KooKooNauts' Punk Historian Johnny Davenport Strikes Again - By N.L. Belardes
Ok, this is hot off the press from local KooKooNauts afficionado Johnny Davenport. He may actually be one of the KooKooNauts in disguise. He may be a punk teenage angst hero. He may just be kookoo for KooKooNauts. But I'm publishing him here for the second time, right here on nlbelardes.com. Get raw, get punkness, get Johnny!! Why? Because Johhny Strikes again as he dives into the punk Bakersfield underworld for a big punk report:
July 9th. Mohawk Revolution "British Punk Invasion, in retrospect."
By Johnny Davenport. July, 10th, 2005 ( Reporter: The Bakersfield Scene)
Mohawk Revolution "British Punk Invasion is a tour put on by World Wide Concerts in association with J Rock Entertainment, Guerilla Urban Marketing and Libertalia Marketing. And featured bands from both the UK and California, USA. The Skulls (United Kingdom), The Partisans (United Kingdom) American Made (New Port Beach, CA) The Koo-Koo-Nauts (Bakersfield, CA) Willie Psycho (El Cajon, California). Also, several special guest bands. Tour date locations included: Newport Beach, CA, Tijuana, Mexico, Irvine, CA, Santa Cruz, CA and Bakersfield, CA. It was the July 9th Bakersfield show that I was able to attend and hence review.
I didn't think I would ever see it, the Jerry's punk resurrection. As I drove south down Chester Ave. About 6:30 PM it was still hot and sunny, I didn't really expect much but as soon as 22nd street off the 178 I started to see them, a steady migration of colored hair denim vested, stud laden punks, majestic Mohawks reminiscent of a time gone by, not even at this years Van's Warp Tour a week before did I ever see such a site. As I got closer to Jerry's I could see this was something really big. I went around 18th street and lucky for me and my old Nova someone was just pulling out so I slipped right in.
There were severe levels of Punkdom surrounding the front orifice of the venue. In the alley there were several clusters of various subspecies of punk, Skater punks with their boards, Straight edge with their XXXs on their hands, hardcore with their old schools hawks, liberty spikes and vests, T-shirt punks with "Rancid and Ramones T-shirts, Skin Heads, and the ever present street punks drinks barfing and otherwise hang'n out.
I had purchased my ticket the day before at Downtown Records for ten bucks, I gave my ticket to the awesome looking babe at the door and was in. It was a show where you can't go in and out, sort of like L.A. shows, this works well and it is safer and more people tend to watch the bands. Since I could not go in and out, I opted to do some hang'n out and some other stuff before going right in. Unnoticed I cruised around the scene, listened in and made some rounds. Downtown Records was abuzz with conversation and up and down the 19th street corner. It was a lot like the punk scene from a few years back, really vast.
Most of the time when you get big acts from out of town a lot of people are just hanging out, but this time it was different, most everybody came in. I bought a slice of world famous pizza, a cola and down the stairs I went. I got there as the local band "The Koo-koo-nauts" were setting up. The Cavern was about have backed and as the sound check was going on people were hustling down the stairs with pizza slices giggling with each step down these historic steps. Jerry's ambience has stayed fairly close to it's classic feel and this quote from a 2002 Blackboard Magazine article pretty much sums it up :"The underground cavern that is the basement theater of Jerry's Pizza on Chester in downtown Bakersfield. Jerry's is reminiscent of the 1963 Cavern Club in Britain where the Beatles began their career. The atmosphere is amazing: three black wooden staircases lead you into a punk underworld; this blackened, brick-walled underground cavern comes alive as darkness falls outside. The bright white stage lights break the underground darkness with silhouettes of majestic mohawks and liberty-spiked punks who cast thunder from the stage as the mosh pit raves like a fevered tribal war dance. From above creeps the smell of Jerry's famous pizza, breaking the historic musk below. Above the cavern is the actual pizzeria. In the bar-like register with its glass circular pizza warmer, a slice is a mere buck fifty. There are a couple of wooden booth tables for your dining pleasure, two roof-mounted televisions and a really frightening clown gum ball machine. Occasionally the oxygen bar man is there, doing his flavored air thing. Jerry came to Downtown Bakersfield in 1992 with old country traditions for pizza baked on a stone hearth. The best part, though, is the thunderous outpouring of sound from the bands below in the cavern. This is the ultimate in dining atmosphere for the punk and early rock music connoisseur. If you want to relive those early 1960s days at the Cavern Club, come to a punk show some night at Jerry's" (Blackboard 2002).
