Jonny Whiteside's Messaround - 09.18.11

Sunday evening I went to Jonny Whiteside's Messaround at Viva Cantina. The opening band was the Jonny Whiteside Messaround Band, which was basically the house band, at least that is how a couple members of the band described themselves to me. The played a great mostly blues set, but there was some rock and roll thrown in there as well. They were a real pleasant surprise because I went to the show to see my son's band and The Gears and wasn't expecting Blues. It was a nice way to ease into the evening.

Next up was my son's band Lock/Jaw. They did really well. They also attracted a nice contingency of kids in the audience, which it sounded like was something different for this kind of show. Jonny Whiteside himself seemed to appreciate the young energy in the room.

Another cool thing was that Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame was there at the beginning of the night and saw my son's band play. He told my son he liked their set, which was amazing to here. He's basically a living legend in my son's eyes. Okay I'd say in my eyes as well.

After that the eclectic nature of the evening took a left turn with the band Little Faith. They played Spirituals, many of which I'd heard before. They had two men singing on most of the songs. The band's leader was on keyboard. They also had a great fiddle player. For one of the instrumentals they performed she took lead on "How Great Thou Art." I really enjoyed their set.

Following "Little Faith" was my son's friend's band The Peeks. An interesting side note is that my son got the gig through a real random meeting. A few weeks back Burbank was switching out the electric meters. The day a representative came my son was at home. The man who did the work saw some writing on my son's pants or shirt of something and so he knew he was into some old punk bands. The guy ended up being Chip Kinman of The Dils. Anyway, my son being the social butterfly that he is strikes up a friendship with this guy and then meets his son Giuliano who sings for The Peeks and next thing he knows he's being hooked up to play at this Gears show. When he first found out and told me we both went through the roof. We both absolutely love The Gears. I have their record on vinyl and on CD.

So The Peeks rocked the house. One of their last songs was "White Lightening" and Chip was invited up on stage to help on vocals. You can see him in one of the photos with the glasses. The song ripped and it was great to see father and son having such a great time through music.

Then came The Gears. They may be getting on in years, but they still have got the stuck. Axxel G. Reese and Kid Spike were there from the original line up. The drummer was definitely a younger guy and I'm not sure if it was Brian Redz on bass or not. They had plenty of punk rock swagger and they seemed to really enjoy having the young kids at their show. Most of the time there was a small mosh pit. I say small because the show was in a Mexican restaurant so there wasn't a ton of room, but the kids made use of the space they had. During "Don't Be Afraid To Pogo" it was great to see the usual moshing transform into some old school Pogo-ing.

While The Gears played I noticed that in the back of the room Jonny Whiteside had his son with him and he was rocking out. For the last number he brought his son up to the dance floor my son actually put him on his shoulders and the kid had a great time. At one point Axxel put the microphone up to him so he could sing along. So there was fun to be had for young and old.

So overall I had a great time and on top of everything else the show was free. How can you beat that? Featured here are photos of all the acts. More photos are in my flickr set for the night. You can check them out here.