Feb 22, 2017 Anarchy in L.A.: Steve Jones, Cheetah Chrome, and Bob’s Donuts all in one night
Punks not dead but it is getting longer in the tooth. That’s why I jump on every chance I get to meet or see the subculture originators while I can, and living in Los Angeles affords plenty of opportunities. For example, Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols signed his autobiography at The Grove last Thursday. I haven’t cracked open the book yet, but after listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox for years on Indie and now KLOS it’s obvious that Spirit of ’77 punker turned Lord of La Cienega knows how to tell a story as well as he can tear through riffs. How could I not drag my family to Barnes & Noble to meet the man?
And in a perfect plate-of-shrimp moment, Imprint founder and friend Julia Huang asked me a week or so beforehand where she might take her pals Shunsuke Shiinoki and Makoto Azuma, who were visiting from Japan and were into stuff like the Ramones and Sex Pistols. Talk about perfect timing: after they the spent the afternoon checking out the Brooklyn Museum’s traveling exhibit dedicated to Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy at the Grammy headquarters, they joined us at the ex Pistol’s book signing. The line would have been a lot longer in Japan, they said!
After we all had dinner and donuts next door at Farmer’s Market (one of the best old places to visit in L.A.) I took my new friends to West Hollywood, pointing out the gym at Fairfax High, Oki Dog, the Starwood, and other L.A. punk rock landmarks and locations along the way. Eventually, we reached the Whisky, where Cheetah Chrome and his band were playing tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Dead Boys’ Young Loud and Snotty LP.
We arrived in time to see a couple of opening bands and Shun and Makoto agreed that it was nice to see young musicians who were into punk rock–an older person’s genre in Tokyo. But there’s nothing like seeing a master like Cheetah Chrome on the axe surrounded by a mix of bona fide punk lifers and unironic devotees. It’s just a little too bad the album starts with “Sonic Reducer,” because there was no anticipation while waiting for the song we all wanted to hear! It’s also too bad Mr. Chrome didn’t have copies of his own autobiography at the merch table, because it would have been awesome to acquire two books signed by original punk legends in one night.
The show ended after midnight, but I had to take my Japanese pals to one more spot. I must have walked past the Rainbow more than 100 times when going to shows at the Roxy and Whisky. I even interviewed a band or two in the front patio. But this time we actually entered the bar for a quick photo with the fairly new Lemmy statue. R.I.P. Lemmy and see you in a few months, guys. Hopefully, there will be half as much cool stuff to do as we did on one weeknight.
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