THE RANDIES
PUNK ROCK KARAOKE
ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES
March 12, 2005 @ the Troubadour (West Hollywood, CA)
Photos and text by Todd Markel

They've been called a punk-rock supergroup, the greatest cover band in the world, and one of the sloppiest bands in the world. I could only be talking about one band: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. With a punk-rock pedigree that reads like a who's who of the genre, the group features members of NOFX, Lagwagon, and Swingin' Utters; and, for this tour, Brian Baker of Bad Religion filling in for Chris Shiflett (who was off recording with his other band, Foo Fighters). This show was a rare, sold-out appearance of the Gimmes, who haven't played in L.A. (other than an appearance on THE JIMMY KIMMEL SHOW and at Jonny Wixen's Bar Mitzvah) since 2001.

The doors didn't open until 9:00 p.m., and the first band to go on (at 9:30) was the Los Angeles girl band The Randies. Featuring three women and a guy on drums, they are in the midst of a self-proclaimed perpetual "tour of L.A." and have a new CD out called AT THE FRIENDSHIP MOTOR INN. They have a retro-rockabilly look and an upbeat, poppy punk-rock sound. They're a little reminiscent of early The Go-Go's or The Bangles. They started their set with a catchy song called "Threadbare" and played a song that seemed to be singing the praises of Kevin Bacon. They finished their set with a tune called "Boys in Stereo"-probably not a moment too soon, as the crowd was ready for the punk-rock extravaganza that was to follow.

With both the headliners and the next band, Punk Rock Karaoke, being all-star punk bands, anticipation was running high. PRK is made up of Eric Melvin of NOFX, Steve Soto of many legendary punk bands (including The Adolescents), Greg Hetson of Bad Religion and Circle Jerks, and drummer Derek O'Brien (formally of Social Distortion and D.I.). Their motto is: "We play, you sing." Master of ceremonies was Eric Melvin, who kept things moving along. Prospective singers had to sign up at the merchandise booth, where they had a list of songs to choose from. Lyrics were provided, and you were all set to be a rock star. First up was a girl named Ramona and her friend, who sang The Runaways hit "Cherry Bomb". PRK was being taped for an upcoming Kung Fu Records DVD, and everybody who was anybody got in on the act. Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba (with his broken arm in a cast) tore up the stage with The Adolescents' "Creatures". Crowd-favorite Joey Cape of Lagwagon came out and sang Descendents' "Bikeage". Fat Mike got on stage bare-chested and drinking a can of Guinness, which he then poured on Eric Melvin's head at the end of his song. NOFX's stage crew even took their turns at the mic: Kent got up and sang Fear's "I Love Living in the City", while Timmy the Turtle started his song by kicking the mic stand across the stage, almost taking out a cameraman in the process. Shawn Stern of BYO Records and Youth Brigade fame was sidestage cheering on the proceedings and providing encouragement.

The lights went down, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes took the stage in matching red-and-white Hawaiian shirts and sparkling custom guitars. Joey Cape had the honor of playing the opening notes to that classic-rock radio staple, "Stairway to Heaven". With fans yelling "Joey, you suck!" he started and stopped four times, before the band finally joined in and played a version that would have curled Robert Plant's chest hair. The set list was a nice mix of songs from all five of their CDs, including their cover of REO Speedwagon's "Take It on the Run" (which is on their latest CD, RUIN JONNY'S BAR MITZVAH). They played their tongue-in-cheek rendition of "End of the Road", with Joey playing the part of the surfer dude with his line, "Remember that time we drank that 12er? / We were so wasted we passed out." About halfway through their show, Mike announces that they were going to take a short break to do a "costume change." They reappeared in different matching Hawaiian shirts, and the hits just kept coming.

The second half of the show began with John Denver's "Country Roads", and then they played one of my favorites, R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly"-which is really a whole lot more inspirational than the original version. "Come Sail Away" was introduced by saying, "Most of you probably know this song from SOUTH PARK." "Tomorrow" from ANNIE was introduced as "probably one of the gayest songs ever written-which is fitting, since we are in West Hollywood." They took a special request to play "Sloop John B" from soundman Kent, then had a big finish with Elton John's "Rocket Man", which had the whole crowd singing along: "I think it's gonna be a long long time...." And it probably will be a long long time before we see Me First and the Gimme Gimmes do another tour-though I hope not.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes | The Troubadour West Hollywood California | 12.03.2005

Support: Punk Rock Karoke, The Randies

I couldn't wait to see the world's best punk rock cover band (and the world's only punk rock cover band). I arrived at the venue about 40 minutes before the doors opened and low and behold I see Joey Cape stumbling out of the Gimmes tour bus. I talked to him for a few minutes. It was around 9pm and he said he was still waking up. He told me that he was getting food and on his way back to the bus he had a shitload of food. He was probably the odd man out and had to get food for everyone.

