The Beatdown

The crowd was mostly a sausage-fest -- Jimi, my newly divorced compadre, counted only half a dozen ladies -- but that issue aside, it was a scene worth duplicating. There were no bar stars, no egos, no haters. The people in the audience, as well as those on stage, were there for the music, and only the music. While Scrimm played, everyone on the floor -- including the next band up, Autopsy Commission, and Lenzig from Cephalic Carnage -- banged their heads in unison. And appreciation.

That's what it's all about. Although I still probably couldn't stomach a full set by D.O.R.K. (not when Dylan can sing, without irony, a line like "Whatever happened to punk and rocking with your cock out?"), I'll show up for their shows, pay my five bucks, and continue to support the music and the people who make it.

Upbeats and beatdowns: Michael St. James has officially left the Soul Thieves and is said to be working on a new Web site and a publishing deal with EMI; he also plans to start playing as a solo act very soon. ION is auditioning drummers to replace Davis -- who "was just not the right drummer for the band," according to guitarist Todd Schlafer. And finally, Commerce City's finest, the hard-rockin' hessians in Black Lamb, are looking for a bassist to replace Andy Phieffer. According to guitarist Ben Ryan, a fight between Phieffer and the band's other six-stringer, Billy Stewart, at the Larimer Lounge after Mile High Stonehenge inspired the roster change. Ryan wouldn't go into any more detail, but he did say the band probably won't play a few of its upcoming dates and may take a month off.

This Saturday, September 13, five decades of legendary pedal-steel playing and there's-a-tear-in-my-beer, foot-stomping country converge at the Zephyr Lounge in Aurora, as Uncle Dick Meese rides shotgun in a special appearance with Matt O'Neill and His Thrifty Combo. Elsewhere that night, Pacify, Tyfoid Mary, Sickbox, Ransom and Non-Hero will help celebrate the release of the 5,425 Ft. Project's twelve-track compilation spotlighting six of Aurora's best and brightest, at Pink E's Black Den in Westminster.