The tour began May 9th in NYC, I met them on day 12 in Lawrence, Kansas.
Lawrence, KS-Replay Lounge
I drove down from Mpls solo to meet the band, a long seven hour trip featuring counting dead Bambis and Ranger Ricks, and singing along to the awful radio. I found the club no problem and right on cue, I spot Chovie and TB cruising the street. After giving a street bum twenty cents and a get lost stare, it was time to get the party started. We catch up on the road stories, some good(meeting great people), and bad(some weak shows and lame turn-outs). I’m particularly psyched for this show, we are playing with Jumbo’s Kill Crane, friends of mine and true gentleman of hard rocking.
The Replay lounge is a cool “vintage” arcade with pinball machines et al, and adjacent to the bar, another outdoor area with picnic tables and in the center, a metal device with a heating element for comfort(kind of a toaster-oven tree). Kung Pao set up in front of the machines, I’m leery of the speakers on sticks sound system, but it sounded pretty decent considering the smallish room. There was a nice turn-out, I’d say about thirty folks, not bad(graduation was two days previous). Our boys wailed through their set, concentrating mainly on new material from the new cd, Sheboygan, and some faves from the first, Bogota. Oh yeah, ATP and Orange Goblin were playing in KC, a short ways away, so were happy with the folks who showed. It’s always interesting to me to see the crowd reactions to Kung Pao, they have a look, head to toe denim, cop shades, beer holders on their mic stands, and a unique hard rocking sound that will blow your internal doors down. After the set, people seemed to enjoy and slobbering* ensued(*a term meaning, “you guys rock”). Jumbo’s were next, they have a new bass player and the old bass dude is now on second guitar. This was my third time seeing JKC, and they did not disappoint, they were loud, crude, and very very good. They kind of sound like Nirvana on bad acid and a glass of meth. A great show. After unloading the gear, and loading our brains with smoke, we went to a party close to the club, a large, college type house. We hung until around 7 am, and then crashed at the drummer’s house, thanks Adrian!
Iowa City-Gabe’s Oasis
We arrive at the club, Kung Pao have played there twice previously and we have good friends that work there, Craig and Bronson formerly of Scrid, a great porn/wrestling obsessed punk rawk band we have had the pleasure of seeing many times. Now they have morphed into Kita, look for them on the road soon. I heard the demo, cool Cowish punk with a heavy vibe, keep your eyes out for these men. Also at the show was John of Burnout another great band and a loyal friend. We were excited to play with Fame, old comrades and a fucking fantastic band, unfortunately they canceled, River(lead guitarist) hurt his finger hauling an amp, it blew out like an over-cooked brat, bummer. The KP set was high energy and pounding, people screaming out for songs of old and it’s always cool to hear people who know the lyrics by heart. After the show, we partied at the Scrid house and had many hearty guffaws. Craig cooked us a huge breakfast that was quite tasty, but whatever was in it made me shit green for a day and a half, thanks Craig.
Champaign-High Dive
Another show in a college town that graduation beat us by a few days, I think it curtailed the draw. First up was Terminus Victor, a two-piece with a drum machine(don’t worry, they were good). Then Lost Goat blasted a great set of bluesy-trance-rock with an edge. Very nice people, let me repeat for everyone, Lost Goat are awesome. Last but not least, Tummler, I’ve heard a lot of buzz ‘bout these guys. They were heavy, and they had hooks, rare these days. A fun and rocking show, I recommend Tummler to all. After the show, we partied at the Tummler estate and since I was not driving, I poured beer down my throat like a mad man. You can lead a Jeff to beer, and he WILL drink. I also had a little too much of the, “wink wink, nudge nudge”, and promptly passed out on the couch.
Chicago-Prodigal Son
We are always amped when we play the windy city, but this show was one of those good news/bad news scenarios: Also that night was the ATP/Orange Goblin/Tummler show, so the draw was very small and we had to play first. The good news, the club had the best beer selection for snobs I’ve ever seen, delicious-sweet-high-alcohol-content- beer-dit-a-li-eer. We drank them dry and crushed their heads.
Minneapolis-Big V’s
My home sweet home! I set this show up and I was actually nervous before the gig. Thankfully many old and new friends came and it was a huge success. The aforementioned Fame played first, River’s finger not withstanding. These kids threw down a earache inducing show, that rumbled my innards, and my jaw just plain dropped. I really like Fame, hard rock with a double wah-wah attack that is fresh and heavy with layers of sound to get lost in. Fame, I bow to thee. Next was my buddy’s band, Howlin Andy Hound, very cool dude and his band’s sound is a mixture of punk-garage-metal-rock, no matter how one slices it , they wail. Headlining and headbanging, KP put on the best performance to date, they were having a ball and it showed. Actual applause was audible and everyone had a great time. We all went to my humble abode and partied and slobbered on each other, ah good times, good times.
