[ Music Index | Metro | Metroactive Central | Archives ]

Beat Street
By Todd S. Inoue

Pass the Peace: How I spent my Christmas break WHILE VISITING the in-laws up in Redding, I heard of a Hi-Fives show in nearby Shasta. I was stoked. The new Lookout! album, The Hi-Fives and a Whole Lotta You!, is available, and it's wicked. And a good Hi-Fives shows would make a lovely diversion from the annual holiday pilgrimage in rainy Redding. The List on the Internet had some nonexistent address for the show, so I immediately cased the town looking for clues--fliers, posters, coffeehouse workers. No such underground network exists in Redding, where classic rock rules. So my brother-in-law and I headed off for the tiny town of Shasta and hunted for tell-tale signs of a show: stickered vans and geeky punk-rock kids hanging out. Around 8:30pm, we were excited to find both on a muddy, unpaved road. Bingo. Folks were loading gear either in or out of a small-town playhouse called the Old School Hall. "When are you going to let people in?" I asked. "Huh? The show's over. It started at 4pm!" The day wasn't a total loss, however; I was able to jaw with vocalist John Denery, who mentioned that the Hi-Fives were on a nine-date tour of the Pacific coast (the band plays the Usual on Jan. 16 with the Odd Numbers and Crack). The Shasta gig was a stopover on the way to Portland. About 100 people showed up at Shasta, and the band members got a place to stay and a fat, home-cooked meal. So bands, don't sleep on Northern Cali. And remember to print start times and more explicit directions when submitting shows to the List! Chapter 11 Also on the Hi-Fives beat, a new Los Gatos band called Chapter 11 sent me its self-titled CD, and it's a reasonable facsimile, with maximum-R&B, groove-based bass and drums. The vocals are the sole sore spot. There's just not enough presence to match the musical mood--like a marketing executive reciting quatrains about love. The music is all there, though. Nice work, fellas. Walking in a Ticketweb Sick of forking over mad cash for BASS? Now there's a new way of to skip the maddening fees. Point the Web browser to www.ticketweb.com to get plugged into concert venues like Agenda, the Maritime, Trocadero, Slim's and many more. There's still a service charge, but it's smaller--around $1.50 an order compared to the $2­$3.50 that BASS charges. Ticketweb issues confirmation codes to the payee and faxes the venue with a guest list the day of the show. The company is hoping to expand to museums, sporting events and BGP-associated venues. "It should attract people who are cyber-saavy," says Ticketweb's Candace Locklear. "We were hearing from all sorts of frustrated ticket buyers and jumped in. It's really taking effect." What the Hell? Got to get something off my chest. I was really disappointed with the Edge for having a trio performing miserable spanking and bondage between acts for a Down's Syndrome benefit concert two weeks ago. I'm no prude, but the lame display insulted many of the gathered attendees, bands and some of the women present. If I so desired, I could pay to see such a spectacle, but to subject the paying customers at a positive event like Rubbergroove was in exceptionally bad taste. [ Metro | Metroactive Central | Archives ]