WHO?


WHEN?


WHERE?




WHAT
WENT
DOWN?
 MADONNA
JULY 22nd, 2001
FIRST UNION CENTER
  I'm positive that when I say this, I will end up hurting the feelings of some underdeveloped and overly insecure punk rockers, but who cares... Madonna is more punk rock than Mike Ness. This is THE best show that I have ever seen in my life.

    Scene 1: The Show Starts. Her back up singers & band (clad in bondage gear & mohawks) rise from beneath the stage, flipping off the crowd and take their stations on stage. Madonna ascends as well,  off a high platform, and does a few numbers, several of which she played guitar on. There are huge monitors on the sides of the stage that show video throughout the whole show. After the first few songs are completed she says "Fuck Off Motherfuckers!" and the first part is completed.

    Scene 2: Begins a set with Dancers and Miss Madonna clad in a geisha style of dress. This was my favorite part of the show. The best of this was the performance of "Nobody's Perfect" (off the new album, "Music) - Just her and one dancer... terribly distressing as he swung a sword above her and at her as she pleads for forgivness.

    Scene 3: The Cowgirl set. Part Glam/Part Rockabilly equals a great Madonna outfit. She did a couple of her newer popular songs in this set. I would like to note that it did highlight her guitarist (who is very fuckin excellent...of coarse) and his very nice boots. I think Deke Dickerson could use a pair like them.

    Scene 4: The Finale. She preformed only a couple older songs, Holiday & La Isla Bonita and closed up with "Music" (the new hit) as tons of gold glitter dropped from the ceiling onto the crowd. And that was it. No encore.
    Perfect. Amazing. Untouchable. It was like a braodway production mixed with a movie and a punk rock show. I'm retract anything negative I have ever said about pop music, and I now endorse it completely as a matter of fact. Athough I was unfamiliar with all but a few songs, I liked all it as though I've heard them a million times. I am now on a mission to get all the stuff I don't have (all the newer stuff mainly). I even liked the people who were at the concert, all however many thousand there were.

    I really can't explain anymore about this show than I tried. Unless you saw this for yourself, there's no way you could understand the power that this show had over my whole body, mind and emotions. I'm not really sure why I even tried to review this or explain it. It's kind of like a dream. I feel as though I've had a supernatural experience that has expanded my mind, but the villagers will never understand, so they dub me as a witch and have me burned at the stake for it.
WHO?


WHEN?


WHERE?




