wow.....this should be good.....

It will be tough to make a choice on the first edition of Black Rock Day, this upcoming September 25. In Los Angeles, The Viper Room will host the first west coast 24/7 Spyz show in 13 years. 24-7 Spyz will be supported by LA's The Year of the Dragon (with Dirty Walt) who just released their second album, Blunt Force Karma. In the meantime, in San Francisco, Living Colour and Fishbone will share the stage of the Regency's Grand Ballroom. That has not happened in the last 16 years or so either.
Hopefully Arnold gets his act together and grants us all the power of ubiquity and follows through with another incredible alignment of stars for 2010.

japanrocks said:

Yeah, I've been hip to this for awhile being I was an o.g. member of the BRC (Black Rock Coalition). I'm already slated to go to the Viper show since that's my home club. I wish Fishbone was on the bill with 24-7 out here instead of S.F but I've seen Fishbone over 20 times live so what the hell.

for some reason i never got into 24/7 spyz or living colour as much as Fishbone

who knows? maybe some old band members will show up (Kendall, Chris, Fish, etc.)

After Living Colour's last effort, I'm a little wary of this new album.

japanrocks said:

Well personally, I NEVER really dug Living Colour's sound. Largely due to Vernon's playing style. Vernon is very good, that's no question. I just never really dug his "sound" and his playing style. Just a matter of taste. Just to head off folks on here trying to trip, here is an example.... I never really dug Mike Hampton's playing style. Especially live. But he has mad respect from me simply because the cat has played on some classic Funkadelic albums and was there up in it on the P Funk Earth tour that I attended when I was a kid from 77. But in comparison, I always favored Blackbyrd McKnight over Hampton. Live, Dwayne is NO joke although he wasn't in the mob in the 70's like Hampton was. But I still favor Blackbyrd's playing. But anyway, as far as Living Colour is concerned, the concept of an all black rock band wasn't anything "new" to me personally cuz I was doing that myself when I was 18 years old. And Jimi's BOG and Funkadelic, along with Black Murda and others, well, all that goes without saying. 24/7, I always liked and I have seen them play once and they were cool. But nah, I don't rank neither one up with Fishbone. I first started seeing Fishbone live when I was in Jr. high when they were truly just a great local L.A. band with a great following. My band actually did a double billing for 5 different shows with Weapon of Choice, a band that had great ties with Fishbone. So Norwood would sometimes come to our shows, which was cool. To me, Fishbone is a lot like the band Love and the Peppers are a lot like The Doors. For those who know what I mean by this, then cool. Just saying Fishbone is HIGHLY and criminally underrated.
[Edited 8/1/09 14:42pm]

Yeah.....I also saw Fishbone when I was in high school. They quickly became my favorite band. Ended up seeing them around 25 times in concert. Kinda sad what happened to them. Now I am sure they put on a good show but nothing like the original band.

Love Weapon of Choice! Another underrated band. Saw WOC open for Fishbone once. That was an amazing night.

Living Colour? I liked their first album. After that I had a hard time getting into their music.

I think they should literally do a Black Rock Tour or something with Fishbone, Living Colour, 24/7 Spyz, WOC and Bad Brains. I know I am leaving out a few and I know someone suggested this idea already but I think they should just do it already.

Yeah it's a good summer for black rock for LA. Didn't know we had an offical name for it, but things are coming together very nicely. I like that the black rock bands all have a different sound. I missed Spysz altogether and was slow to get on Living Colour from Lolapalooza, but dug Vernon Reid since the avant-jazz of Decoding Society. Norwood and Fish were Local Heroes for all us ghetto-freaks.

My POV on the black rock movement is it was a well-worked gimmick that got the door opened. Here's the schedule:

Every Sat nite in Aug Truilo Disgracias Lyon's Den
Sat Aug 08 Year Of The Dragon (plus others) The Good Hurt

Sat Aug 29 Dawn Silva Feat. Blackyrd Mc Knight (Also in Danny Bedrosian's Secret Army) Long Beach Funk Fest

Sat Aug 29 George Clinton & PFAS Club Nokiaa Los Angeles

Thurs 09-24-09 Living Colour opener TBA The Key Club
Fri 09-25-09 24-7 Spyzs Year Of The Dragon Viper Room

if you want the road double-bill
SF
Fri 09-25-09 FishBone/Living Colour Regency Ballroom

If ya wanna hang, I'll be around for all LA shows except the Clinton Club Nokia.
[Edited 8/2/09 6:11am]