The FEAR / Dead Bob/ Vicious Cycles show: Live at the Rickshaw, March 30th, 2025

My favourite photo from last night -- of the ones I took -- involved Nomeansno band biographer Jason Lamb, whose "Bob" shirt was incredibly visible in the pit. I took a few shots of him, and gotta say, this one is near perfect. It almost looks like I've drawn the word "Bob" on using some computer program, but nope, that's really the back of his shirt. 

Meantime, my favourite musical performance was Dead Bob doing "Long Days," which I shot vid of here. I took no photos otherwise of Dead Bob. I have seen every single public Dead Bob performance in Vancouver and I confess, parts of this one, I sat out, because cripes, I'm exhausted... sick, tired, weak, stressed  and so forth. 

But I caught a couple of good pics of the Vicious Cycles MC. I'm going to send them the video I shot, though, in case they want to use it!

And I was delighted and surprised at who came out from backstage to check the VCs out. He was mobbed by a few fans who wanted selfies, of course. Me, I have never really been much about selfies. But I did shoot a couple photos, more for the VCs sake than anything else (they have been doing some things with Lee that we will discuss at a later date). It was delightful to see one of the heroes of Los Angeles punk enjoying one of our home team bands. Robert of the VCs told me afterwards the name of the bike Lee used to ride and the bike club he was in, but, y'know, I had *had* some of that pot cookie I was sharin', so... I'll have to ask again at a later date.

I am hoping there will BE a later date. Lee seems like a real sweet guy when he's not singing "Strangulation." 

Oh, and hey, look, there's that dude with the shades who would NOT LET PEOPLE ALONE in the pit, including me, colliding into us, grabbing onto us, tugging on our arms, grabbing our shoulders, pulling at us like anyone not moshing was somehow doing it wrong. I wondered if he was some sort of paid plant, tasked with getting people physically riled up; it worked, insofar as I visualized punching him in the face, after he nearly toppled me over, but I don't think that's the kind of "riled up" he was aiming for. I even told him flat-out that he had nearly knocked me down and asked him to stop grabbing onto me, just LEAVE ME ALONE, but he would not. (He actually seemed to mean it all in a friendly way but that still didn't mean I wanted to be grabbed by him). Ultimately -- after he'd pretty much wrecked "White Stone Eyes," one of my favourite Dead Bob songs,  I just left the pit; it was impossible to enjoy the music with impending, involuntary doughboy action coming at you every few minutes. For fucksake, folks, MOSH WITH PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MOSH WITH YOU, and leave the people standing off to the sides ALONE. They want to mosh, they will -- let people enjoy things in their own way! 

I sat out the rest of Dead Bob's set, but I totally enjoyed, in particular, the version of "Life Like" they did at the end, which, no foolin', put me in mind of the BEAT show I saw, y'know, with Belew and Levin and Vai and so forth. It wasn't a bad song to be seated for -- to close my eyes and listen to. I would have preferred to be up front, but really, it's been one hell of a month (I even sold my Amyl and the Sniffers ticket last week, and had no regrets -- I couldn't have managed it, was falling-down exhausted and ill). 

Finally, it was time for FEAR, and I snuck back down to the front, hoping the coast was clear. I snapped a few photos -- not many, but enough! (Bob was getting good stuff that maybe you'll see at some point; I do hope to write more about this night). 

Lee was in fine voice; Spit Stix was a fuckin' machine, and the guitarist, Eric Razo, was a fine replacement for Philo -- maybe not quite as flat-out goofy, but deft as hell, very enjoyable. 

Somehow, this show was much, much better than the Vogue show the other year. Part of it may have been the more intimate environs, and part of it may just be that I'd come to accept that Lee is not exactly the menacing toughguy that I had been expecting, based on the footage in Decline, the last time I saw him. But he was plenty chatty and personable between songs last night; he even made a kind of witty joke at the end of "Strangulation" -- which has the grossest of any of the lyrics he sang, so I welcomed his quipping as it finished something like, "And then I'll ask her if she loves me." He punctuated jokes like that with little gruff "heh hehs" that put me in mind, I dunno, of how I imagine Robert DeNiro might sound in Dirty Grandpa, which I have not seen, but he was also pretty positive and friendly in the things he said -- he really ISN'T the guy in Decline anymore: "It's all about sportsmanship and love, and if you bump into anybody while you're bouncing around, please say excuse me." 

It's almost like Lee could read my mind, re: the pudgy pit provocateur, and was making fun of me or something.

Actually, quips like that made me want to ask him if he has Bill Murray stories. The infamous Saturday Night Live appearance was all about John Belushi, of course, but Lee these days has more of a Bill Murray vibe to him, maybe -- a sardonic senior wiseguy (not in the mafia sense). I hope I get to interview him at some point... he seemed amenable... 

There's not much else in my bag of stories, though, folks. At one point, someone shouted out a request for "New York's All Right," and I responded somewhat loudly, "but Vancouver's better." Rest assured, I didn't really mean it, it's just that I'd been thinking about my brief chat with Syd Savage, out in the lobby, who had recently led Death Sentence through a cover of the Exploited's "USA," which I would LOVE to hear them do live. If there's a timely punk song, that's it, and if there's a local band perfect for it, it's them. Syd assures me that Death Sentence will be at the Rickshaw soon enough...  

The other entertaining non-FEAR related conversation I had was with resident Vancouver genius of transgressive horror burlesque, Betty Bathory, who has announced she is going to give up all non-disgusting, non-horrifying side-projects and focus on her own brand, as expressed through Daddy Issues ("there are plenty of people in this town who can sing, but no one else is doing what I do": amen!). I recently had a vid I shot of them at Ronfest doing Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" censored off Youtube because of sexuality and nudity and such. I did try to dispute it! I mean, she WAS pulling some sort of horrifying goo out of her vaginal area, as she is wont to do during that song, but it wasn't, like, REAL vaginal goo, nor was it her REAL vagina it was coming out of. To my mind, that makes it art! 

The Youtube censors stood by their decision, alas (they didn't even give me space, in filling out the appeal, to explain what they were seeing).  Oddly though, they left the clip of her performing that same night in her Peg-Bundy-from-Hell wig, with a girthful dildo strapped on, online for all to see. Fake dicks okay, but fake vages are taboo? 

Love the guy with the finger! 

Anyhow: it was great night, even for someone as wiped out as I was. Got to briefly meet Lee and Spit and and Eric and one of the two other FEAR members, getting a couple things signed. I was happy to say to Spit Stix, "You gotta bring Nasalrod up here," and he grinned and said "I know!" I hope other people know about his other band, that I wasn't the only one who remarked on how amazing they are -- they were the other band on that Victims Family split the last time Dead Bob played the Rickshaw, and to my great amazement, their songs were every bit as great as Victims Family's, which is a tall order. Someone should line up a show between them and Vic Bondi's band Redshift, also a Pacific Northwest band... that would be amazing to see, eh? 

We need to be nice to our American punk neighbours, folks -- they do not deserve what is happening down there; like Lee said as he launched into the band's nihilistic closer, "No More Nothing," we're all family, we've got to be good to each other (I'm just paraphrasing, but it was pretty close to that). 

Thanks for having come back to Vancouver, FEAR. See you again sometime?