FTW, 12.21.2023

After Stoogeaphilia's no-shit last stand (at the Sunshine Bar, 10.19.2019), my big amp sat in my hall closet gathering dust for four years. I tried to sell it a couple of times, without success, so my wife suggested that I donate it to Southwest Music & Sound Design, a great program at Southwest High School where students record and perform their original music. Program director Marco Petrilli had previously invited me to visit when I was more active musically, but I never made it down, for one reason or another. But when I offered my amp, he said they had a punk band who dug the Stooges in house, and invited me to bring the amp (and a guitar) to one of their Thursday evening rehearsals.

I was curious to see if I could still play loud standing up after three years of playing seated at a volume that wouldn't disturb the cat if he was sitting on my amp. During the day of my scheduled visit, I felt myself emptying my mind the way I used to before playing a show -- a habit I was surprised to discover wasn't extinct. I loaded the amp in the back of my car for the last time, along with the Strat (reliable stage guitar) and my Marshall Bluesbreaker (trying to wean myself off the fuzz-wah combo I came to rely on in the Stooge band), and headed for Southwest in the pouring rain.

When I got there, I was surprised to discover that the band in question turned out to be Lifeless Display, fronted by Jabez Vasquez whom I remember hanging around Magnolia Skate Shop back when I was working at Panther City Vinyl before the pandemic. I'd heard an early recording of theirs, which PCV co-owner Ted Stern had made at Cloudland Recording Studio, that impressed the old men at the record store by sounding something like Question Mark fronting the Pretty Things. They've progressed since then, of course -- guitarist Viggo Petrilli, the other half of the band's creative brain trust, told me they'd gone through a Velvet Underground/Modern Lovers phase during the pandemic, and their latest material is in more of a post-punk/shoegaze vein (think Cure, Joy Division, with astral flare guitar). 

The three-piece band -- with Esteban Rodriguez (bass) and Thomas Rodriguez (drums) providing the locomotion -- is a powerful, aggressive vehicle for strong melodies, with hooks, even (they've gotten some airplay on KXT-FM), and Jabez singing lyrics that bring to light some deep, personal struggles. (Marco records all their practices, when Jabez will just flow stream-of-consciousness over the jams, for later reference/development.) They have an album's worth of horror rock (emblematic track: "Crimson House") in the can, along with another in their newer style. If I had a couple grand in pocket, I'd put out a vinyl release on these guys.

The band was prepping for an upcoming house show. Like all up-and-comers, they have to hustle hard to create opportunities to play, but they graciously allowed me to sit in. I was delighted to find that I was able to jump into my old groove with an ice-breaking version of "Search and Destroy" (which I sabotaged by accidentally turning my guitar volume off; it'd been a minute), then managed to play along with much of their set (difficulty: trying to key off Viggo's open tunings; had to listen to the bass a lot). Then a jam-out on "TV Eye" and an attempt (only partially successful) to show them a tune from Mr. Sincerity, the aborted late-in-the-day Stoogeaphilia side project. Most fun I'd had playing in four years. In a weird way, it gives me hope.