This review was written by Josh. Mile High Mayhem was America's first psychobilly weekender in the weekend of 28 march 1998. Josh runs the West Coast Psychobilly Homepage

I got to Denver on thursday, looking quite psycho if I do say so, to be picked up by Heather at the Denver International Airport. That all went okay and we were off to pick up Steph and Steve Chapman of Spindrift records (who should be helping us get a better selection around here now). Then the four of us headed home where we had some chicken and potatoes. The next day Heather and I went to pick up the Hellbillys and Chuck and Yasuo from LGL at the airport but ended up just getting the HB because the flight from seattle was delayed. After that I went back to the hotel to hang out with the Hellbillys before we went over to load into the venue. Let me tell you, Dan and Bill from that band are giggling machines, I nearly coughed up a lung I was laughing so hard. Then we went over to the show:

First band was the Sinshakers, but we missed them, so I have no comment. The Nocturnal Teds played second. Their drummer, Hogge, was sick at the hotel so they were lucky enough to find Moon from LGL to fill in for them. They played a good set, they made a few mistakes, but they weren't the bands fault, Peter and Tony played fine, but you can only expect to make a few mistakes when the drummer doesn't know the breaks and what not, everybody I talked to liked them. The third band was Buddy's Riot from Santa Cruz. They played a great set, they did a bunch of originals from the 45 and covers of Batmobile's "Transylvanian Express" and Peter and the Test Tube Babies' "Banned From The Pubs" with Bug Boy on guest vocals. A really good set I thought, I still find it funny that I had to fly 1500 miles to see a band that lives an hour and a half from me. Fourth band was the Unlucky Boys from Utah. Setting aside the fact that the singer was the one who caused the "incident", I really didn't like them. They were too cow punkish. They did a Supersuckers cover, then proceeded to say how much they hated the Supersuckers, didn't make much sense. The fifth band friday was the Hellbillys. They ruled the evening,

friday belonged to the Hellbillys. They played a very good energetic set that nearly caused Barrie the singer to collapse (the altitude didn't help). And for the first time ever I got a song dedicated to me, it was "Pervert" from the new cd, I was a very happy little minor. Also it was strange to see the Swedes (Noc Teds and Stefan Lilja) singing along to the american bands, I guess the world isn't as big as I thought it was.

The final band Friday was Deadbolt. They weren't as bad as I remember them from november, but I found their set to be a good time to walk around and mingle with some people I hadn't met yet. They made a lot of jokes and stuff like that, the schtick wasn't as annoying as I remember it though.

Friday I also met a lot of knew people and ran into a few friends. I met Brent aka, the Batboy. We ended up spending a lot of time together, he's a really cool guy, we hung out on Saturday night too. I also met the guys from Buddy's Riot and ran into my friends Adam and Bug Boy form Santa Cruz. Ran into the San Jo crew (Hayride, Annalisa, and Amanda) we also hung out quite a bit. I met the Noc Teds and ran into Astroboy. I met Chuck who grabbed me everytime I walked past and would tell whoever he was around that, "This is my favorite wetback". Ran into Kim and Martin from the GWC, whom I think I can be lucky enough to call my friends now, great guys the both of them. Also met the remaining Barnyard Ballers that I didn't meet in San Francisco, Rob is a really cool guy and Rick is the nicest guy in the world. Well, thats it for friday, next message will come soon for saturday. All in all, Friday was a fucking great time, no real hang-ups the night ran pretty smoothly, and as I said, the Hellbillys stole the show, their cover of "Where Eagles Dare" had everyone singing along.

