House of Blues

These are images (all taken by my friend Joe Photo -- thanks, Joe!) of the "Beautiful Noise" benefit show at the House of Blues in last week in Anaheim. It was a lot of work, a lot of emotion, and a lot of fun all rolled into one climactic weekend. The bands were Jigsaw, Naked Soul, Cadillac Tramps, Social Distortion and my band, MIA. The show was sold out with over 1000 people in attendance.

This is Cadillac Tramps, a really rocking and entertaining band.

Social Distortion played an acoustic set -- really amazing. I've been listening to my SD records and CDs a lot after this.

We followed Social Distortion (although they were the main draw). We began with our original singer, Todd.

That's two hot 100-watt Marshalls behind me! Stereo, baby!

Then Kevin Seconds came out to sing a few tunes, followed by Jello Biafra, former singer of the Dead Kennedys. He sang four of our songs and then we did four Dead Kennedys classics.

It turned into madness and mayhem, in a good way, when Biafra dove into the crowd.

Biafra put on the bling to sing Viva Las Vegas!

If you are a Biafra fan, email me for a link to some performance stuff!

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This is from my diary:

The shows at Detroit Bar and House of Blues took place one week ago. Every person I have talked to has told me the HOB show was one of the best shows they have seen, ever. I know for me, Social Distortion blew me away with their acoustic set -- the harmonies, the blue pearly squeezebox, the awesome double bass, Ness' well-worn voice, and the killer songs -- just beautiful with the entire audience singing along. Cadillac Tramps rocked better than ever, Gabby was funny as hell. Naked Soul and Jigsaw brought some of Mike's best songs back to us. MIA's set was hauled into overdrive first by Kevin Seconds and then by Jello Biafra. It was a great night, fun, joyous, amazing.

Those who know me well are aware that I need to ruminate a bit before I speak, and this is no different. My first thought about the weekend was that it was just about as perfect as we could make it. I didn't want it to end. If that was my "groundhog day," I would just continue missing the chord change into the third chorus in "Halloween" so I could relive that weekend over and over, to see the big smiles on Chris's face and watch Biafra dive into the frenzied crowd (among many, many other experiences). But now, sitting in my office at home, other thoughts and feelings are beginning to sink in.

I thought I said goodbye to Mike at the funeral two months ago. As it turns out, I had unfinished business. I had to say goodbye to MIA as well. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do so in the way that it happened, with my old band mates and important figures from our past like Kevin Seconds and Jello Biafra, and incredible amounts of love and goodwill from all of you. It was a resurrection and a funeral, with a fairytale ending for the band and for Mike's legacy. Thank you so much.

As we watched Social Distortion from the wings I mentioned to (old friend and SD manager) Jim Guerinot that it felt strange being yanked musically back to 1983. Like a surreal black and white episode of the Twilight Zone turned color, there was Mike Ness playing a beautiful version of "Telling Them," a song I heard them play countless times, eye to eye at the Cathay or elbow to elbow at Ichabods or Fenders. Mike sang it the same, but it was different, performed alongside more recent compositions by a strangely diverse, sensitive and complex band. The kids in the audience were gone, replaced by older men and women who still knew all the words but were somehow more relaxed, more benevolent. Everything and everyone had matured, but I was about to open a time capsule, hoping I could remember my guitar parts as they were so many years ago and hoping my fingers could keep up. It felt strange indeed.....

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