Nick Belardes of nlbelardes.com a local Bakersfield music and scene writer posed this question on his website a few months back: "Have you heard this astro-band, these kookoo cocoapuff kings of guitar-blasting SKA punkdom?" Well, I have to say after this show hundreds of punks from near and far can say "OH YA "and "kings of guitar-blasting SKA punkdom" is right on the mark! The very first song the crowd ignited in a massive mosh pit, by song number 2 the basement was packed like a punk sardine can and on song 3 about 1/8th of the audience was singing along! I guess punks do listen to KRAB radio, KRAB is where the kookoonauts are often played on the Sunday night Danny Spanks show, a lot of people were singing along with the bands self written tunes like: "The March" and "Searching". On one of the bands old songs "Inevitable", Bryan Gunter, "the jammin' German", flung the Fender Strat up behind his back and cut loose on some awesome piercing guitar licks to the flurry of light speed drum flurries from bother James and pulsating bass thumps from Naut brother Kurt; blue hair and all.
"The song "Inevitable", a song warning of judgment day on those whom destroy nature. Inevitable, one of the trio's many original creations, was a local hit for a time around the high school and at shows where dozens of folks would often come up and sing along. At one point even the Night Crawlers, a local psychobilly band, covered the tune. My favorite part is the lead-in: "humans are the parasite, earth is our host, wide spread panic from coast to coast." Amazing Chuck Berry-type guitar riffs rounds out this great tune, especially when done behind the back." (From Bakotopia.com) "Bakersfield has always been known for its leading the way in music styles and variations, often called Nashville West, and the Bakersfield Sound. It is true with Country and even more so with Punk Rock and Ska music. Here the pioneers of this new Rural Punk/Ska style music showed their stuff" (Wasco Newspaper June 2005). The Kookoonauts show awesome, triple threat: great songs, great singing and great musically, it was filled with action and sound and smell and feel - it was like being in the midst of a category 6 hurricane!
After the Kookoonauts experience I had to take a break, I had hurt my shoulder in the mosh pit and someone stepped on my historic, stone baked pizza. I missed the band that played after the Nauts but I could hear a Johnny Cash tune?
The next band to get fired up was "Amerikan Made" , that's American but with a "K". Their base of operation and Home town is Huntington Beach, California and the several hour trek to Bakersfield was well worth the trip for both the band and the audience.
Wow , it was like a cherry bomb went off in the place, an explosion of punk thunder- like a blasting cap man! These guys were all over the stage. Again. The mosh pit was ravenous--like savages man, put some more Johnny Bravo in you hair dudes the Mohawks are drooping--lots of heat and slamming around is hard on the dew! Amerikan Made has a driving and original sound but, as I had read before, they did sound sort of like of a hot concoction of roots of NOFX, The Clash , along with some new stuff like Blink 182, Pennywise and The Ataris, really fast and well executed punk styles. Ryan Ernie Oi : Bass (& Lead Vocal), Nick Name: Lead Guitar (& Backing Vocal), Josh Neel: Lead Guitar (& Lead Vocals), Pat Magrath: Drums . All great musicians and really nice fellows. This bands puts pride back in the statement "American Made"
After Amerikan made and the Kookoonauts I was dog tired, hungery, thirsty and bruised up and went up stairs, climbing behind others out of our punk underworld. Upstairs I was able to mingle with some of the bands and found the Nuts to be playing next week at the Boiler Room and gossip around the watering hole that Gigantic's clothing store was going to be booking Jerry's shows soon and that, Nate, the icon of the Bakersfield punk booking for many years was no longer employed there? Anyway, I stuffed into my skull hole another piece of pizza and cola before once again scurrying back underground like a weasel chasing down a sage bunny. Lots of hot kittens in the house tonight brother!
The next band was going to be Punk icons and heroes of your's truly, "The Skulls". I always thought the Skulls were a UK band because some of the members are Englishman. The actual facts are however, the band was originally formed in 1977, The SKULLS were one of LA's true original punk bands, this band was the genuine article.
It's not a band you can say they are like so and so, they are one of the originals that others must compare to. Billy Bones; lead vocals, Kevin Preston: Guitar and backing vocals, James Hardslug Harding :Bass & backing vocals, Sean "Geranamo" Antillon: Drums and Backing vocal.,After a quick tune up I could almost feel the ground shacking, a storm was coming man, it was a locomotive paced rage and the place was shaking like a earthquake and the mosh pit was raging and music was being thrust from the stage like lightning bolts from the hand of Zeus on his cloud above. The band was on, clear crisp and driving tunes, this band has not lost a thing though the years but has gained in talent, charisma and experience. My favorite Skulls tune is "Can Punk Rock Pay The Bills" by Hardind/ Harding/Armstrong/Griffin, a cavalcade of punk heroes!
The song asks the age old question "can punk rock pay the bills? And in answer back type song Billy Bones replies "I don't think so" in his heavy British accent. .When the show was over, I felt numb, it was like I just got off an extreme ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The last band, The Partisans from the Uk were next but it was midnight and I had a curfew to meet, besides someone had barfed on my foot earlier and I really wanted to go home and bathe! After I left I felt like Smokey the Bear had just snuffed out the towering inferno with his little animal feet or something! What a rush! I hope it happens again soon.
