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Concert Review
Neon Hates You Jr. 12
Weirdo Begeirdo, Body, Whitman
At The Smell in Los Angeles
November 18, 2004
I was deep in a sports journalism fantasy last night. I'd imagined the hard-nosed, soft-hearted editors at Fran throwing me the Weirdo Begeirdo story, trusting I’d have 500 brilliant words for the Friday evening edition of their website. So I went to the show to do my job and I was diligent; I brought two pens and a piece of scratch paper to aid my Coors-sodden memory. I took some notes, spoke with band members, rolled up my shirtsleeves, glad-handed and asked the hard questions. Then I went home early and sat down to write. I pounded out some copy and went to sleep feeling like a young Mitch Albom. (From before he talked to dead people.) “From a dank, fetid alley in Downtown Los Angeles, a rag-tag bunch of underdogs, united by beat, some toy instruments, hollering, joy and Hives-ish outfits, rose beyond the sum of their parts to become what it seems they were born to …”
As is the wont of a fantasy, this one faded. While reading the copy this morning I went into a mild panic and erased everything. For reasons not worth getting into, I feel pressured to produce beyond my ability. I know I can’t really do the show justice by describing it, so I think I’ll just say it was good, better than I’d expected. Weirdo Begeirdo makes me smile for a number of reasons, and now, foremost because of their music. I’m including my notes to give you a more detailed picture of the show and because I don’t want to waste an honest attempt at good journalism. I’ll offer some explanation (down below) when it seems necessary and if I can remember what I’d intended. (I hope you can read the notes, I've the handwriting of a one-winged chicken.):
1) Whitman is this dude named Chris. He’s 19 and from Riverside. His music is really noisy and wild. Whitman's sound reminds me of that spazz from the spelling bee movie, Spellbound. He recently broke into a chicken coop and recorded a song amongst screaming chickens! I don’t know if that’s par for the course in Riverside, but it’s incredible.
2) Does holy energy, manic, spazzy and Swedish seemed like an apt and logical progression to you?
3) Body plays good music for dancing.
4) This is the best dance I’ve seen in a while and it was only helped by the cane she was carrying. She would pretend like she was snorting a three-foot long line of cocaine to the beat!
5) Weirdo Begeirdo is Amanda, Britt, Claire, Meagan and Molly. The last three ladies recently joined and this was their first official show together. They banged on a little drum set, played various little keyboards and a toy xylophone, there was a little bit of guitar and bass and it all came together to make a big, joyous sound. Confetti flew, friends danced and screamed and there was generally a ton of excitement. I don’t want to gush (too late, eh?), but they worked hard, sounded good and deserved all of those screams and more.
6) Have you ever tried to sing the Meow Mix theme song in rounds? It’s difficult. Begeirdo didn’t do this, but they did kind of sing in rounds at one point.
7) Joel Black is the drummer for My Sexual Dad. Go and listen.
8) I’m not telling who this was.
9) Does anyone know if someone has commonly mixed “Sam” and “Jamboree?” I know someone who’d go bonkers over it.
10)”Britt’s a…” I wish I could remember what I was going to put here, probably something like “parade float.”
11) I never asked.
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