Bear’s Concert Haiku Review: Bite Me Bambi & Dance Hall Crashers
Bambi torches venue.
Then D.C.H. throws downright
epic house party.
Tickets to the Dance Hall Crashers reunion show at Great American Music Hall for Saturday, June 7th sold out in FIVE minutes. This resulted in them adding a second show on Friday. And Friday the opener was the kickass band Bite Me Bambi. I knew about neither show until the Wednesday prior. As somebody not so secretly obsessed with females in male dominated genres I thought, “Poop! Both nights sold out but I need to gooooo!”
So I used my ticket-fu and found somebody with an extra ticket.
I had only discovered the Dance Hall Crashers in the last seven years or so. I liked the material well enough, especially the song “Day Job”. But Dance Hall Crashers originate from Berkeley so seeing a local band on home turf was even more appealing because hometown heroes and all.
Bite Me Bambi, from Anaheim, was opening for a band who have not played a show in over twenty years and who are, as I said, on home turf. Being an opener is often a dirty trenches part of the job with little glamour. And Bay Area audiences are really fickle with their audience energy with headliners so you can imagine what opening acts endure. But at least Bite Me Bambi was in a larger venue as part of sold out show thus getting more eyes on them and more fans.
But being in the trenches of San Francisco clearly did not phase lead singer and guitarist Tahlena Chikami and the rest of the band for they came out howitzer blasting. They did not waste a second. Just mowed down the venue from the onset. Tahlena after the first or second song shouted something to the effect of, “Let’s be real we’re all here for Dance Hall Crashers!” The crowed cheered as the band reloaded the howitzer. She would say something similar a few other times during the set giving props to one of the very few female fronted ska bands not just in the 90s but in entire genre period. Now she may have paid respects verbally with the shout outs but the band played like, “I know your here for Dance Hall Crashers. But right your gonna reckon with Bite Me Bambi”. They played like they were making sure you would not forget the opening act.
Every song was a fever pitch of skankin’ and slam dancin’ and for a mostly older audience the floor crowd up front moved quite a bit, which I don’t usually see in the Bay Area. By the end of the set the Great American Music Hall was in shambles. Dust and ash, splintered wood, rubble… And so as the crew setup for the main event you could feel the construction crew slowly piecing the venue back together as it was repaired and rebuilt.
I honestly was a little concerned that Dance Hall Crashers would not be able to match that energy and ferocity of Tahlena and crew.
But after a little sound check the hometown heroes came out to deafening cheers, fired up, “Queen For Day” and ripped through 25 songs. Every one a banger. There was very little talk from the band aside from thank yous and a brief note about this reunion being brought about because the children of the band members had complained they never got to see their parents perform live. And then word quickly spread and the band found out just how much demand there was and how much the Bay Area loves it local music icons. Especially, the punk and alternative acts that refused to cave to the major labels. Every song was met with cheers, pogoing, and most people singing along to all the songs.
I did notice a fair amount of parents who had brought their kids. And it was cute to see kid’s surprised faces as their parents sang along and slam danced or bounced about. I imagine some were thinking, “So this is what dad was like as a teenager… Woah!”
Dance Hall Crashers did not decimate the venue like Bite Me Bambi. For me it was a totally different energy and intention that in a way surpassed the previous destruction. They played the set like they were the house/frat party band in some 80s or early 90s teen comedy. The bullies rear end a manure truck, some dude the size of a gorilla jumps into a pool, a donkey or some other farm animal shows up and there is possibly too much beer… It was the immature raucous energy of youth that you get when your parents FINALLY go away on vacation and you are “free”.
And whatever the ages of the band members, they did not show any signs of slowing down.
I wondered if the only reason they stooped the show was because the ran out of songs. But they did not because I never got to hear, “Day Job”.
The two lead singers were like the punk parallel to the wonderful harmonies of Kate Pierson and Cindy Williams of The B-52’s. And the rest of the band; Jason Hammon, Mikey Weiss, Gavin Hammon just played one crazy and catchy hook after another. The band and the audience rarely stopped to breath. And those closest to the stage and on the very outskirts were moving like aging didn’t even exist. Again, the house party energy. I think most of the audience turned 16 again for solid two or more hours.
I will note for the original Saturday show the opener is Oakland indie band Small Crush a band fronted by the daughter of the drummer. I have listened to some of their stuff and it is great and I am sure they will be great live. But personally, Bite Me Bambi seems like the better bill. All that anti-authority warzone destruction was the perfect setup for the victory house party.
Dance Hall Crashers never really made it big outside the bay area, certainly not in the way other ska bands in the 90s did. They had some minor MTV airplay but ran into the problems many female fronted bands face (i.e. we already have a female ska band called No Doubt). Also they just didn’t want to do what the labels suggested (i.e. do cover songs for the singles).
It seemed they were fine with the level local of success they had achieved being part of the Gilamn Street punk scene. So they flew under the radar, never reaching the heights of other acts of the period like Green Day, also a Gilman Street alum.
But seeing a band play more or less on their home turf (technically Berekley is home turf but we won’t split hairs) was ecstatic. The way the locals who grew up with them and the scene reacted and sang along especially to the songs “Don’t Wanna Behave” and the closer “DHC”. It perfectly encapsulated what I have stated as a personal goal previously: I want the people of the bay area to support their local bands with the same fervor they support their local sports teams.
And the sweat soaked audience Friday proved we can and we do.
FAVORITES OF SET:
He Wants me Back
Don’t Wanna Behave
DHC
Next To You
Lost Again
WHAT YOU WITNESSED OR WHAT YOU MISSED:
I could not find a set list for Bite Me Bambi but I do know they played my favorite of theirs, “Carried Away” and did a proper skankin’ cover of “One Step Beyond”.
Queen for a Day Play
Cold Shower
Sticky
Next to You
Go
My Problem
Triple Track
Mr. Blue
I Want It All
Make Her Purr
The Real You
Enough
All Mine
Keep On Running
Lost Again
Good for Nothing
We Owe
Cat Fight
Don’t Wanna Behave
Othello
The Truth About Me
He Wants Me Back
Over Again
Elvis & Me (bonus track not originally on printed set list)
DHC
