Death to Anders, Tigers Can Bite You, and Rocking Horse People @ All Star Lanes (Eagle Rock Bowling and Drinking Club) 06-01-08

(CORRECTION: Gah, apologies to Josiah for the name gaffe. I was listening to "Eli Miller" while I was typing!)

Can you believe I'd never made it up to the Eagle Rock Bowling and Drinking Club? They've always had intriguing lineups, but in my K-Town days the trek to Eagle Rock was tough to justify on a Sunday and I've had my car problems pretty much since I moved to Echo Park. Finally last night I made the plunge.

All Star Lanes in Eagle Rock is like a bowling alley right out of the Midwest. Dirty carpets, basic furniture, and drifting sense that the joint is living on borrowed time dominate the scene. The stage is set-up in the main room behind the lanes and the temporary PA set-up sounds surprisingly good in the space.

The Bowling and Drinking Club is much-lauded and I was disappointed to find that the crowd was small -- not 30 people in attendance, I don't think. It was a refreshing crowd though, one that seemed to be more "real people" than east side scenesters. It is nice to hear good music away from the built-in hype and atmosphere of the standard-bearer venues.

An artist painted live during the sets. Cool idea!

And let me say this: the ladies of the ERBaDC busted my brain with their between-set song selections. A splurt of nerd-joy shot-up my back when Ween's "Push the Little Daisys" came on; they had the good taste to play the under-appreciated, less obvious SSPU selection "Rusted Wheel;" and you can't go wrong with The Pharcyde in my book.



I got there in time to catch half of Rocking Horse People, a band very reminiscent of the earlier, lighter psychedelic rock with a healthy classic rock influence mixed-in. There was about as much synthesizer in this band as there are swimming pools in Siberia. No no, this was real American bar rock, precisely the sort of thing you might hear in a Midwestern college town. I was nonplussed until their last song, a 8+ minute jam that revealed Rocking Horse People to be perfectly accomplished musicians. They aren't really my bag, but they have my respect.



Tigers Can Bite You were fucking great. I've not written about their last album (recorded by Josiah Mazzaschi of Light FM, a band in the same sonic family) but it's pretty terrific and perfect for the late night drives when splintered drums, slicing synth, and spectral vocals are of necessity. Their set last night brought the same perfect mix of sounds, played exceptionally well with lively electric crunch. I've liked them better each time I've see them and actually, I've been hearing other people around town drop their name a lot as of late. On the way up, it seems...



CGT favorite Death to Anders closed out the night with a solid set that spanned their diverse repertoire of sounds. It was a smart set to play for a crowd that may not have seen D2A before. "Swig Shift" showed-off the band's alternative rock roots while "Man of 1,000 Regrets" and "Fictitious Business" brought the alt-country, but rock jams "Ghost Rock" and "Untitled" were the songs that shined the most and really won-over the blue collar crowd. Death to Anders proficiently endeared themselves to the at-attention patronage. I like them best when they accent the country influence, I think.