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Notes from the Real World

Reality Bites: 'Real World SC' wouldn't look like 'Martha Stewart Living,' especially with Good Riddance around. Kym A. Casting a local version of MTV's wacky 'reality' show The recent P.A.W.N.S. and Riff Raff Streetlight shows on Community TV kept me glued to the tube. "If only all of TV was like this," I kept saying to myself, when I experienced an epiphany. Let's hand-pick a crew of SC's top musicians and trap them in a seedy-yet- $2,200-a-month duplex. Screw MTV--we can have Real World Santa Cruz. For bizarre facial gestures alone, my first pick would be Chuck, the bassist from Good Riddance. Decked out in seductive Fat Records pajamas, Chuck could hold a seance and resurrect shock rocker GG Allin, who could assume the role of MTV's legendary crusty punk, Puck. Then perhaps Russ from Good Riddance could make a cameo (during sweeps week) and piss everybody off by replacing all the Heineken in the fridge with Pepsi. Odie from Riff Raff, with alternahunk tattooed all over him, could have all the teenybopping viewers hurling their Matt Damon photos into the outhouse. Mat, Herbert's banshee of a vocalist, could duke it out with the Damones, after he bites the head off of their beloved tomcat. St. Anne from P.A.W.N.S. could share a bunk bed with Sista Monica and share record collections: "Sista, these are the Mentors." Imagine the shenanigans when all of Slow Gherkin and the Huxtables suddenly move in the house, devour the last kibble of ramen and play Dungeons & Dragons 24/7? Then, for the show's finale, there could be an epic Riff Raff vs. the Inciters showdown. After all, hunger plus anger equals ratings. Matt Koumaras Skinny's Gains Weight Green Means Go, a new three-piece outfit (featuring Ezra, Buddys Riot's master of twang, who also knows how to fashion a stand-up bass out of a bucket and a broomstick), made its local debut at Skinny McDoogle's on Friday. The show was minimally publicized, but for some reason the joint was packed with familiar faces. I didn't catch much of Green's set, but what I heard had a quick garage fuzz that sounded very promising. Our ancestors probably slithered out of the sea and grew legs with more haste than the What-Nots got set up, but once on, the band was as punchy as usual, playing a couple of songs I hadn't heard in so long they sounded brand-new. The set was followed by a short tirade by Vinnie La Russa, who occasionally hijacks the mic as a representative for his band, Anarchy Fox, then disappears. I'll leave this one for you to figure out. The stage at Skinny's is a small enclosed space flanked by two large posts that virtually imprison the drummer and inevitably squeeze the string players out onto the main floor. While the drummer's moves are obscured, acrobatics on the front lines are encouraged. And since when have the Damones turned down an invitation like that? (I know I wrote about them last week, but they were sporting new outfits, so it's OK.) The set was a blast, rivaling the most grotesquely contorted grimaces in rock & roll throughout the set. Singer Chris Gonzales did his fall-over-and-play-dead shtick, which I love, but I was impressed most with the bassist and guitarist's synchronized shoulder/head wag during one of the ballads. Talk about impeccable timing. Arwen Curry [ Santa Cruz Week | MetroActive Central | Archives ]