Kyuss Lives?
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 I have a confession to make. I'm old enough to know who KYUSS was but I didn't find them out until it was too late. It's not like someone played them for me and I didn't get it. I just had no fucking clue they even existed. Same deal with SLEEP. So much west coast goodness that this east coast boy simply missed in its prime. Now both bands have reunited to cash in on the glory that has been bestowed upon them since their untimely demise in the mid-90s. "Cash in" is probably not fair. I have no reason to question that their motivation is anything but pure.
Friday night as the Wiltern the band known as KYUSS LIVES! plays their first gig in Los Angles after visiting nearby Pomona earlier this fall. This show has been hyped up as a "once in a lifetime, only in the U.S. gig." What does that get you? A 2 1/2 hour set. Songs from the entire discography including "rarities and b-sides". Last time you will see Oliveri on stage before he does serious time? And special guests, plural! So who do we think they're gonna be? Let's start with who we know will be there. The touring lineup has been John Garcia, Brant Bjork, Nick Oliveri and the newcomer guitarist Bruno Fevery. That leaves quite a few former members to specially appear. Last week bassist Scott Reeder was announced as one guest, but that surprise was pretty muted by the fact that he stepped in on all the foreign gigs that Oliveri's bail agreement forbid him from playing.
So that leaves Josh Homme, original bassist Chris Cockrell and Bjork's replacement Alfredo Hernandez. I've been assured by people who should know that Homme won't be there. And everything I know tells me their not bluffing. Even all these years later, the Bjork/Homme relationship remains strained, maybe irreconcilably so. And that makes this reunion a bitter pill to swallow, because as Bjork puts it, "Josh and I were the creative force of Kyuss." For fuck's sake, rhey started making music together at age 12. To Homme's credit, he has only uttered nice things about the tour, saying shit like he wants to scream from the mountaintops "Go get 'em boys!" and hoping they "[fucking] blow your mind." Sure, those lines could have easily been delivered with his usual heavy dose of sarcasm, but let's just sit back and enjoy the rare smell of love in the air. And even if he's not physically there with us, his presence will be undeniable. His songs will be played, and the reformed band's name is probably his as well. Garcia, speaking to J. Bennett of Decibel about the making of Welcome to Sky Valley, had this to say:
They'll ask me to sign Sky Valley and I'll see Josh's signature already on there--at the bottom, he'll write something like "Kyuss lives." So I started writing the same thing on the Kyuss records that didn't have his autographs on them, because I know that some of those kids will bring those records to a Queens show for him to sign [laughs]. So that's kind of my way of sending him a letter, like "Hey, dude - it does live, just to let you know."
Indeed, it does. So if we count Homme out, that leaves Cockrell, Hernandez and the two other names we'll throw out as potential guests are Chris Goss and Mario Lalli. Any other ideas? No matter who shows up, as this video show, it will be fun as hell.
We've got 10 pairs of tickets to send your way for this one. You know the routine. Email us your full name to thecityofdevils@gmail.com or contact us here to enter. We'll announce all winners by Friday at noon.
Beardy
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Beardy
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Reader Comments (1)
I see people on Facebook that have posted about buying tickets now posting this link, makes me wonder why they need more tickets...