"This can't be the place..." was our first reaction when
my girlfriend and I showed in front of the venue. We had arrived
in L.A. a couple of hours before, coming straight from Dallas, TX
(where we were supposed to spend our holiday). Almost 2000 miles
in three days... That evening, I heard the words "You're
completely insane!" a bunch of times :-)
Anyway, I walked in quite early and the place was empty. Starting
to doubt my map-reading abilities, I fortunately ran into a
now-familiar face :
"Excuse me, are you with the Tribe ?"
"Yes, I'm Mario."
"Mario...Aguilar ?"
"Yeah."
Pffeeeew... This is the place, yes sir-eeee. Intriguely named
"Tempest Supper Club", this joint is basically a bar. A small
bar. But hey, that's the perfect choice for a warm-up gig : if
you fuck up, who's to know? and if you do great, the happy few in
the audience will have a fantastic time ! After a quick dinner
across the street, we headed back for the Tempest and went in.
Hmmm, wait a minute, I know the guy with that golden guitar. Of
course, it's Roy ! Yeah, babe, this is it. As we proceeded
towards one of the few tables, we were intercepted by Chris and
he did some of the "You're completely insane!" thingy I
told you about earlier :-) In the next minutes, Roy and Gregg
showed up to say hi (and in turn ""You're completely
insane!"-ing us some more)
But it was now time for the show. Despite a weak P.A., the show
stunned me. I've seen quite a few bands perform in all kinds of
venue, from suburb garages to 70000-seater arenas. And rarely, if
ever, have I seen something like this. Oozing with charisma,
showcasing awesome musicianship, the boys simply stunned me. Now
I know what it may have felt like to see Iron Maiden at the
Ruskin Arms in 1976... The setlist was something like this :
Revolucion 13 (the Clint Eastwood part), What's
up?, Summer rain, Spanish blue, Aztlan
reprise, Firedance, Nothing lasts forever,
Turn around, Party.
The Tribe played for about 45mn and everyone enjoyed every second
of it. Roy proved once more that all you need to shred is a
guitar and an amp. Period. My advice : drop to your knees and
worship the mighty Z...NOW ! Gregg did a very good job (given the
shitty P.A.) and nobody in their right mind would think that he's
not a very valuable addition to an already killer lineup. Kudos
to Juan (bass) and Jorge (drums) for convincingly filling the
large shoes of Eddie and Dave after only two rehearsals! As to
Elvis and Mario, they happily pounded away on...whatever the
names of their instruments are!
All in all, an excellent show definitely worth the 2000-mile
drive :-) But the best was to come...
Julien