that played were:
Last Drag
The Mirrors
Vicious Licks
Dream Life Misery
Otto’s Daughter
Joie/Dead Blond Girlfriend
Techno Destructo of GWAR
Ten Count Junky
Sex Speed Zero
Hollywood 77
We sat down with Blitch in a post-show interview
Tell us about this Cliveaid show at Dragonfly and how it happened.
The event you attended at the Dragonfly was called Dirty Power. It was a benefit for Cliveaid. The big Cliveaid show is happening in September at the LA Forum or perhaps the Verizon Amphitheater if they out grow it. The event at the Dragonfly was a contest for the opening slot at this area show.
We had some of the best bands we could find. It started back in January. I wanted to do a project that would pull the Los Angeles rock community together. I came from a scene in New York City that had some of the greatest bands New York has ever had. We had a scene that was very tight. We did shows together. Back in NY we had a really strong sense of community. And we built a really great rock scene out of that.
Who were some of those bands?
Oh man! We had Joker Five Speed, Banana Fish Zero, Sex Slaves, The Compulsions, Dirty Mary, my band was; Drag Citizen, Alabama Black Snake, Dirty Mary, Honor Among Thieves, Pisser, Afterparty, Slunt and the list goes on and on.
What years are we talking about? Is this the 90s?
No. The scene in NYC really got happening with the arrival of Joker Five Speed and the Slags. And there were some other bands that they would do shows with that were kinda big at the time-Motor Betty, The Candy Snatchers. The Toilet Boys were kind of done by then. The Bullys were really great.
NYC rock and roll always had this strong punk, in your face back bone to it. Whether it was glammy or whether it was all American, it had a strong street sense of punk.
Pretty much inspired by The Ramones?
Very much inspired by the Ramones. They were a big deal to New Yorkers. They are synonomous with CBGB’s and even later with the Continental and these two clubs became very important to the rock scene.
Don Hill and Steve Blush had a party going on Wednesday called Rock Candy. Advertised you could get in free with big hair, which was kind of cool because nobody had big hair. In 2000-99 I started growing my hair out to get in. (heh heh!)
I remember going to that party to promote a party I was doing called Remedy. You had the Young Turks on the scene, The Strokes. In 2000 there wasn’t a lot going on. I walked into Don Hill’s to a Brittney Fox show. And there was the coolest rock band I’d seen in a long time. Called Joker Five Speed.
And these guys had it down! They had Marshalls stacked floor to ceiling. They all slung Les Paul’s. The bass player had a Thunderbird. These guys were just mean and nasty!! And at the same time having a blast.
And the Slags came on after them. And they had a really great sound. They had an phoenomal drummer, named Marty E. And they had Tommy Nordall from the Throbs. And Danny Biondo who had this Nikki Sixx head of hair. It looked like they had Kurt Corbain and Nikki Sixx were in the same band. (hahaha.)
But you could tell something was starting. These bands would start playing together. Queen V was out then. They would get on bills together. They would call each other up. Joker Five Speed would call up the Slags. They’d make a party out of it.
Then TOR, lead singer of Joker Five Speed, And Eric 13 V and later The Sex Slaves got together and started having a party every Thursday night at the Three of Cups. It’s like the Rainbow of NY, if you will, it was even and Italian restaurant.
But like NY, it’s underground. So we would all convene there, and it would grow and grow. It was a party that didn’t need to be promoted. It was where we all came.
And funny enough, bands started to blossom. I had a band called Drop Dead Gorgeous, that I joined. I’d been on the scene two years. And around that The Sex Slaves came together around that time.
It was an amazing band put together as a joke, just to have fun and wound up being one of the best bands in NYC and the only band that to this day, is still together and has a record deal.
So that’s what you were trying to duplicate with this event?
No, not duplicate. I wanted to show LA bands what was possible. And let them create their scene. There will never be another Joker Five Speed. I wanted these bands to find there own friendships and their own voice, their own songs and their own parties.
It doesn’t have to be dog eat dog. You can run like a pack of wolves. That’s what the Dirty Power event was about.
These bands were competing with each other for the opening slot at the Cliveaid gig?
Absolutely.
When is that again?
September 22, 2007
And the venue is yet to be determined because it may outgrow… The Los Angeles Forum.
Who won?
Ten Count Junky! And they were one of the first bands committed to the show. One of my favorites of the night. Yes, what was at stake was an opening slot at an arena show. The bands took the ‘battle of the bands’ out of the conversation and just played their hearts out.
How did you get these ten bands? Did they come to you or did you find them? And you had your own band.
All of the above. Yeah, I put together my own band called Sex Speed Zero, a tribute to the Sex Slaves, Joker Five Speed and Banana Fish Zero. Three of the top bands from our (NYC) scene. A lot of other bands submitted to us. I called a lot of my favorites but couldn’t do it due to tours.
How did you get to the Dragonfly?
We looked at a lot of venues. Originally we looked at the Avalon before Cliveaid got involved. I always wanted to do the event at the Dragonfly. It’s one of the greatest clubs in LA, it has incredible sound, a great stage, holds a wonderful amount of people. And the owners are excellent, excellent human beings. Anthony and Dave are two of the greatest club owners I’ve ever met in my entire career of working in night clubs.
What did you think of your own performance?
I was fantastic. I got three great musicians. Mikey Beans, he played with GSX, Dirty Mary and he played with Drewblood one of my favorites bands in NY.
Sky Zito is a phenomenal guitar player from Boston who moved out here and Johnny Lee, who I Knew from New York City . We actually grew up in the same country in New Jersey . And he used to play bass in a Bon Jovi band called Slippery When Wet.
I gave this list of songs to the guys to learn. I asked them if they’d be down for the show. And they were totally down for the show. I told them what my band would be. Which was really cool.
They learned the songs and we rehearsed the hell out of them. These were big shoes to fill. These were the giants of NY. And I had to do them justice.
I quit smoking. I’d never been a lead singer before. It was a lot of work. It had a dream of doing this. I was very aware that a scene that I gave my life to, that whole chapter was ending. In some ways it was sad, in some ways it was exciting.
How did you get those judges?
Oh, the celebrity judges, we had Huck Jones, Donny Monroe from Metal Church and Brian Forsythe of Kix and now Rhino Bucket. Those judges were enrolled by Todd Ross of Cliveaid to come down on behalf of Cliveaid to pick who they wanted most of all to open at the Forum. Yeah, I didn’t know any of those guys. We wanted to be a fair as possible.
Now you are getting on a plane in a few hours to tour in the UK-
I’m going to be playing bass with a band called Planet of Women from London . They found me on the internet and asked me to tour. They are opening for Gram Bonnet from Rainbow all throughout England .
Since I left Drag Citizen I haven’t been playing much. I’m very excited to do the tour. All throughout England , a little bit of Scotland . Very cool band.
Hired you sight unseen? Like a blind date?
Yeah, they heard my work with Drag Citizen, impressed with our songs and my playing and confident I could do the work. Haven’t even met them yet. My first tour ever. I’m psyched.
Are you back in LA for the Cliveaid show in September?
Absolutely!