Anyways the doors opened at the lovely Troubadour and the first band that came on were The Randies. They were an energetic girl band (with the exception of the drummer). They were happy to be playing this show and kept on thanking Fat Mike for hooking them up with the opening slot. Their music sounded solid but unfortunately the crowd was not into except for a few fans. The Next band up was Punk Rock Karoke. Punk Rock Karoke is a unique band where the fans come onto the stage and sing and the band plays. Punk Rock Karoke consists of Eric Melvin (NOFX), Greg Hetson (Bad Religion), Steve Soto (Adolescents, Agent Orange) and Derek Obrien (Social Distortion, DI). PRK was filming the show for a DVD. The singers on stage were ok for the most part. I recognized most of the songs ranging from Bad Religion's "Fuck Armageddon This is Hell" to Black Flag's "Gimme Gimme Gimme" to Fear's "I love Living in the City." The standout singers were Spike Slawson, Fat Mike, Joey Cape and Timmy (the turtle). Eric Melvin kept of announcing to the crowd, "We're Punk Rock Karoke, we play you sing come on up for a good time." He must have said it 10 times on stage, he was drunk along with the rest of the Troubadour. During PRK's set I was talking to Fat Mike for a bit about the usual stuff such as touring, music and beer.

Finally Me First and the Gimme Gimmes came onstage with their usual matching attire around 11:30. Brian Baker (Bad Religion, Minor Threat) was filling in for Chris Shifflet. Chris is currently recording a new Foo Fighters album. It was great to see these guys. They played 16 songs from all of their "great" albums. Spike kept telling the crowd how overrated original music is. The crowd was into every song and people started dancing with the band on stage and would stage dive off. This 400 pound guy jumped off the stage and took out 3 or 4 people. Fat Mike said that the song "Rainbow" will be featured on Showtime's "Queer as Folk" season finale. It was fun to watch all of these guys play together on stage.

The Gimmes set list included:
Rainbow
Jet Plane
Take It On The Run
Summer Time
Nobody Does It Better
I Believe I Can Fly
All My Lovin
Wild World
Danny's Song
Country Roads
Mandy
Tomorrow
Come Sail Away
Argentina
and ended with Rocketman

During the song "End of The Road," Joey even said his patented "Hey Babe, remember when we drank that twelver, we were so wasted we past out, I got that gnarly sunburn, it was so ghetto..."
This show kicked ass. For a bunch of aging punks, The Gimmes always know how to put on a great show. They sounded just like the albums. I mean come on, how hard is it to play covers? Fat Mike and Joey Cape kept yapping on about everything. Spike's voice was good except for a few slip ups due to all the booze.

Me First And The Gimme Gimmes
With The Randies and Punk Rock Karaoke
March 12, 2005 - The Troubador - Los Angeles, CA

One simply can’t ask for a better way to spend a Saturday night than to see Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. One could ask, however, for a better way to spend time before the Gimmes take the stage.

Kicking things off for the evening were The Randies. I never thought I’d live to see a out-suck Damone, but sure enough, the Randies did pull it off. Between the really ugly guitarist playing with her mouth open like she was having an orgasm and playing atrocious music, including “a song about equal opportunity fucking” (yes, that was how they described one of their songs), it was simply the biggest waste of thirty minutes in my life. I offer this advice to any and all aspiring girl-groups like the Randies, music matters more than how slutty you can look on stage.

To put how bad the Randies were in perspective, the first round of Punk Rock Karaoke was done by two gals who simply outperformed the openers. For those of you unfamiliar with PRK, anyone in the audience can sign up on a list of songs to sing on stage with such musicians as Erik Melvin of NoFX and Greg Hetson of Bad Religion. You read right, two girls from the audience did a better job than the opening band. All in all, this was a really great thing to have at a Gimmes show. Between fifteen or so fans being able to sing on stage, and Gimmes Joey, Fat Mike, and Spike getting in on the fun, it was the perfect lead-in to the headliner. The set list was comprised of early-80’s songs by such legends as Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, etc. The kids who got up and sang actually did a good job with the material. The only complaint was that it lasted about fifteen minutes too long, as a couple of people got to do more than one song.

And now to the Gimmes. If you’ve heard their live album ”Ruin Johnny’s Bar Mitzvah”, you’ve got a pretty good idea as to what to expect. Fun music, amusing banter (for the most part, Fat Mike just needs to shut up), and three hundred people singing along to “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. The Gimmes even did a good job mixing up the songs they played. No one album was represented more than another, which is a great thing since Are A Drag has easily as many awesome songs as the live album. All in all, the Gimmes made a fun night of it, even making sure that the 400 pound stage diver was OK after the crowd got out of the way of his dive. I just wish I could get a refund for the time that The Randies played.