Things started off as planned. We went to Lucky’s. So far, so good. As we walked up to the bar, the members of Monkey Blood were outside having a pow-wow. We stopped to say hi and I suddenly realized that I knew one of their band members from probably 20 years ago. Some of you old-schoolers might remember a band called Eliminator. One of their guitarists’ name was Steve Yates (the other was David York). If I remember right, their singer’s name was Rick. Well, standing in front of me was Steve Yates. Surprised the hell out of me.
Can’t believe I still have these pictures (I really had to dig to find them):
Anyway, we left them to their band meeting and went in, grabbed a beer and sat down. Here I have to say one thing about Lucky’s. We got some of the best service we’ve gotten in a bar. By men. They had a waiter (not waitress) and he was great, and even the bartender came out and checked on us regularly. THAT’S what I’m talking about. (Too bad, according to what I’ve heard, Lucky’s is closing. It figures.)
So then the band comes on. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Monkey Blood is made up of three of the members of Skunkweed: Jay Brown (vocals), Dave James (bass) and James Cervantes (drums), plus the aforementioned Steve Yates (guitar) and a guitarist I’m not familiar with - Rick Rodriguez. If you’re not familiar with Skunkweed, their songs are very irreverent, funny, bordering on gross sometimes. Their songs range from country to rock to rap to Scottish/Irish drinking songs and who knows what else!
So, second surprise of the night: Monkey Blood is all about the rock. Their first set started off with a cover of a Skunkweed song, “Long Time Ago” that was originally written for Monkey Blood. Yeah, it kinda confused us, too. Then some STP, Steppenwolf (the rockingest version of “Born to Be Wild” I’ve ever heard), Seven Mary Three, Metallica, Goo Goo Dolls, Bush, Alice in Chains, more Monkey Blood originals (got a demo, you can hear one of their songs now on the jukebox above).
We thought it was all very good and we were ready to follow our plan and spend the rest of the night at BoozeHounds. We told Dave how much we enjoyed it and how we’d come catch them another time when we could stay all night. And (here’s where things went awry) he said, “Yeah, you should...in the last set we play one whole side of Sad Wings of Destiny.” For those of you who don’t know, this is vintage Judas Priest. Their second album and in my opinion, overall their best. There are other songs by Priest I like better, such as “Desert Plains” and “Beyond the Realms of Death,” but this album as a whole I feel was their greatest. I used to, I’m sure, annoy the aforementioned Debbie by playing it over and over, day after day. That said, you can see how this totally threw the plan awry. We had to come back for the last set.
So, we did make it to BoozeHounds for about an hour and caught some Rok Candy, but we didn’t stay as long as we had planned. We also didn’t get to actually watch as much as we wanted to because we got waylaid at the bar by a guy who called himself “Danger Dave” and wanted to show us all his scars (some hellacious ones). But I finally managed to extricate myself from this conversation and find a place to sit and check out Rok Candy. Great job. They played some Eve 6, ZZ Top, STP, Foo Fighters, Audioslave, Lit, Jet, Sublime, and the highlight of the night for me was when guitarist Ernie Cruz went to town on Joe Satriani’s “Crush of Love.” Ernie is a great guitarist and the somewhat subdued crowd up to this point went nuts on this song. Ernie is also a sweetheart and totally understood that I just had to go hear some Sad Wings. And Duke sounded great on vocals - good luck in Iraq, dude. Hopefully we’ll be outta there soon. (Don’t get me started.)
So, back to Lucky’s and some more Monkey Blood. This set really showed the meddle (or should I say metal) of Monkey Blood. Serious old school awesome stuff. Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” and “Flight of Icarus,” Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” and “Fuel,” Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” and, as promised, the first side of Sad Wings of Destiny. If you are familiar with this album, you will know that on the song “Dreamer Deceiver” Rob Halford’s voice gets so high, it’s damn near supersonic, and they pulled it off. Plus the great songs like “Victim of Changes” and “The Ripper.” I was in Heaven. And I wasn’t the only one. They damn near had a mosh pit about to happen. Note to bands who are afraid to play songs that are too heavy...they had people dancing most of the time. Guys and gals alike.
The highlight: a mutual solo between Steve and Rick that started off with Steve playing something that we finally recognized as a metal version of “Silent Night”
and ended up with both of them cutting heads on the dance floor. Between the Satriani at BoozeHounds and this, it was definitely a night for awesome guitar action. I already knew Steve Yates was good, and I was very impressed with Rick Rodriguez...he is a very accomplished guitarist with a habit of just sitting down on the stage and jamming.
I also left with a new appreciation of the versatility of Jay Brown. This guy can sing everything from downhome Texas country to heavy metal. I believe he could pull off just about anything.
So, I don’t know what will become of either band...Rok Candy now that they’re losing their singer, or Monkey Blood if Lucky’s is closing, but if you get a chance to hear either of these bands, my recommendation would be: TAKE IT!