Showface, Thick Liquid, Gudamunkas
Brick By Brick - Bay Park, San Diego
March 12th 2003
By
Amber Shaffer,
SDAM Staff Writer
©Copyright
2024
SDAM.com/Amber Shaffer
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Usually I enter Brick by Brick assuming I'll have lost the ability to hear
sounds within a certain range by the end of the night, but I never expect I'll
leave minus a few brain cells. But this time the owner of Brick by Brick was
determined to leave me deaf AND dumb. My face scrunched up the second I passed
the door barrier. Not because the music was bad, although there was a very
tone-deaf boy on stage at that moment. What made me want to turn around and walk
right back out were the thick fumes the entire bar was engulfed in. Fresh paint
and plaster anyone? Turns out the women's bathroom was getting a makeover. I
avoid public restrooms like the drunk, snaggle-toothed guy leering at me from
the end of the bar, so I couldn't tell you if the renovation was needed or not,
but they better have been doing something spectacular in there to justify having
a work crew in at 10pm.
Eventually my nose went numb from the smell and my eyes stopped watering which made it a little easier to concentrate on the band performing. As I mentioned, when I walked in I was embarrassed for whoever had been singing. But it turned out that boy was just a drunken friend of the band who had stormed the stage to sing in all his out-of-key glory before he returned to the floor to join the rest of us who actually understand why we live in The World Of Those Who Cannot Sing. Now that Showface had the stage back to themselves, they could get back to their Blink 182/Boxcar Racer homage. This is probably what pop-punk's princes Tom, Mark, and Travis sounded like 15 years ago when they were playing in their parents' garages. But Blink could probably pull more of a crowd into their garage then Showface managed to bring to Brick by Brick. It must be hard to play to an audience the exact same size as your band. Singer and guitarist Steve later told me they usually do all ages shows, where they can pull about 100 fans, but do the beer drinking crowd gigs for experience. To hear Steve talk, Showface was going to be the next big thing to come out of San Diego. And I was the gal who "got to write about them first before they became big." Lucky me. But isn't fame 80% drive, ego, and conviction and 20% talent? They certainly have the 80% covered. It was amusing to listen to members of Showface and their friends make snide comments about the next band, Thick Liquid, during their set. The commentary went something like this: Boy1: "Dude, if THEY can get a record deal…You guys are way better" Boy2: "Yeah, what a joke." Thick Liquid from stage: "This is off our new album, Fallen." Boy1: "Fallen? How original." Ah, good times. It's nice to have a distraction from mediocre music sometimes. And the irony of this particular moment was priceless.
The last band of the night, Gudamunkas, turned out to be surprisingly entertaining. Tas Pappas is the band's founder and front man. He also happens to be a pro-skater with the admirable reputation of being one of a handful of people to ever beat Tony Hawk. But I didn't know any of this until I did my homework after the show. I just enjoyed their sometimes amusing, always catchy lyrics and their energy. Very much a mix of 80s metal and early Chili Peppers. The guitarist was a ham. Must be why he's in show business. With his beanie and his dark bug-eye sunglasses, he looked like a cross between Enrique Iglasias and Lenny Kravitz (if they were white), while his totally bitchin' Flying V guitar brought to mind Mick Mars. Then there were the antics: playing behind his head, behind his back, with his mouth, all while maintaining that 80s metal guitar tone this girl can't get enough of. This was entertainment at it's finest! Or maybe I had lost so many brain cells to the fumes by that point I could no longer distinguish between good, bad, and lame anymore. Thick Liquid's next show is April 12th at Ice-O-Plex and Showface will play SOMA April 17th. I have no clue when Guadamunkas will unleash on an audience again, but their Web site should be finished soon and no doubt will have show dates.
For more info on Thick Liquid, visit their Web site. |
Thick Liquid was actually the reason why I was out subjecting myself to the
fumes rather than dreaming in my comfy bed that night. Last year the band was
named one of America's top 50 unsigned bands by the American Music Awards,
according to the marketing propaganda on their