Thursday, March 29, 2012

Heavy Rotation - The Bellrays

Yet another, "Back in LA" story. While I was still out there, round about 2001, I was chatting with Phil(see the Flamin' Groovies post)on the phone. He had yet to depart Boston for the West. In that conversation he told me how he had heard this song by the "Del Rays" on WMBR in Cambridge and he thought they were LA based. "Check em out man." Well alright. I was back then as I am still now always on the hunt for good tunes, so...

After a little looking, I found that the band was not the "Del Rays", but "The Bellrays" and they were actually the opening band for a headliner at Spaceland that weekend. Cool. Without having heard any of their tunes, off I went. On came some serious rock dudes fronted by a black woman with a killer afro. The night got real interesting. My slats got kicked in not only by the absolute fury of the music but the soul that screamed from the woman's mouth. Instant comparisons: The MC5 fronted by Tina Turner. The Stooges fronted by Aretha. All I know is that they were so damn good, so damn tight, so damn KILLER that when lead singer Lisa Kekaula screamed out, "Are you ready to testify?!" my response was a delirious, "OHHH YEAH!!"

I couldn't even stick around for the headliner. In my opinion, there was just no way in hell that whoever went up next was going to follow or even hold a candle to the show I had just seen. I stopped at the merch table, bought a cd and went home.

The next day, another friend and my writing partner at the time, Rob, stopped by. Rob is from Queens, another avid music fan and the man that turned me into a serious hip hop fiend(which is another story altogether). At the time, Rob, although well versed in a lot of genres was only just starting to really dig on rock music and he was real particular in terms of what he liked. "Hey dude. Check this out." I threw the cd in and a wall of feedback came roaring out. Rob looked at me like I had lost my mind, playing this crap for him. I held up a finger. Wait for it. And Lisa's voice came roaring out and Rob's jaw dropped, "Who the fuck is THIS!!" Right.

And that's my story of how I discovered The Bellrays. I saw them plenty of times out there and even though these days, their sound is a little less rough around the edges, they still kill it.

Post Script - The headlining act that I skipped that night? The White Stripes before they blew up. Nope. I don't regret it. And I still maintain my stance from that night. They weren't going to fade The Bellrays. Sorry.

Are you ready to testify?

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