Adrian H. & The Wounds @ Bar Sinister
Switchblade Kitty @ The Dragonfly
Hollywood, California
April 25 2009
By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
pix from Victoria's Phone
SugarBuzz Magazine
Going to the Dark Side in Hollywood is called Saturday night.
Starting off at Bar Sinister, a wicked cool weekly club at Boarder’s (the oldest bar in Tinsel Town) we see the usual crowd. Black vinyl, lace and leather. We even see one girl in jeans. How’d she get in?
Spinning the darkest Goth, Metal, Punk and Glam the beautiful Vickie has been booking the bands for years. Tonight is very special and we see one of the best bands we’ve seen in a while.
Adrian H. and The Wounds out of Portland, Oregon positively hypnotized us. Too tall for his keyboards, Adrian H. takes a wide stance and plays that thing like he riding a Harley, crouching and swaying back and forth as he
takes the road playing with a nervous fury that is frightening. Backed by Broken Heart on the drum and Shiggy on bass, we were smitten from the kick-start.
Mr. H as a gravelly deep voice that whispers somewhere between Tom Waits and Lux Interior (R.I.P.) and he looks a lot like the late Goth God too. Magnetic like the North Pole. Songs were wonderful. Chanted simple lines repeated endlessly with a classically influenced cacophonous accompaniment that is part Procol Harum and part Depeche Mode.
We loved “Straight Leg With a Crooked Stick” and “She Won’t Leave Me Alone.” The highly infectious “She Smells Like Smoke” is our new favorite song. Hands down, no contest, jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch crazy. I love this band!
Round midnight, rolling down to the Dragonfly on Santa Monica, Prince’s old club is coming back big. We finally caught Switchblade Kitty. Heard tell about them for a while. These felines had a long-standing residence at the Roxy and now they have the Saturday spot at the D’fly with DJ Casper spinning his magic.
Think Kiss, Spinal Tap, Motorhead and the Runaways. With some added theater and Mexican Wrestling. And every Punk band ever with heels and mascara. Oh wait, that’s a redundancy.
Wearing black boots, belts and tape and precious little else, these four wymyn; Kelly, Carla, Heidi and Shit Billy took the stage with their 4-piece back up band while Casper cued up an outrageous sound byte from a 50s anti-sex doc “Perversion for Profit.” Always the perfect cue from the gentleman in the booth.
What followed was 40 minutes of fist pumping, heel stomping, head banging bump and grind. Doing classic covers, “I Ain’t No SOB,” “Search and Destroy,” ”Cherry Bomb,” “Do You Want to Touch Me There” and a real crowd-pleaser “The Ace of Spades,” the Switches screamed and thrashed taking turns singing lead. Nice pipes all around. Does anyone else remember Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics? They do.
Excellent back up band kept it loud, proud and oh so swift. Ace and Dallas on guitars, Matt on Bass and Ben on drums set a land speed record, I swear to God. Delightful family entertainment. Bring the kids.
And big thanks to their manager Steven Harlow, for his giggling cool energy.