Last weekend in Los Angeles was VH1’s Rock Honors Weekend celebrating The Who and you could absolutely not escape the promo for this event. 2 of the club events I attended under the umbrella of this occasion were Sunday’s Toms Shoes Benefit @ the Hotel Cafe and Monday’s Steel Panther show at the Key Club. Reviews Below, but first… The WINNER of the AvantTrash/Filter Magazine/VH1 Rock Honors “WHO AM I?” CONTEST!

The Questions: and answers.
1. I can’t hear, I can’t talk, I can’t see. Who am I? “Pinball Wizard” or “Tommy, Can You Hear Me” Were both acceptable answers.

2. No one knows what it’s like to be me. I’m sad. Maybe even bad. Who am I? “Behind Blue Eyes” was the correct answer but a couple people answered Brick or Jumbo, which was a more amazing answer. So I decided to reward the winner for ignoring the rules (I was looking for the song title, not the narrator) and giving the more nerd-tastic answer.

3. I’m not old, I live on the Isle of Man. Kids can’t hurt me but they try, try, try. They ride on my head with furry donkeys. They can’t prevent me from being what I am. Who am I? “Happy Jack”…of course.

The winner of The Who prize pack was David Basile of Valley Springs, NY who says,
“I really enjoy your site, good content, your contests are the best!”

So congrats David! Cheers!

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Sunday, July 13th, The Hotel Cafe’s Toms Shoes Benefit, Hollywood, CA

Sunday’s show was nearly a who’s-who (pun accidentally intended) of Hotel Cafe Singer/Songwriter regulars, headlined by the always amazing elder statesman Butch Walker (long ago of The Marvelous 3). Also playing sets were Greg Laswell (who had an album release show the night previous) and Cary Brothers (not siblings, one guy). Honestly I felt a bit aglazed (fuck you spellcheck i made the word up) Sunday and didn’t show up until the last 6 (of 14) performers took the stage. The cause was noble enough: Toms Shoes has a philosophy where for every pair of their shoes they sell, they donate a pair to needy foreign children. Unfortunately the show didn’t have much to stand on. Too much sausage and not enough talented ladies at the end of the night. Butch Walker’s set was full of “new” and “in progress” songs bound for their inevitable obscurity. Walker’s music is too amazing for public consumption (thankfully?), leading many to call him “The best musician you’ve never heard of”. I put “quoteys” around “new” because although they haven’t been released yet (album delayed) I’ve heard some of these songs nearly half a dozen times live (see “Atlanta”). But a good thing about Butch Walker is the way he lets the fans hear his songs evolve between live show and recording. Somehow “Racecars and Goth Rock” from 2004’s Letters sounded better in it’s acoustic “California Gridlock” bootleg form. This trial by fire of sorts has also made some of Butch’s compositions some of the best category-free Rock and Roll of the last 10 years. As per his 1 downer song per album trend I jokingly noted that there would probably be a new song about someone dying and sure enough he sprung one into his set titled something along the lines of “I drove by your house, I saw his car, I thought of you”. I give Butch’s show-and-tell performance a 7/10. It would be unfair to judge the rest, I wasn’t really paying attention.

I didn’t hear any WHO covers that evening.

Monday, July 14th, Steel Panther @ The Key Club, West Hollywood, CA

Big Hair, Spandex, Synchronized Guitar Coreography, Hair Solos, Simulated Oral Sex and Tits. If you’ve never seen the Steel Panther (formerly Metal Shop Metal Skool) show @ the Key Club, then you must truly hate Hair Metal and all things Sunset Strip. Either that or it has somehow remained under your radar despite its continued success. A packed house, every monday? But why? Because it’s hilarious, brilliant, crude, disgusting and shamefully nostalgic. What it boils down to are 4 Hair Metal maestros with Studio Musician cred, playing covers with amazing accuracy and more importantly…enthusiasm. Some Mondays are better than others, but this one was pretty good. I’ve seen better nights and I’ve seen worse. And almost always that has to do with how many of the regular special guests they have joining them during their set. Usually it will be a figure from the glorious 80’s hayday, a slumming pop icon, or in this instance another piece of 80s nostalgia… William Zabka. You know perhaps know him best as “Sweep the leg, Johnny” from The Karate Kid. (or if you are really cool from “Just One of the Guys” or “European Vacation”.) “Billy” as he was addressed by the band, played guitar on a cover of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” and actually did a pretty good job. Unfortunately David Cassidy’s older brother was also in the house and played drums on the track…causing its calamitous ending to die in a whimper.

Adding to the festivities was a bevy of what looked like Jager shots delivered to the birthday boy, “53 year old bassist” Lexxi Foxxx. If you go, I suggest you get a birds-eye view of the debauchery from the balcony. You will also get an eye full of L.A.’s biggest douches rubbing metal flake Christian Audiger’d shoulders with semi-famous musicians and personalites of L.A.’s Past and Present (but mostly past). Steel Panther doesn’t take the stage until 12:15 so I suggest you head down to the famous Rainbow Bar and Grill for a bite (great food) and few pre-party drinks (cheaper than the Key Club). 2nd to the food and drink is the amazing people-watching; which is so beautiful it is hard to put into words …there will be fringe, feathered and dyed bangs, spandex and cellulite and probably a few guys who have played Jason or Michael Myers (or could if they removed the masks).

The only Who cover performed was “My Generation” with the lyrics replaced with rhymes about well… groupies mostly. There were masks of Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend circulating the crowd, Half of a Daltry made its way to Michael Starr for the final set of rhymes before the finale. Although sometimes the show borders on the bad side of “Girls Gone Wild”… it is just one of those L.A. things that you have to see. 8.3/10