Presidents of The United States of America
With Ludo, Pleaseeasaur
House of Blues, Anaheim
3/19/08
After the easiest entrance to the House of Blues Anaheim ever encountered, Racket’s Emperor and Patrick surveyed the crowd, an odd mix of blonde pseudo-milfs and kids who have just outgrown their scene-hair. We were just there to see PUSA, as our mid-twenties asses were stoked to finally be able to see them sing Lump. We were so stoked on the song when we were in middle school, and in a desperate attempt to regain some nostalgia, we heard that The Presidents of the United States of America were playing, we started screaming the lyrics of Peaches and got our asses in gear.
We get inside and start poking around, realizing that we didn’t even bother to see who was opening, which turned out to be Pleaseeasaur (sucks) and Ludo (rules.) Pleaseasaur is, well, fuck, i don’t even know how to describe it, but it fucking sucked. In the words of the bartender who can’t pour a Guinness to save his life, “This guy is definitely in the top five worst things I’ve seen here.” That’s from a dude who works at the House of Blues. Also, get the can and cup and pour the Guinness your fucking self. This asshat, Pleaseeasaur, not the bartender, is by himself, flanked by two sheets with the 6th grade projectors. All you need to know is don’t see this shit, ever.
“Smell bad!” “Rocks friends.” Ludo was the shit in Labyrinth, and to be honest, I wouldn’t have heard of them except for driving back from a delicious dinner and hearing them on the radio. The song was catchy enough, so we were kind of looking forward to it, and, well, they didn’t disappoint. Now, to me, these guys came out of nowhere. I’ve never heard of them before, never seen ’em and was ready to make fun of them. Fuck me, they rocked my face. I don’t know the song names, but one was said to be about a zombie, and that’s good enough with us. Singer/guitarist Andrew Volpe was a showman through and through. While I wasn’t quite that comfortable with all the pelvic thrusts shot my way, it was proof that there are people who still write music for good times. No reverse mullets, no eyeliner, just 5 dudes rocking out and having a damned good time doing it. Fantastic show, fellas.
On to to PUSA! Now, I’m not going to lie, I thought this was going to be a quick jog down memory lane, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that these fellas knew how to rock out for an extended period of time. PUSA was the epitome of 90’s alternative rock, happy music to sing along to that you really had no idea about. Old men on porches, blue dune buggies and a gas-covered butterfly. I don’t really know what they are about, but I was jamming out. While I was taking some pics, I realized something, the bass and guitar each only had half their fucking strings. Seriously, strings 2 and 3 on the bass, and 3-5 on the guitar. What the fuck? Sounded great, though.
They had a new-old-new-old set list, hitting up both Lump and Peaches, as well as their new single Mixed Up Son Of A Bitch, which, by the way, had it’s video directed by “Weird” Al Yankovic. I guess they were down with the Lump parody, Gump. So, they’re still running around, so go check it out, buy their CD, do whatever. I’m going to watch Iron Chef.
– Photo/review by Jonathan “The Emperor” Yost