Saturday Night

Saturday morning we got up and headed out to a few shops with Little John from Georgia (who reminded me a lot of Nick 13), Tim from the Hellbillys and the Spindrift folks. It ended up being Steph shopping while we all watched and tried to avoid being seen by anyone we know, they were vintage clothes shops after all, that could ruin our rep. Then we headed over to a couple of record stores where I managed to find a cool Re-Animator tshirt that I bought against my better judgement. After that I got dropped off at the hotel to go hang with Hayride to Hell so I could get into the venue, on the way we ran into the Santa Cruz gang who apparently had a blast at the Denver Zoo. Anyway, pretty much as soon as we got to the hotel I had to head to the club with Hayride, or John and Craig anyway. We got there about 2 and a half hours early so I hung out and talked with Steve and Steph and Chuck and whoever else was there that early. They were playing this horrid techno in the venue till Steph gave them a psycho compilation, that was a good job. On to the show:

The first band was the Foggy Mountain Fuckers. They were basically a country band, didn't do much for me though. They were alright, but a lot of the songs sounded the same. The Klingonz on the otehr hand loved them, they were hooting and hollering all through their set. Even ended up dedicating a song to them.

Second band was the Spectres. They played a pretty good set, unfortunately all of the bands told me that they couldn't hear shit from the monitors on stage so a couple of times the band got out of sync, btu over all it was a pretty good set, I think they played better in San Fran though. They play a fast Neo-Rockabilly Punk style.

Third band was supposed to be Hayride to Hell, but Joey Myers was still at the hotel when they were supposed to go on, so after a little delay the Barnyard Ballers went on. They were fuckin great, they had the best pit of the night. They are one of the tightest bands I've seen in a while. Everyone loved them and was laughing at their great songs, a mix between country and punk rock and a bunch of perverts made the night great. I got a picture of the flying "Love Ewe" that was being tossed around like a beach ball at an arena rock concert. And at the end, most of the bands (and the Batboy) got up on stage for "Hand", that was cool, I got a picture of that too. Hayride to Hell played fourth. This was the worst I've seen them, thank God Bill and Joey were there or they may have been booed off the stage. John was so drunk it wasnt' even funny, the guys were seriously pissed at him, and Craig couldn't hit a bass solo either. Mark saved the day and played great, a lot of people said they were still pretty impressed, and I guess they sold some merch, imagine what they could've done sober. I was disappointed.

Next came Los Gatos Locos, who I hadn't seen in almost a year. This time I was a bit more prepared for the show. Yasuo came out in this creepy black makeup and witch's nose I got a great picture of it, but looking up at him on stage was just creepy. Chuck had this cool mask, kind of like Sparky, but with cool sunglasses, I didnt' get as good of pictures as I'd liked, but oh well. They played fucking great, I loved every minute of it and sang along the whole time. Cheers to the SAC, you guys know what you are doing, thanks for not bumping me while I was trying to take pictures, you rule. Anyway, Los Gatos Locos played one of the best sets that night. Last came the Klingonz. They came out in costume for what may be the last tiem ever, I don't know that they are dressing up in New York, but I got some picttures that should be up on the web soon. The first thing they said was "Let's get this straight, we ain't fags" That pretty much says what kind of crowd they were playing to. They played a few cool songs, and I got my Oompa Loompa. Then Titch started yelling for people to come down and "kick the shit out of each other". This is when bad things happened, what follows is purely my opinion and what I saw, compare to the others if you like: During one song, I forget which I was sitting on the rail above the floor with Steph from Spindrift when someone started spitting on Titch, he was telling them to fuck off, and threw a fake kick into the crowd, that didn't hit anyone by the way. Then Titch walked upstage and leaned into the crowd where Scott Willis from the Unlucky Boys grabbed him and Titch fell down, thats the accepted story, after that it gets a bit sticky. Suffice to say that Scott was VERY drunk and had spilt 3 beers on my head during the course of the night already, however being the passive guy that I am, I wrote it off to accidents and let everything slide. When Titch went down, this is what I SAW. It didn't look friendly, Scott held Titch down and may or may not have hit him, I'd tend to agree with the opinion that he bashed his head into the monitor, when no one did anything to get Scott off of Titch, Mick took his guitar and cracked him on the head to try and help, in the process he broke his guitar (which is okay now). It was only after this that the Security from the Bluebird, NOT Heather, came down to get Scott. After a few minuteds in which the security actually DEBATED over whether or not to throw him out, they "escorted" him out. Scott Willis and the Unlucky Boys vacated Denver fast. Titch came back out on stage with a towel over the gash above his eye and wanted to finish his set, and I wanted them to as well, however Mick's guitar was broken and unplayable and the Bluebird freaked out and forced them to stop to send Titch to the hospital where he got 25 stitches in two layers. Then they asked everyone to clear out and that was basically it, Heather was freaking out as was just about everyone else.

