Burger X Observatory - Night 3 - 9 March 2016

I donated a pint of blood today...
It's been a long time since I donated a whole pint of blood. I do platelets fairly often. Donating platelets doesn't really affect how you feel the way donating blood does. The volume of blood is not really reduced when you donate platelets. What does this have to do with the third night of Burger X Observatory? Nothing, really, for most people... but it had some effect on my night so I thought I'd mention it. Plus, we're going chronologically and that part happened first. Let's move on.

I rush to the venue after class. It was a long one again, but that's as it may be. Bands weren't starting as early as on Monday, so maybe I'll make it before the show starts.
I get there but there's no free parking. Oh well. Circumstances.
Get to the doors and they're letting people in already. Corpulent Cannibal Corpse fans aboud. Metal shirt graphs are awesome.
I get inside and it looks like no one has gone on yet. Look around, say hi to Pookie who's staffing the merch area. New zines! I'll have to pick those up later.

The Molochs - The show starts off with a Farfisa-laden twang. The Molochs bring some alt. country/cowpunk sounds to a sparse crowd. I'm excited. These guys sound good. It must be hard to play for a mostly empty room with a few wallflowers hanging around the back. They killed it anyway. The Molochs can be heard here.

Dabble - Well this is a weird transition. Dabble brought some minimal sounding riffs but with enough members made full-sounding dreamy pop jams. I was reminded of Jefferson Starship... Lots of 'em took turns singing which was cool. More people are trickling in at this point. Some of the Cannibal Corpse Fans seem to be peeking in to see what's going on in the little room. You can hear Dabble here.

The Side Eyes - Damn, these peeps can rage. The Side Eyes rock hard. The crowd is definitely ready to move after the slower set from Dabble and all the energy is mirrored by the band. The bassist was all over the place, jumping into the crowd, leaping to the bar and both he and the guitarist thrashed around as they played a la Dillenger Escape Plan. Hear them here.

Pookie & The Poodlez - ex Bay Area rock star Pookie came out from his new home in Chicago to rock a few Orange County fans and make some new ones. Pop punk jams about things we like and things we hate. The crowd is bouncing and dancing and having a great time. Pookie has an old Bell phone handset made into a microphone that he used for a lo-fi effect on the song Boy. They were probably the highlight for me. I saw Pookie for the first time at a Burgerama a few years ago and got his zine and record. His simple pop punk tunes and DIY-to-the-max style always make me happy. You can hear 'em here. Top photo: Durwood Bottom Photo: John V. Journey

Cumstain - Pookie & The Poodlez shedded clothes and switched places to become Cumstain. With Sean taking the lead decked out in his leopard print bikinis. He belted out tunes about Dahmer and being too horny to function before melting faces with a 30 minute shred jam that took our minds to alternate realities otherwise inconceivable. He managed to break his guitar but picked up Pookie's and kept the show going. Always the showman, he posed for photos for fans after the set. You can hear them here.
Top photo: Durwood Bottom two photos: John V. Journey

So now you're like, "Dur', what about Rikk Agnew, No Parents and Angry Samoans?" and I'm like "Sorry friends, all that blood loss is messing with my stamina." After dancin' it up with Pookie and Cumstain my heart was pounding out of my chest and my brain was hurtin'. I tried to relax and regroup so I could stay through the rest of the night but that didn't seem to be happening so I made an executive decision to go rest up instead of pushing through and risking passing out or something worse. Take care of yourselves so you can feel cool forever. I picked up some music and Pookie's zines and headed out... See you next time!