The Stills Live in Los Angeles Review by Chaz Bartok

You know what the problem is with all the “the” bands out there is? No fuckin’ passion for the real rock. No wonder Axl sleeps inside a giant tub of vaseline and doesn’t leave his house for days. It’s a loser proposition, going out to see shows these days. You may as well pass out behind the club in the sofa someone left there.


Chaz Bartok

So to pay the rent though I’ve been reviewing some local shows for some rags about town. Of course the ‘real’ Chaz isn’t allowed over there. They don’t want to hear about my ladies, my acne-scarred freeze-dried face, the boulders of cocaine or the puking sessions. They just care about the music, but the problem is there’s too much goddamned music out there, most of it an insipid soundtrack to the castration of society.

I didn’t have high hopes for “The Stills”. Sure their album sounded awesome and Ian McCullough was into them. But so what? If they were like all the other bands I’d seen in LA recently, they’d show up and play a show but no one would be rockin out, least of all the band.

But I was wrong. From the first song, The Stills rocked the house fuckin hard. People were shocked, Silverlake faces twisted by surprise and ball-dropping joy. I could tell that a lot of chicks in the crowd were getting stimulated by the manic propulsion of the crazy little drummer. The first three songs were pure rock, pure sound, with big beats, big guitars and a true rock voice wailing over it all. I was in hog heaven, man, and started banging my head and letting my hair sail around like it was on fire. I ordered a couple of shots for my girlfriends and downed a couple of my own. Soon I was drunk and headbanging at the bar, I don’t know exactly what happened. Slashing my head wildly in the air with the beat, the bartender tapped me on the head. “Hey man, show’s over.”

The place was empty and I was drunk and alone. That’s how much that show fuckin’ rocked.

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Hey did you know Chaz has his own home page? Looks like he hasn’t updated it since 1998 but it’s pretty fresh.

You can listen to The Stills’ album at their website.

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