I had the pleasure of seeing the Dickies on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at the Red Devil Lounge. Before the show, I said to Chris Cook, Ezra and Deanna, “This show will either be really great or it was suck ass.” I am happy to report that it was really great.
The Dickies came out and rocked one right after another, the musicianship was tight and the songs were fun. The singer, Leonard Graves Phillips, was snotty, clever and funny as hell. He kept saying that he was so happy to be back in San Leandro.
There were props for a lot of the songs including a monkey mask, a penis hand puppet (with scrotum) and an inflatable doll. Needless to say, the floorshow was quite entertaining. But I will say this, without the props and without the jokes, it still would have been a great show. The musicians were “spot on” and the vocals were fantastic. Leonard’s voice is exactly the same as it was 25+ years ago. Very cool, man.
The opening act was The Pleasure Kills, a local SF band that I have wanted to see for a while. They were great. They came out, they played a few catchy garage-punk tunes and split. They seemed to be having a great time. There was even a brief moment of moshing wherein a beer was splattered on the floor and the pint glass shattered. Spattered and shattered.
Squeezed in between the above mentioned bands was the B-Cups. They were fun fun fun. The singer is an Amazon goddess that I would love to wrestle with. But enough about me, check ‘em out, they rock.
I’d say if you get a chance to see the Dickies, and you’re familiar with their music, you should go. They played all my favs Gigantor, If Stuart Could Talk, Paranoid, Knights in White Satin, and much more.
Photos by my friend Ezra Ekman (http://www.ezraphoto.com).