HANDS UP, IT FRANK RIZZO

Rip It Up, Issue 185, 1 December 1992, Page 33

HANDS UP, IT FRANK RIZZO

As summer draws to a close in the smog-laden Los Angeles basin, we all breathe a sigh of relief that we made it through.

As temperatures rise here so do the shootings. People get hot, get aggravated, get drunk and just plain get nasty. The reason I mention this is that our illustrious editor wanted a bit more elaboration on my encounter with firearms. It happened like this. Rave tickets were being sold where I work and some kids decided they wanted a cut. Guns were pulled, our customers lay down quickly and I was left staring down the barrel of a 9mm. Feeling no real allegiance to Limey capitalists, the ticket sale point was quickly pointed

out, the kids grabbed the cash and ran. As a "crime never pays" note, the box they grabbed was just a change box which con-

tained about SSO, which probably wasn't much more than gas money. Although the whole situation was hardly fun, it was at least a little bit controlled. The kids knew what they wanted and had guns so everyone just did what they were told and there were no problems. Far more worrying are the freeway shooters, a unique LA phenomenon. Here you have no idea what's happening, you just receive a bullet from someone who is sick of the heat, sick of being stuck in traffic, sick of

being broke, just sick of everything so they decide to shoot up a few cars. But all this paints a pretty

bleak picture of life which isn't entirely fair. There's been plenty of fun, most notably a recent Jesus Lizard live extravaganza. Although I'm feeling plenty burned on rock and the whole associated lifestyle (I'm fast becoming a jazz and hockey man -does this mean I'm getting old?) it seemed like a fine reason to venture out and rub shoulders with the wild punk community. It proved to be a great move as not only were Jesus Lizard superb, the supportband, thejon Spencer Blues Explosion, were great as well.

They took the whole NYC artnoise thing they used to do as Pussy Galore and fed blues and R&B through it to fine ef-

feet. The whole sound was scratchy, dischordant and garagy but with a nice minimal feel. It was a good contrast to Jesus Lizard as from the moment Mr Yow and company stepped on stage, it was anything but minimal. Their sound was, if anything, bigger than the record led you to believe and that's saying something. Jesus Lizard are a wild, dangerous beast, they ripped in with 'Boilermaker' from the new album and didn't let it lag for a moment. You slid around on top of the audience

(much to the security man's dismay) and when the pace slowed down things got real weighty. To hell with the

Melvins and all this Seattle pansy stuff, the true rock menace was Jesus Lizard and I loved all of it. Go buy Liar and find out for yourself. Oh yeah, in parting, a word of warning. Watch out for a goth resurgence. Having just

seen Dracula I feel safe in saying it was good enough to inspire a new batch of alienated middle class kids to don eye make-up °nd swelter out summer looking as undead as possible. Personally, I think we should create a **" youth cult out of Keanu Reeves's horrible English accent **‘~* pSß * v - ■ rather than **■ ‘ give any ’" more nircy h. to

sissys like the Cure. But hey, what would I know?

FRANK RIZZO