July 9th. Mohawk Revolution "British Punk Invasion, in retrospect."
By Johnny Davenport. July, 10th, 2005 ( Reporter: The Bakersfield Scene)
Mohawk Revolution "British Punk Invasion is a tour put on by World Wide Concerts in association with J Rock Entertainment, Guerilla Urban Marketing and Libertalia Marketing. And featured bands from both the UK and California, USA. The Skulls (United Kingdom), The Partisans (United Kingdom) American Made (New Port Beach, CA) The Koo-Koo-Nauts (Bakersfield, CA) Willie Psycho (El Cajon, California). Also, several special guest bands. Tour date locations included: Newport Beach, CA, Tijuana, Mexico, Irvine, CA, Santa Cruz, CA and Bakersfield, CA. It was the July 9th Bakersfield show that I was able to attend and hence review.
I didn't think I would ever see it, the Jerry's punk resurrection. As I drove south down Chester Ave. About 6:30 PM it was still hot and sunny, I didn't really expect much but as soon as 22nd street off the 178 I started to see them, a steady migration of colored hair denim vested, stud laden punks, majestic Mohawks reminiscent of a time gone by, not even at this years Van's Warp Tour a week before did I ever see such a site. As I got closer to Jerry's I could see this was something really big. I went around 18th street and lucky for me and my old Nova someone was just pulling out so I slipped right in.
There were severe levels of Punkdom surrounding the front orifice of the venue. In the alley there were several clusters of various subspecies of punk, Skater punks with their boards, Straight edge with their XXXs on their hands, hardcore with their old schools hawks, liberty spikes and vests, T-shirt punks with "Rancid and Ramones T-shirts, Skin Heads, and the ever present street punks drinks barfing and otherwise hang'n out.
I had purchased my ticket the day before at Downtown Records for ten bucks, I gave my ticket to the awesome looking babe at the door and was in. It was a show where you can't go in and out, sort of like L.A. shows, this works well and it is safer and more people tend to watch the bands. Since I could not go in and out, I opted to do some hang'n out and some other stuff before going right in. Unnoticed I cruised around the scene, listened in and made some rounds. Downtown Records was abuzz with conversation and up and down the 19th street corner. It was a lot like the punk scene from a few years back, really vast.
Most of the time when you get big acts from out of town a lot of people are just hanging out, but this time it was different, most everybody came in. I bought a slice of world famous pizza, a cola and down the stairs I went. I got there as the local band "The Koo-koo-nauts" were setting up. The Cavern was about have backed and as the sound check was going on people were hustling down the stairs with pizza slices giggling with each step down these historic steps. Jerry's ambience has stayed fairly close to it's classic feel and this quote from a 2002 Blackboard Magazine article pretty much sums it up :"The underground cavern that is the basement theater of Jerry's Pizza on Chester in downtown Bakersfield. Jerry's is reminiscent of the 1963 Cavern Club in Britain where the Beatles began their career. The atmosphere is amazing: three black wooden staircases lead you into a punk underworld; this blackened, brick-walled underground cavern comes alive as darkness falls outside. The bright white stage lights break the underground darkness with silhouettes of majestic mohawks and liberty-spiked punks who cast thunder from the stage as the mosh pit raves like a fevered tribal war dance. From above creeps the smell of Jerry's famous pizza, breaking the historic musk below. Above the cavern is the actual pizzeria. In the bar-like register with its glass circular pizza warmer, a slice is a mere buck fifty. There are a couple of wooden booth tables for your dining pleasure, two roof-mounted televisions and a really frightening clown gum ball machine. Occasionally the oxygen bar man is there, doing his flavored air thing. Jerry came to Downtown Bakersfield in 1992 with old country traditions for pizza baked on a stone hearth. The best part, though, is the thunderous outpouring of sound from the bands below in the cavern. This is the ultimate in dining atmosphere for the punk and early rock music connoisseur. If you want to relive those early 1960s days at the Cavern Club, come to a punk show some night at Jerry's" (Blackboard 2002).
Nick Belardes of nlbelardes.com a local Bakersfield music and scene writer posed this question on his website a few months back: "Have you heard this astro-band, these kookoo cocoapuff kings of guitar-blasting SKA punkdom?" Well, I have to say after this show hundreds of punks from near and far can say "OH YA "and "kings of guitar-blasting SKA punkdom" is right on the mark! The very first song the crowd ignited in a massive mosh pit, by song number 2 the basement was packed like a punk sardine can and on song 3 about 1/8th of the audience was singing along! I guess punks do listen to KRAB radio, KRAB is where the kookoonauts are often played on the Sunday night Danny Spanks show, a lot of people were singing along with the bands self written tunes like: "The March" and "Searching". On one of the bands old songs "Inevitable", Bryan Gunter, "the jammin' German", flung the Fender Strat up behind his back and cut loose on some awesome piercing guitar licks to the flurry of light speed drum flurries from bother James and pulsating bass thumps from Naut brother Kurt; blue hair and all.
