Big Black Cloud w/ The Babs Johnson Gang and Zig Zags @ DAM Haus – 5/28/11

Wow, these may be, honestly, the worst photos I’ve ever taken at a show. It’s not surprising considering how dim the DAM Haus was and how hard it was to take a steady shot. Still they could have been worse. I could have used the LED flash on my iPhone. Free beer was promised and delivered for this show and I did see more than a few shotguns. However, there is no way I was gonna drink Simple Times for the whole night. That sounds like something you would live to regret. There was one more “band” on the bill that I won’t really mention. Sufficed to say I that I have pretty much seen them before as someone elses music school/art school project. Don’t need to hear more atonal saxophone wailing accompanied by arhythmic drumming again.

Big Black Cloud are from Portland, OR and upon seeing them for the second time at least I didn’t mistake their name again. The band plays some pretty haunting punk tunes with a lot of falling riffs and desperate sounding vocals. I really wish I would have had better “seats” to enjoy their set with, but, alas I was forced to the back of the room by who else but idiots moshing. Oh well, I guess it goes with the territory. At least they couldn’t ruin my enjoyment of BBC.

The Babs Johnson Gang hail from Sacramento, CA, born and raised. Like Big Black Cloud, this was my second time seeing BJG the first being when the opened for Ty Segall at The Hub. Really find the band’s pseudo-blues infused, proto-punk to be quite entertaining. For two guys they make one hell of a racket and their cover of two Tim & Eric songs was pretty awesome. I’m sad I didn’t get my prize for dancing to the bands songs [ED: I got third place!], but at least they told me later that I had won. Like Rick said after they ended their set, these guys should be headlining a show in Davis very soon, they are awesome.

I honestly didn’t catch much of Zig Zags. Some time between Big Black Cloud and the start of Zig Zags set I lost my earplugs and was stuck listening from the kitchen to avoid the hearing damage and what-not. What I did hear from that muffled distance I was on the fence about, however, after listening to the over-driven/blown tracks on their Bandcamp, I wish I had been able to enjoy them a bit more. There’s seriously some pretty good stuff in there. Next time I guess.

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