Issue 6 Contents

 

Local H, Veruca Salt @ Lupo's, 7/25/97

Grunge isn't dead just yet, as both Local H and Veruca Salt manage to prove. It does get repetitive after a while (Veruca Salt) but sometimes it can be fun (Local H).

I interviewed Scott from Local H last year - just before the last Presidential election - and we talked for a total of two minutes and all I asked him was who he was planning of voting for. He told me he doesn't vote. We went inside to watch Orange 9mm because neither of us had seen them yet and he was just starting to tour with them. Of course "Bound for the Floor" was soon heard day and night, but that was a while ago, and Local H has moved on.

"Eddie Vedder" is the current hit from their "As Good as Dead" CD, but I prefer stuff like "Back in the Day," and "High-Fiving MF." They played all of the above this time at Lupo's- and people thrashed it up to them all. The place was packed and hot as hell- thanks to Veruca Salt's special strobe lights, but we we're having a blast anyway.

Throughout Local H's set their was a nice pit going, and plenty of surfing going on. When they did "Bound for the Floor" there were eight people surfing at the front of the stage and two overworked bouncers shoving them back. I didn't see anybody get hurt, even during faster songs like "I Saw What You Did and I Know Who You Are."

If you haven't seen Local H live you might want to check it out, there's only two guys in the band- Scott and Joe and they still have a full sound and a kick ass stage presence. Joe beats the shit out of his drums the whole time, while Scott plays guitar and bass on his rigged up guitar and sings. If they need some back up their roadie lends a hand on tambourine and backup vocals.

Local H


Veruca Salt

Veruca Salt on the other hand has a full band, and well you know, those two babes to front it. Their music is really great to listen to like in the car, or when it comes on the radio, but in concert it does become a game to figure out which song they are playing. Sure some are fast and some are slow, but after a while they all sounded the same to me. Maybe it was because I ended up getting really drunk. It was hot as hell and packed like I said.

I didn't have a photo pass for Veruca Salt, so their manager booted me out.

He was one of those Docker wearing dudes, like I have to be during the day, but nothing I had impressed him. I gave him flyers for the zine, my business card, the works. I told him "First three, no flash," but he didn't want to hear it. I left, happy to be away from the fucking strobe light that was like hot as fuck, and- I swear to god, the Docker manager dude like warned the kids mushed up front not to mess with the strobe and as soon as he left some dude chucked his beer at it (it hit but did no damage since it was an empty cup).

So like I said I couldn't take photos so I split. Lupo's was packed to the back wall so I went to the side bar and lubed up a bit. I mostly stopped caring about what song they were doing out of spite for the guy who busted me, everybody else was sin ging and shit so they had a great time. I do think that the songs are a but repetitive, but that doesn't mean they suck full-on.