I decided to go back to the hotel with Batboy and two girls from Texas as Heather had enough to deal with without me around. There we went to party in Hayride to Hell's room where I finally got to relax with some of the guys. Bug Boy, the Klingz, Hayride, LGL, all the bands were there, it was nice to finally just sit and talk with them, and I got hit on a couple of times, that tells you how much booze was flowing through that place. After Bug Boy took a ride on the John Long express we got a few too many complaints and they told us that we had to leave if we weren't registered guests. So Brent and I went over with those girls from Texas to their room since thats where I'd left my things, the security guy came over and kicked us out but I went and spent the night in Brent and Amanda's room so it was no big deal.

Sunday morning I woke up at about 8 AM to the sounds of John Long banging on our hotel room door to get Amanda to drive the guys to breakfast, so she did and I tried my hardest to fall back asleep but I ended up laying on the floor wide awake for the next 3 hours. Then I went about looking for Heather to tell her that I wasnt' dead since I deserted her the night before. I caught up with her, the Hayride boys, and the Spectres in the Spectres' room discussing business. After that we went down stairs and started loading the Klingz into her car so that they could spend the night at Heather's but it turned out that they just spent another night at the hotel, so sunday was spent sitting around until the Klingz, Donna from New Jersey, and Noc Teds came over to sit and rest a while before the big Cramps show that night, I got to talk to a bunch of people and ate a little and then we were off to the show. I rode up with two of the Nocteds and Eddie from the Klingz, we talked a lot about psycho shows other places and the Meteors and Paul Fenech specifically. Crazy fucker, that one. Once we got to Boulder where the show was, I headed inside because it was snowing and I am not a cold weather person. The Klingonz and Noc Teds headed to a bar to warm themselves up before the Cramps played. The first band I saw was the Amazing Royal Crowns, who we discussed here a long time ago. I'd have to say I liked them, if I'd had the money I would've bought a tshirt or something. They played a very fast neo-rockabilly/garage style music, they also covered Agent Orange and the Misfits, so that was cool. They put on a good stage show too and the bass player was really good. Thumbs up from Josh. Then, after an excessively long break the Cramps came on. Let me just say that Poison Ivy Rorshach has the best ass I've ever seen on a 40 something woman before. They played a lot of old stuff and that made me happy, and some newer stuff too, I would have liked more from Stay Sick, but they did a few good ones from it. It was teh last show of their tour so they went all out, Lux did something I've never seen him do, he handed the mic to the crowd and let them sing (or scream anyway). A lot of people, including the Noc Teds and Klingonz found the Cramps boring on stage, but I liked it. They are still the best garage band in the world. The only bad thing was the 6'2" vinyl clad man who kept rubbing his ass on my arm while he did his coreographed dance routines to Cramps songs. It was pretty disturbing, but if you ignore that I had a great time! After that I went out and said goodbye to the Teds and Eddie from the Klingz because I wouldn't see them again till San Francisco. The ride home was scary as hell. Not for me, but for Janette, the person driving me home, I had to calm her down a lot, she nearly cried. She was cool though we made it home fine and she hung out with me and Little John and Tim for a while and we bullshitted about Tijuana whores and fake zebras and things like that. It was a good time, and apparently she dug me, at least thats what those other two said, I'll never know. I'm totally oblivious to those kinds of things anyway. We chilled for a while till Heather got home then everyone pretty much went to sleep since we all had to get up early to fly home. The next morning Tim, Little John, Moon and I piled into Heathers car and headed to the airport and said our final goodbyes, took a few cheesy pictures and were on our way. It turned out that Tim and I were on the same flight home with Astroboy and his crew (Klingz and Noc Teds). So we all met up at the San Fran airport and worked out travel arrangements, which ended up with Tim and I and the Klingz sharing a shuttle, we all talked a bit about the tour and expectations for the San Fran show, and then said our goodbyes till Tuesday. That marks the official end of my weekend. I'd like to say that it was the most fun I've had in years, and anyone who knows me knows that I really needed that a lot. I met a lot of really cool people from the list and people who arent' on the list, and I'd like to thank them for making it a great trip: Little John from Georgia, Astroboy and the Nocteds, the Klingonz and especially Eddie and Mick for being so nice, the guys in all the bands including Ezra and James from Buddy's Riot; Rick, Rob, and Rich from the Barnyard Ballers; Chuck and John Mooney from Los Gatos Locos; John Long, Craig, and Bill from Hayride; all of the Hellbillys especially Tim and Barrie; Jesse and Austin from the Spectres; and Kim and Martin from the GWC. Also Bug Boy and Adam from Santa Cruz, Amanda and Annalisa as always, the Batboy, the two girls from Dallas even though I've already forgotten their names, Alicia from San Fran, Steve and Steph from Spindrift, Heather's roommates for putting up with all us crazy psychos, and of course Heather, Thank you very much for making this all happen, it was a fuckin blast!

