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The country's two biggest punk, grindcore, death, and whatever-you-want-to-call-your-favorite-musical-poison
magazines are Flipside and Maximum Rock n' Roll, both based out of California.
Late last year, Flipside had on their cover a band called the BellRays.
The band was fronted by a Polynesian woman named Lisa and backed by three
grinders on guitar, bass, and drums, and the interview and two raving
record reviews convinced me that this was someone I should check out.
The effusiveness of praise matched that of such earlier critical hysteria
for the Dropkick Murphys, Brujeria, the Candysnatchers, the Stitches,
the Humpers, Zen Guerilla, and Electric Frankenstein. I later discovered
(and not to my surprise) that the BellRays fit right into this crowd with
ease; if you like those bands, you'll eat up the BellRays.
Well, sometime early this year, I got a chance to hear this band on an L.A. station called KXLU that beams out of Loyola Marymount college in West Los Angeles and plays some of the best new music in the country. And I remember thinking at first exposure: Some day, some way, I would definitely like to see this crowd live. Well, that's what happened at a St. Louis bar called the Hi-Pointe Cafe on Wednesday before the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Gateway.
I'd heard he was pretty good, but I didn't know that he was good enough to hunker down with a sledgehammer outfit like this one, whose current line-up also consists of Lisa Kekaula (vocals), Bob Vennum (bass), and Tony Fate (guitar). Todd is, and the band lived up to all expectations. They did an hour set and it left little doubt in my mind why they are considered one of the best two or three live bands in Los Angeles, and, to be frank, anywhere. Like numerous punk kickers, they blast from one song to the next w.f.o.; their playing is loud, fast, and on the money, and Lisa's presence vocally and physically give the band an instant identity. I don't play an instrument, but I have bought records for a little over 42 years and I can back-up with some confidence what a record reviewer in Maxiumum Rock n' Roll recently wrote about the BellRays (to paraphrase), "it's amazing they've lasted this long without an approach by a major label."
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The big deal about the show for us DRO-zers was the band's new drummer,
Todd Westover. Todd used to be in a band called Doorslammer, but more
to our purposes, currently is the art director at Hot Rod magazine (yes,
that Hot Rod magazine) and formerly was AD at Drag Racing Monthly (Super
Stock & Drag Illustrated) and before that Drag Racing magazine.