Inflatable Supermodel, Born Tonight & WE BITE!

Since Chico State and Butte have let loose their yearly student captives, the number of barflies has dwindled down to the handful of elite summer savages that have overcome going home to find shelter under mom and dad for the summer while working some crappy hotdog-stand job. Just because the frats and sororities aren’t in full effect, (brainwashing the population and making porn movies), doesn’t mean that good music isn’t constant in the nightlife. Even though Pepper and local favorite Top Shelf were rockin’ the stage down the street, LaSalle’s still pulled in a good crowd, starting out the night with a Misfits tribute band known as WE BITE!!!
With devil-lock haircuts, black vests, dark black bags painted under the eyes and an appearance by a staggering Crimson Ghost, WE BITE!!! provided a good likeness to the original Misfits. WE BITE!!! had the audiences basking in Danzig’s famous high energy, ‘70s hardcore, Elvis-esque vocal punk rock sing-alongs from the outer fringe of the stage floor. Fiend club junkies locked on the front of the stage sang backups on “We Are 138,” “Last Caress,” and “I Turned into a Martian.” I think that a lot of the crowd might not have heard of Misfits before, or had ever seen what they looked like, as evidenced by baffled expressions on their faces. They might just as easily have been in a frenzy searching out the best drink deals like an Easter egg hunt. Regardless, WE BITE!!! closed out their set, leaving voices still shouting out songs that they held close to their heart.
Born Tonight opened with a grizzly tone, sucking a couple layers of people onto the momentarily polished dance floor with various alcoholic beverages. This four-piece out of the “whale’s vagina” known as San Diego, CA, brought a radio-friendly, modern hard rock sound, lightly splashed with emo-core tendencies. Born Tonight delivered long drawn out vocals backed with progressive power chords that seemed to get a wave of head nods throughout LaSalle’s. BT concentrated on a darker sound, complete with frantic cymbal clashes and a shake of sorrow to the vocals. The crowd seemed to be taking the bait and was eating it up. The girls were lushed up and were all about the singer Jay screaming at the end of the songs. He retorted with, ”Shut up. You girls are just drunk!” Towards the end, people were still feeling the intensity of songs like ”Fight,” but the crowd seemed to disperse to the back patio when it came to songs that started out yelling “Get the fuck up!”
People feel for music in different ways, and even familiar warm up riffs can hype up a good-sized crew that are waiting to here some tunes. Inflatable Supermodel did just that, busting out a little “Billy Passed the 3rd Grade” from the ‘90s flick Billy Madison. To get the crowd even more amped, Inflatable Supermodel proceeded in a little crowd participation, making sure that everyone had a drink and could chant that they were “fucked up.” By that point in the night, empty pitchers were a dime a dozen, and the crowd was charged to see this local five-piece throw down. Inflatable had immediate attention with their glowing stage presence, while singer Joe could only last a minute before he ripped off his shirt to get into the true essence of his performance. With an upbeat ska sound, Joe lured people from their dismal tables to the floor with random hijinks such as slappin’ a magazine page onto his forehead to add some easy props to their set, and singing about suburbanite bitches cutting you off in traffic. With performances such as these, there is no problem with LaSalle’s easily affording to keep up with other leading venues on big nights.
– Words and Photos by Chad Inman

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