Tiger Army...

...never dies!! Friday night...in a season right for psychobilly...graveyards, skulls, bats and gouls...i rocked out to Tiger Army for the first time live. I encouraged a young friend who's never been to a punk show to join me. He's listend to them of course before and enjoyed the fast beats and slappin bass. We headed over to the Wiltern Theatre in Hollywood where we joined a bunch of other anxious kids, mostly dressed in tight black tees, 50s style slicked hair, sideburns, girls with fake roses in their hair, rolled jeans and boots. Psychobilly is a rockabilly/goulish punk meld.

well, we all stood and prepared for a thorough rockin. When Nick 13 and the crew came on stage thus began a raucus psycho session. I wasn't disappointed. We were off to the side of the stage at first and then i motioned towards the center (you can't hear anything anyone else is saying of course) and we squeezed through packed punks to get to the eye of the storm...the mosh pit.

We stayed to the outside of the pit for the rest of the evening (in my opinion the perfect place to be. Enough space to dance (even though you may get creamed by someone who breaks the circle now and then), a good view of the stage...we bounced around, jumped up and down there for a solid two hours. At one point Tiger Army started playing some of their older stuff and the pit was a riot...i mean, more than usual...and i literally got pulled into it...only fell over once before some massive dude picked me up and then another grabbed me for a go round....which was awesome... attached to a huge, strong dude to push others out of the way...i can usually hold my ground for a while by myself...key is to just move round the circle fast using momentum to barrel into people ( i'm sure this information will be very useful to all my readers) but when your head comes up to most of the dudes' shoulders, you're at a bit of a disadvantage. plus the fact that with my short hair i look like a 13 year old boy who's trying to act tough which doesn't help my cause. but after one go round the guy who was pulling me along just pushed me away and said "dude...you're on your own now!" thanks. let's just say i'm still sore from that night (big fat dude literally falling into me and then on top of me was the kicker). i kept checking on dylan to make sure he still had a smile on his face and wasn't pleading for escape...but the smile remained that whole show. when you're all sweaty and amped up...nothing matters but the energy (see it's all in good fun you see...really it is...note that i was immediately picked up upon hitting the floor) and the music flowing all around you. the connection you get with those kids rivals any high. they played some of my favorite songs and i'm pretty sure dylan enjoyed the new experience as well. maybe we'll get another smart punk on our side. awesome to finally see 'em live. tiger army, never die!