Brett Callwood
Happy 26th Birthday The Smell: Volunteer-run the Smell has been running a “Save the Smell” campaign for a while, certainly pre-dating the pandemic lockdowns. But praises, it’s still here and over the weekend it was celebrating its 26th birthday with a series of shows.
On Friday, the all-ages (and therefore alcohol-free) venue hosted a celebration of ’70s and ’80s L.A. punk and post-punk, and the evening was a start-to-finish joy. Vocalist Dante White Aliano later stated his appreciation for the Smell and the fact that it’s still here, adding that it’s one of the only venues stopping the city falling into a void. We don’t know about that, but we know what he meant.
(Brett Callwood)
A whole bunch of old school L.A. punk talent was assembled on Friday night, starting with the Urinals. “This is our first show since before COVID,” said frontman John Talley-Jones. He’s mistaken — we saw and reviewed the band last April at the Sardine in Pedro. They were great then, and they were great again on Friday (although they omitted the classic “Ack Ack Ack” from the set this time. Oh well, they had enough great music to switch the set around.
Saccharine Trust was next up, fronted by the inimitable Jack Brewer. Formed in 1980, the post-hardcore band was signed to SST and their first two (of three) albums in particular — Surviving You, Always and We Became Snakes — are fondly remembered by followers of the scene. On Friday, they proved that they’ve lost none of their fire even of there is a few more miles on the clock.
Mike Watt (Brett Callwood)
Mike Watt & the Missingmen always put on a great show. In fact, Watt has always made it his business to put on a good show whether he’s playing with the Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Secondmen, dos, or indeed the Stooges (we’ve probably missed a few bands). On Friday he and his bandmates opened with the Stooges’ “Funhouse” and never let up from there with a set of jammy, psych jam-punk. Magnificent.
Suburban John (Brett Callwood)
Suburban John featured former members of Suburban Lawns, the Long Beach post-punk band who put out a beloved self-titled album in 1981. This latest incarnation rolled back the years.
The evening was concluded by the Spiders From SARS, who had one guest vocalist after another jump on stage and celebrate the glory years of L.A. punk with them. That included Dante White Aliano singing the Gun Club and Black Randy, Paloma Parfrey and Inez Parra pulling out a tune by Paisley Underground bad Opal, Andrew Jeffords doing the Screamers, Drew Trap Girl singing the Germs, with Don Bolles actually playing drums, and all of the Linda Lindas playing the Gears and the Brat.
Both the Smell and L.A. punk deserves all of the celebrating on offer, and on Friday there was a lot on offer.
Happy 26th Birthday The Smell: Visit the smell.org for more info.
Drew Trap Girl (Brett Callwood)
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