Tiger Army, Nekromantix, The Inverted Nines & Throw Rag

The first band, Throw Rag, was fucking great psychobilly from LA, showing that not everything down there sucks. The singer seemed like an old pro when he hooked up a kid with some stickers instead of kicking him in the head. Throw Rag had a pretty heavy sound for a pyschobilly band; they had two guitars (one of which was an emo square thing) a damn good bassist and a mellow looking drummer. The singer was the very definition of a frontman, always in the crowd's face and having a great time doing it.
Next up was Chico's own Inverted Nines. I've known / seen these guys for a while and I swear to god they've been holding back all these years. They played harder and better than I've ever seen them before. From the first chord, the crowd went nuts and people were flying everywhere. They had a nice mix of favorites and new songs and were tight on all of them. Steve, the bassist, was jumping around like he had on those Nike spring shoes and Scott, the normally reserved guitarist, was on fire. Travis kept them all in line with his steady beats. And what can you say about Chris? Actually, you can say a lot about Chris but I'll stick to the good stuff. He's a natural entertainer who's found his medium and we are all better for it. The Nines play old school punk rock 'n' roll and if you haven't seen them yet you're an idiot or you're scared.
Nekromantix hit the stage next. This three piece came all the way from Denmark just to play here in Chico. Just kidding; they came for the whole tour. The bassist in this band had the coolest bass I'd ever seen. A midget sized coffin with a holy cross on top. Fuck yeah, it was almost enough to make me shave the sides of my head and break out some pomade. I couldn't understand a single word they were saying but it sounded really cool behind the swinging jams they were kicking out. Brian from Hit By a Semi said this about Nekromantix: "They good!" With a testimonial like that how could you go wrong? Nekromantix play fucking fast and hard and if you're a fan of pyschobilly you owe it to yourself to get to know their music.
Tiger Army. What can you say; they came to play and didn't fuck around. Everyone knows that ex-Chicoan Fred Telles plays drums for them now. What a lucky man, living his dream! From the first song to the last the whole bottom floor was moving and the top was two deep around the rail. Bodies were flying up, down and all around each other pausing only to catch a breath and belt out some lyrics to one song or another. Seriously, the crowd knew every fucking word of every song, which is always cool to see. The band was stoked from the get go and they should be; every time they come to Chico they get this response and truth be told they sell a lot of merchandise to help them on their tour. Tiger Army played a lot of songs from the new album and then mixed in some old ones just for flavor. "True Romance" was played faster than a Taco Bell shit at two in the morning and the crowd loved every second of it. With grass roots support like this the Tiger Army will truly never die.
- Marcus Dorin
- photos by Alyssa Starkey

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