Lansing-Mac’s
After last night’s show, it was tough to get up after nearly twenty minutes of sleep. We packed up and drove a grueling eleven hours. Please note, Davey D drove the entire way, (the D stands for Daring, or maybe Driver, or maybe Danger), regardless he was our hero, and he is in the hall o fame for sure. We got a crack hotel, you know, wafer thin pillows with stains on them, unknown dried goo on the walls that Quincy would never have identified, and what appeared to be an illegal bidness transpiring one level above. We get to the club and meet with our new friends Diegrinder and Dixie Witch. I missed most of Diegrinder’s set, but got a cd and I like it. Dixie Witch were very good and although I was running on fumes, I managed to tap my foot and bob my head to the masters of Southern power-rock. KP’s set was fair considering the unholy drive we just completed, but that’s the deal on the road and the band sucked it up and did their best. We went back to the crack hotel with one tiny towel and no toilet paper and crashed hard.
Emissions form the Monolith-Youngstown
Yee-fricken-ha, finally the most anticipated show of the tour. KP have played each of the previous festivals, but this time the slot was primo, and the line-up top notch. I was bummed I missed so many great bands from the earlier days, and I heard there were many stand-outs including my new favorite band, Rebreather. We set up the grill and made Filet Buckaroos, featured on the cover of “Sheboygan”, flank steak rolled around a pickle with mustard, yummy! Many brats were also consumed and there was a cool campfire vibe, with friends hanging and much slobbering. I went into the club and Lost Goat were on, more good stuff from our friends, not your typical stoner material but solid hard rock. Then Tummler slayed once again, I predict big things for these guys. Then Kung Pao took the stage, I had what I call, rock and roll goosebumbs, the feeling one gets when the universal flow of music and emotion are too much for the body. This was the most people I’ve ever seen at a KP show and it was great, the crowd really seemed to enjoy them and there were many smiles and headbanging. They played two stand-outs from “Bogota”, and the greats from “Sheboygan”. I felt very good and set up my merch table with a few added goodies, Denim aftershave, for 50 cents a splash and the Denim bible, an actual Denim covered “good book” open to anyone who wished to find out what that dude would do.
Kung Pao
Live at Emissions from the Monolith IV
(Click photos for larger versions)
Next up was Bottom, wow, they are better and harder than ever, they always shred live. I missed most of Milligram but I heard they were righteous. My fave was the JJ Paradise Players Club, first time I ever saw them and I’ve been listening to their new cd so much, it’s scary. A grand set, these guys are great live and the cd smokes. I was very happy!
ATP really packed in the throng and put on an energetic and loud show. Orange Goblin were fun and an excellent capper to the festival.
I mingled and met many many great people, the list is long: The Underdogma boys and Glenn from Tangerine magazine, a cool guy from a record store in Toledo, Rebreather’s Chad and Jeremy, my homies from Mpls(Tperk, Brett, Zara,Jason), I chatted up Tim Moss of Porn, the Bottom girls, Dixie Witch’s merch girl(thanks for watching while I rocked), a nice dude who has video of KP’s previous Emissions, Greg Barratt the svengali of the whole shebang, a nice gentleman who deserves a godzilla sized slobber!
After the show we all went to our hotel room at the Tally-ho, where I met the guys in Lamont, and JJ’s and I spoke briefly with Billy Anderson of Porn, and all the others who had rocked that night. It was fun to hang!
The whole Monolith action was absolutely amazing and the thing that struck me the most was the lack of sleazy industry types, this was all about great bands and great fans who just want to ROCK and play and enjoy music for all the right reasons. Now the real adventure, how to get home. I’d met MadJohnShaft (SR.com member) at the show and he was gracious enough to invite me along in the Van of Doom back to Chicago. I was pleasantly suprised to meet El Danno, head honcho of SR.com, and other frequent posters, Piss on my face, Sapling and Sativa, and Randolfio from the SR.com store whom I met at the last Emissions show in Chicago whilst he was in Porn. Wow what a group, I crammed into the back of the van and crashed hard, waking up in Toledo, then whammo, Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Then Sweet Heather entered my life and hooked me up with a ticket back home. What total luck! Sweet Heather, I kiss your feet, and thank you from the bottom of my ravaged heart.
Postscript: Look for Kung Pao to smack up the West coast in the future, hopefully I’ll come along, please introduce yourself and say hello. There is a strong possibility that there will be a limited number of video’s of past KP Emissions performances plus a bootleg cd of this year’s show. Anyone who is interested, let me know. Thanks to all the great people I met, hope to rock with you soon...
Jeff Kupferberg/Maduro Records
www.madurorecords.com