"The song "Inevitable", a song warning of judgment day on those whom destroy nature. Inevitable, one of the trio's many original creations, was a local hit for a time around the high school and at shows where dozens of folks would often come up and sing along. At one point even the Night Crawlers, a local psychobilly band, covered the tune. My favorite part is the lead-in: "humans are the parasite, earth is our host, wide spread panic from coast to coast." Amazing Chuck Berry-type guitar riffs rounds out this great tune, especially when done behind the back." (From Bakotopia.com) "Bakersfield has always been known for its leading the way in music styles and variations, often called Nashville West, and the Bakersfield Sound. It is true with Country and even more so with Punk Rock and Ska music. Here the pioneers of this new Rural Punk/Ska style music showed their stuff" (Wasco Newspaper June 2005). The Kookoonauts show awesome, triple threat: great songs, great singing and great musically, it was filled with action and sound and smell and feel - it was like being in the midst of a category 6 hurricane!
After the Kookoonauts experience I had to take a break, I had hurt my shoulder in the mosh pit and someone stepped on my historic, stone baked pizza. I missed the band that played after the Nauts but I could hear a Johnny Cash tune?
The next band to get fired up was "Amerikan Made" , that's American but with a "K". Their base of operation and Home town is Huntington Beach, California and the several hour trek to Bakersfield was well worth the trip for both the band and the audience.
Wow , it was like a cherry bomb went off in the place, an explosion of punk thunder- like a blasting cap man! These guys were all over the stage. Again. The mosh pit was ravenous--like savages man, put some more Johnny Bravo in you hair dudes the Mohawks are drooping--lots of heat and slamming around is hard on the dew! Amerikan Made has a driving and original sound but, as I had read before, they did sound sort of like of a hot concoction of roots of NOFX, The Clash , along with some new stuff like Blink 182, Pennywise and The Ataris, really fast and well executed punk styles. Ryan Ernie Oi : Bass (& Lead Vocal), Nick Name: Lead Guitar (& Backing Vocal), Josh Neel: Lead Guitar (& Lead Vocals), Pat Magrath: Drums . All great musicians and really nice fellows. This bands puts pride back in the statement "American Made"
After Amerikan made and the Kookoonauts I was dog tired, hungery, thirsty and bruised up and went up stairs, climbing behind others out of our punk underworld. Upstairs I was able to mingle with some of the bands and found the Nuts to be playing next week at the Boiler Room and gossip around the watering hole that Gigantic's clothing store was going to be booking Jerry's shows soon and that, Nate, the icon of the Bakersfield punk booking for many years was no longer employed there? Anyway, I stuffed into my skull hole another piece of pizza and cola before once again scurrying back underground like a weasel chasing down a sage bunny. Lots of hot kittens in the house tonight brother!
The next band was going to be Punk icons and heroes of your's truly, "The Skulls". I always thought the Skulls were a UK band because some of the members are Englishman. The actual facts are however, the band was originally formed in 1977, The SKULLS were one of LA's true original punk bands, this band was the genuine article.
It's not a band you can say they are like so and so, they are one of the originals that others must compare to. Billy Bones; lead vocals, Kevin Preston: Guitar and backing vocals, James Hardslug Harding :Bass & backing vocals, Sean "Geranamo" Antillon: Drums and Backing vocal.,After a quick tune up I could almost feel the ground shacking, a storm was coming man, it was a locomotive paced rage and the place was shaking like a earthquake and the mosh pit was raging and music was being thrust from the stage like lightning bolts from the hand of Zeus on his cloud above. The band was on, clear crisp and driving tunes, this band has not lost a thing though the years but has gained in talent, charisma and experience. My favorite Skulls tune is "Can Punk Rock Pay The Bills" by Hardind/ Harding/Armstrong/Griffin, a cavalcade of punk heroes!
The song asks the age old question "can punk rock pay the bills? And in answer back type song Billy Bones replies "I don't think so" in his heavy British accent. .When the show was over, I felt numb, it was like I just got off an extreme ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The last band, The Partisans from the Uk were next but it was midnight and I had a curfew to meet, besides someone had barfed on my foot earlier and I really wanted to go home and bathe! After I left I felt like Smokey the Bear had just snuffed out the towering inferno with his little animal feet or something! What a rush! I hope it happens again soon.
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Monday, July 11, 2005.
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