Redd Kross Sonic Youth Afterparty

After the amazing Redd Kross- Sonic Youth show at the Greek, we all headed over to an afterparty at El Cid. Thurston had asked punk legends Saccharine Trust to perform their classic album, Pagan Icons. The album thing was kind of a theme. If you want to know where bands like Nirvana got their inspiration from, in addition to Daydream Nation, you really need to add Pagan Icons and Born Innocent to your collection.

There was a good crowd at the party. It was very much a night for old friends; it was not a "scene" crammed with industry types and celebrities. I saw poet SA Griffin, photographer Jonathan Krop, artist Aaron White, musicians Bobby Ho, Sean D Lear, and a bunch of locals from the South Bay and San Pedro.

The very trippy Phil from the now-closed cult video mecca, Mondo Video, was there. We had an interesting discussion about The Mentors, which naturally led to us discussing El Duce's infamous appearance on Wally George's Hot Seat. In fact, he would like to clear something up about Wally George:

The food at El Cid used to be infamously mediocre, but they have set up a new tapas menu (The party was not catered, but a lot of people ordered off the menu). Their food is now killer -especially the tenderloin. It is one of my new favorite places.

Since it was a late-night party, Saccharine Trust's set got started pretty quickly. Thurston surprised everyone by joining the band onstage to sing the anthemic "I am Right." I am still kicking myself for not getting it on Quicktime video, but I just got too caught up in the excitement. It was truly mind-blowing. God, it is such a great song. At least I took some stills. Thank God Jordan Schwartz was there to save the day with this video he shot:

Here is some Quicktime I took of Saccharine Trust playing the Door's Peace Frog a little later in the set for you:

Saccharine was really on fire. Joe Baiza's guitar was out of control, and Chris was right there with him. Often you see a band jam out while the lead singer tries to good-naturedly rock along, nodding at the drummer and taking sips of water. But Jack Brewer sometimes starts jamming with his voice. During the instrumental portion of one song he started chanting, "Daydream Na-TION Daydream Na-TION Daydream NATION. Near the end of the set, he started shouting unfamiliar lyrics and the band just looked at each other. They decided to just wait it out and stood there quietly, trying not to crack a smile. Jack was shouting, "HER love! HER love!" so I asked Jack's wife, Cathy, "Is this a poem about you?" She responded, "I don't know WHAT this is." Jack Brewer is a poetic genius.

Photos and video of Peace Frog by Elise Thompson for LAist. Video of I am Right shot by Jordan Schwartz