So I made the call to action for the Bay Area Psychos and you guys came through for me. The Klingonz gig in San Francisco was a rousing success. I got there early as usual to, um, check out the sound system or something like that. Mick saw me outside and invited me in, I spent a while talking to the Klingonz and showing them the pictures from Denver that I'd had developed, tehy seemed to like them, and I compared photos with another woman who I've seen at a lot of gigs taking shots. She had a really nice camera and everything, my $15 camera did okay though, it was the film that did me in. Anyway, the Klingonz put me on their guestlist which wasn't really necessary since I got in before the show started and just didn't leave. So I'm walking around beforehand showing my photo album around and all of a sudden Astro grabs me and says that Charlie Chester is at the bar! So I got to meet Charlie and his lovely wife and we talked a bit and as usual I got ragged on for being a baby, but I'm so used to it now that it doesn't phase me. In fact when Kjell got there the first thing he said to me was "How the hell do you keep getting into these things?" Anyway, before the show I met and mingled, most of the Santa Cruz guys that I know were there, the guys from Sacramento and Davis and the San Fran guys. There were at least a couple hundred people, I was very happy. The Noc Teds played first and sounded better than they did in Denver because Hogge was back on drums. I got a few good individual shots of them as well. And for the second time I got a song dedicated to me, it was something about me being so short that you could use the top of my head as a drink stand. Anyway, they dedicated Paranoid Brain to me, which I thought was funny. I like the Noc Teds. The Hellbillys played next and before hand Barrie came up to me and asked me if I'd seen their go go dancers yet, I hadn't, he said that they were two of the shortest fattest girls he could find. He was spot on. It was great, lots of smoke and boobs and psychobilly music, does it get better than that? Actually I think they played better in Denver, Adam agreed with me there, but they played just fine here as well. They did Where Eagles Dare again, that song rules. Finally after a little delay the Klingonz went on. They spent their entire set hocking their tshirts and yelling at the "fat cunt" at the back with the spiky hair. Let me tell you, they fucking rocked, one of the best shows I've seen in a while. They did a lot of great songs like H.O.M.O., Spiderman, my favorite Oompa Loompa, Fritenite, How Long Do You Wanna Live, Destructobots, Kling Stomp, Klingabilly Stroll, an encore of Werewolf Boogie, and Titch dedicated the third song of the weekend to me, this time it was Someboy's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight, really fast. Titch was all over the place and Mick was in total guitar legend mode, it was very cool. They were great, and nice guys to boot if you give them a good show, and they thanked the crowd a lot of times for what a great audience we were, I was proud of that. All in all the night rocked, after the Klingz set I went around a mingled a bit more and took some cheesy pictures with Annalisa and John and Charlie etc... And said my goodbyes to the foreigners and I expect to be seeing all of them at teh Rumble this year again so it should be fun, I met a lot of cool people along the way this week, and I wanted to thank them all for making my spring break one for the books. Especially Astro, the Teds, and Titch and Eddie from the Klingonz.

Josh