WHAT
WENT
DOWN?
 THE WHITE STRIPES/
THE VON BONDIES/
THE HI-FREQUENCIES
JUNE 15th, 2001
The 31st Street Pub,
Pittsburgh, PA
WISH I WOULD'VE BROUGHT A CAMERA. THIS IS A PIC OF THE HI-FREQUENCIES FROM THEIR SITE.
  You may remember I said earlier on that the place "was not packed...yet" but it was pretty sticky in there, either because humidity & a lot of bodies squished up front for The White Stripes or because there was alot of damp panties (probably my own mainly - due to too much rock n' roll energy in the room.) But yeah, it was a full room at the Pub...back to the story. There were all these people there last night I had never ever seen before and out of pure ignorance, I assumed they were with The White Stripes. If there were 2 people there unknown to me, yes it would've been them. How weird. Actually couldn't see them for the most part of their set and hearing such powerful riffs in the back of the club, led me to believe there were like 5 people in this group, but to my amazement when I stepped up a bit closer on a returning trip from the ladies room, and I honestly still wasn't positive til I asked someone, I saw that there were only 2 people on stage - a guy playing some of the ballsyest guitar licks ever to fill the Pub with sound and a girl drummer that regardless of gender is what every band wishes they could have. No wonder Joel said what he said about them. There are bands with 6 people in them that can't even produce that kind of sound. God bless this band for rockin' so much!
   To wrap this up, some of you may know (or not know), that I am an extremely harsh critic of female musicians - not out of cattiness, but because they are usually all gimmick - no rock. I suppose it's not their fault that they weren't born with the balls to drive such a monster as the rock n' roll, however, some have been able to leap that great hurdle and at least fake like they do for a 40 minute set - and that was what it was all about last night. Three bands: Hi-Frequencies (1 bass player), Von Bondies (1 bass player, 1 guitarist), White Stripes (1 drummer) - impressive you can have so much pussy without being one. (Apologies to the girls in these groups for the crude statement but it's true.) Once again, damn impressive.
   I would also like to note, in closing that those bands have the tallest fans I have ever seen in my life. I am 5'3" - so you can see the problem here, or maybe I'm too short so you can't - I dunno...
   Stay tuned for more of these bands here in the upcoming months and shit.
                                     - Daisy Milford
  Joel (owner of the 31st Street) told me on Thursday that I should come down and check out this band The White Stripes. He said something to the effect of "they're the hottest thing in America". I felt like a complete jackass, seeing as I am doing this zine, because I had never heard of this group previously. So I told Tommy Timebomb, that we probably shouldn't miss this one to which he replied, "Oh yeah, I heard they are really good". Nothing irritates me more than went he happens to know of a band I don't, so I quickly threw in that The Von Bondies were playing (who I heard of in a conversation with Twistin' Tarantulas' bassist Pistol Pete) as well as The Hi-Frequencies (who I saw about 2 years ago, but Tommy has never in his lifetime seen). Joel also said that they packed the house last time, so we left a tad earlier for better parking. We got there a few minutes before The Hi- Frequencies went on and although it was busy, not packed...yet.
   Now, for the show...The Hi-Frequencies started us off with a set of their upbeat poppy/surfy stuff. It's not like I have been avoiding seeing them play for 2 years but I just haven't been to any of their shows since then, and once again I feel like a jackass. They really impressed me. I kinda wish they would've done more of the lyric based songs and less of the instrumentals, but I guess it didn't really hurt them either, I just thought that the 60's pop tunes were just a bit cooler - I don't see much of that stuff, and I thought they did what they did well. I'll definitly go check these kids out again soon. One thing I noted about this band is how unbelievably sweet they seemed as people in general, has nothing to do with their music, they just seem like really friendly people. Anyhow, on to The "Fabulous" Von Bondies...
   The Von Bondies...you are now seeing the first of them here on the Truckstop but when they get off tour I'll make sure everyone gets a bigger glimpse of these guys (& girls) - they have an interesting story but I can't tell it all right now. They kinda reminded me of a more sludgey MC5 releasing a tension headache - a mighty good band in my opinion, and from the things I heard other people saying, they quite agree that these guys rawk ass. If I were gonna start a band, I would want it to be this one (now I can't because they already did it, and better than I ever could). Absolute dynamite garage punk, plus they are just too cool looking. I picked up a recording by them (it will be included in our Review-O-Rama update). No matter how retarded you are about music, this is a band that I think is a good definer of the term rock and/or roll, you can't really ignore their blatant display of all that is or can be rawk ass.
WHO?


WHEN?


WHERE?




WHAT
WENT
DOWN?
THE SHAKEDOWNS/
THE BRAIN INVADERS
MAY 19th, 2001
The 31st Street Pub,
Pittsburgh, PA
First things first people, I did it, and just so you know, it is not taboo to tip the door guy at a bar. Feel bad for them, they never get experience a great show the way we do. On to the show...
   The Brain Invaders played first. Aside from some technical difficulties, they played pretty damn well I thought. Those guys take the rock n roll seriously, and they let you know it, one thing I really admire about those boys. The only thing I felt was a little bit of a problem last night was that it may have been a bit bass heavy at times, covering up Matt's guitar a tad too much. Just so you know, Matt's a way kick ass guitarist and so thats why it sucks when you can't hear him too well.
   Then...Bam! The Shakedowns start their set! @#*&#*&!!!!! When I got their cd in the mail, I knew they were a really cool fuckin band and all, but Jesus H Christ! From what I heard on the cd, I thought they were gonna be more like The Crumb's "Low & Behold"  album (bluesy-punk) - which is great, I mean their cd is pretty hard to discribe, so that was pretty general. What I saw last night, was pretty easy to discribe though. It was fuckin bad ass! The Shakedowns just ripped through that muthafuckin' set - they way a band should. You could tell those guys set out to impress the audience, and that they did (and the way it should be for every band). I mean these guys are really cool, really, really cool. They are in Lou-cifer's words, "a band that would be damn hard to follow!" At one point during their set last night I actually got a panic attack, if that tells you anything.
THE SHAKEDOWNS
(www.shakedowns.com)
Those boys really know how to use a stage, and I think that's the reason they build those fuckin things in the first place ain't it - So that the entertainer has his throne on which to rule you? The music... some of the best punk I've heard in forever. The stage show...knocked me on my ass. They are doing a US tour here very soon, make sure you see them...up your standards a bit.
    Great show, 2 great bands. Hehe...I feel bad for everyone who missed this one!
                               -Daisy Milford
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