X’D OUT
If you’ve noticed lotsa jocks with ’hawks around town lately, it’s no accident
— The X Games marked the (L.A.) spot this past week. The ultimate merging
of sports and punkesque posing may be more clever marketing ploy than organic
lifestyle event — but for many, it’s just another excuse to party. Bike & board
hordes from around the country gathered for three days of flying, flipping and
spinning — and that was just at the clubs and X Games–sponsored shindigs. We caught
Vapors mag’s mad-packed bash at Cinespace with hip-hoppers
Aceyalone, Zion 1 and E-Swift on Friday, and popped into another
rap-o-rama a few blocks away at mega-promoter BoJesse Christopher’s Metro
night at Concorde, where original crunkster David Banner and hip-hop
violinist Miri Ben Ari performed. (Ben Ari also stroked her strings the
next night at BJ’s Nacional event with The Ying Yang Twins.)
Friday’s set was part of a new live offering at Metro, which Christopher calls
The Jump Off (with artists previewing tunes from the new CDs they release
the following Tuesday), kicked off a week earlier by the very un-crunk she bang-er
Ricky Martin (!). Seen jammin’ at BoJesse’s weekend joints: Transplant
Travis Barker, Surreal beauty Ryan Starr and BMX-er Rick
Thorn.
We got to rockin’ Saturday in the sweltering parking lot at Staples Center, where X-Fest (the outdoor portion of X Games) offered sponsor booths doling out freebies (the Right-Guard came in handy) and a noon set from anti-censorship kings Dead Kennedys, who, shockingly, agreed to do a PG-rated show — well, kinda. “We promised we wouldn’t say any naughty words, but that doesn’t mean you can’t!” said current singer Jeff Penalty (who resembles The O.C.’s Adam Brody more than Jello Biafra), before tearing into a safe but spot-on rant/crowd chant on “Punk Nazis Fuck Off.”
GERMS ON FILM
Speaking of aged punx fronted by young bucks, the wrap party for What We Do Is Secret (the long-awaited Germs biopic) at The Dragonfly Saturday featured a set by original Germs Pat Smear, Don Bolles and Lorna Doom — fronted by actor Shane West (A Walk To Remember, ER), who plays Darby Crash in the movie. Might be hard to imagine the Tigerbeat cover boy as L.A. punk’s most messed-up/misunderstood icon, but consultants on the flick, including Green Day documentarian/Live Freaky! Die Freaky! director John Roecker, say he pulls it off — moves, screams, screwed-up teeth and all. Jamming with the actual band is the ultimate endorsement, anyway — and though it was kinda weird watching a shirtless West spew “Sex Boy” in a Darbyesque wig, his vox were suprisingly good, both with the band and the actors who replaced them midset: Bijou Phillips as Doom on bass, Rick Gonzales on guitar as Smear, and Noah Segan taking over the sticks for Bolles. Rockers Flea, AFI’s Davey Havok and Adam Carson, Eric Erlandson, and actors Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were seen amid the bobbing heads and mini slam (don’t say mosh!) pits. The pic’s in post-production and should hit the film-fest circuit next year.

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