Weekend Adventures: The Smell, Permanent Records, Casey's Irish Pub

It was a fun Friday and Saturday to catch bands. I was also tempted to go out Sunday afternoon, but decided I needed to just relax.

Suzie True

Nightgown

Friday night started out with an invite by Dum Dum Zine to catch their event at The Smell. I jumped at the opportunity as I recognized most of the bands and they're all solid: Nightgown, Slugs, Spare Parts for Broken Hearts and Taleen Kali. The one band I didn't recognize was Suzie True. Their set had a youthful joy to it. There were songs about randomly sleeping with co-workers at a coffee house that isn't a great place to work.

Slugs

Taleen Kali

Dum Dum Zine knew how to get the Echo Park music crowd to show up to The Smell. The way is to bring Echo Park bands to The Smell. The most memorable of the bands were Slugs. They had an acoustic set with some fun banter. They didn't have a drummer for the night. Instead, they had a computerized system that they called Xander. Xander didn't always work upon request and the band had a lot of fun poking fun at the troubles Xander was causing them. When they kept saying Xander, I had to think: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Spare Parts for Broken Hearts

One important note is that Kaleen Kali is the founder of Dum Dum Zine.

Bogan Villa

Jane Church

Saturday early evening was spent at Permanent Records. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any bands there since the time the location was Origami Vinyl. It was Dream Phases record release. Bogan Villa and Jane Church opened. It was a psychedelic early evening of music. There was free beer for those who came. Some folks slipped in to grab a beer and then slipped out. Eventually, the store manager hid the beer and handed it out to those he knew were there to catch Dream Phases.

Dream Phases

I closed out the night by heading to Casey's Irish Pub to catch Pu$$y Cow and Maniac with some solid punk. One thing I noticed: Casey's had a brake for the bass drum. It was just a cut 2x4. What I noticed was that nails were sticking out of the wood by perhaps 1/4 inch. I pointed it out, but I guess I was the only one concerned that a musician might accidentally step on it. I'm pretty sure that someday a musician is going to make the mistake of stepping on one of those nails. Both bands have similar fans so there were a number of friends of the bands hanging out in the audience. And there was a lot of mosh pit dancing. And well, a lot of paper streamers that got caught in the ceiling fans.

Pu$$y Cow

Maniac