00 Spies Record Release Party at the S.S. Lane Victory

When Derrick Anderson gave me the flyer for this show, I got a warm feeling. Than I relized what it was, I had wet myself. Seriously though, this promised to be the monster lineup of the Summer (or fall, more properly). In case you're really impatient and dying to get to the band pictures, here's an index to the bands:

• Kickstand
• The Masticators
• The Andersons
• Double Naught Spies
• The Piper Downs
• Walter Clevenger and the Dairy Kings

The S.S. Lane Victory was a cargo ship in World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. It was retired in 1988, when Ronald Reagan deeded it to the U.S. Merchant Marines Veterans, who lovingly restored it with all volunteer labor. Now its parked in Los Angeles Harbor in the shadow of the Vincent Thomas bridge (which you can see a little bit of (distorted by videtting) at the left of this picture).

The Double Naught Spies raised the bar for record release parties by renting the S.S. Lane Victory, and booking 5 other cool bands to come out and play.

This was a party
This was a disco
This was some foolin' around.

For a paltry ten bucks you got to see all of these bands, plus that included free food and drinks. Needless to say, the Piper Downs and the Dairy Kings had rosy glows in their cheeks by the time they went on. I for one would like to offer a mighty thanks (and a corkscrew) to the 00 Spies for throwing one hell of a party.

Check out the individual band pages for comments on each of the bands sets. As for the posed photos, this would have been a very good night for taking an armada of posed shots of LA Rock Bands. You're on a big ship with 40 or 50 rock musicians and their coolest of friends. There's LA Harbor in the background while the sun sets. They've got big guns on deck with only a rope keeping you away from them (and you know those rock stars and their guns). On the other hand, I wanted to take lots of pictures of the bands, so I didn't want to go overboard on the posed shots.

• The 3 pictures of Lisa Mychols look straight out of a World War II Coca Cola ad. Steve took the first two at the wheel, and I took the one with the gun.
• Bobby Bogner shows off his pierced tongue. He offered to show us other parts of his anatomy which are pierced, but we politely turned him down.
• Wendie Colter really appreciates a big gun.
• Later on stage, Bobby challenged everyone to a beer chugging contest and Robbie Rist and Andrew took him up on it. THis wasn't really posed, but it wasn't R&R action either, so I figured I'd throw it in here.