“Contra,” the latest album from Vampire Weekend, quickly became a hit after it was released January 11, 2010, and reached the number one spot on the Billboard 200. For good reason too — the upbeat dance sounds just invite listeners to cheer the fuck up and enjoy the sounds they’re hearing — something us students could use right now with all the negative UC vibes we’ve been dealing with.

The sounds of “Contra” differ relatively dramatically from those of their first self-titled album, “Vampire Weekend,” released in January of 2008. Their debut album was more indebted to punk and alternative influences, while “Contra” has a buoyant sound more similar to pop. In other words, I challenge you to listen to it without getting up and dancing like crazy.

The biggest hit and first single from the album, “Horchata,” makes college kids want to drop everything, hop in their ’91 Volvo station wagon, and road trip to Mexico. Or maybe that’s just me. Listening to this song since January has had me anticipating summer and everything it entails almost torturously. Vampire Weekend has somehow perfected the art of making listeners travel to far away, warm places with their lyrics.

Vampire Weekend is one of our generation’s ultimate college bands, with lead singer Ezra Koenig belting out the soundtrack to student’s lives. His unique voice and appealing lyrics turn any drunken — or hey, even sober — emotional college moment into a happy memory.

Another track from their latest album that sends me to distant, pleasant lands is “Holiday.” It’s impossible to stay in study mode when listening to this track during the school year. Whatever holiday you may think this song pertains to — Cinco de Mayo, 4/20 (that’s an official holiday now, right?), your birthday — it psyches you up and makes you ready to celebrate.

It’s undeniable that a lot of popular music these days sounds pretty similar and repetitive. In an age where Justin Bieber, the Black Eyed Peas and Miley Cyrus rule the charts, pop music clearly lacks a certain sense of originality. That’s what sets Vampire Weekend apart — we haven’t heard it before. “Contra” presents us with an array of sounds and styles that we don’t see very often. It is what I want my college experience to sound like. If you can listen to “Contra” without thinking of dancing in the sunshine, painting your face, sipping cool drinks, and sporting a sunburn and a Moleskine notebook in your hand, then I feel sorry for you.

Only a few years old and already gaining momentum, AM Taxi is all set for their U.S. tour and for their appearance on the Warped Tour this summer.

Adam spills the goods on out-of-control gigs, banana slug encounters and the ups and downs of crowd surfing.

~~~~~~

For AM Taxi newbies, how did the band come together?  A brief history?

We are a Chicago group, we came together three-and-a-half years ago.  We were touring in different groups for years and years and knew each other through that.  Actually, it was me, Chris Smith [drums, backups] and Jason Schmitt (guitar, backups) that got started together. Once we decided we wanted to play shows and do other things, we got my neighbor John and became a five-piece.

You used to be known as “American Taxi” — why the name change?

There was another group with a similar name [The Great American Taxi] and we had to in order to avoid confusion.

Congratulations on signing with Virgin!  How did that come about and how has it changed things for you and the band?

It came about because, well, we just started talking to different record labels and the people at Virgin seemed to get what we were about and share the same vision we have for the project, so it was a really good fit for us.  It’s changed things in that now we can focus on the music more instead of other things like trying to get T-shirt orders in and tours booked, and, you know, promotional things like that.  It’s really helped to get the word around.

According to Alternative Press, you’re in the top 100 bands I need to know.  For newcomers to your music, why are they going to fall in love with your band?

We’re not reinventing the wheel or anything. It’s just honest rock n’ roll music and you don’t see a lot of that any more.  Everything kind of has a gimmick to it, and you don’t see straight ahead.  I think it’ll be a breath of fresh air.

What was it like recording your album live and how do you feel about the outcome?

I think it was the only way we could have done it and I’m really glad we did it that way.  We talked to a dozen or so producers.  Everybody’s sort of in a room by themselves [when you don’t record it live].  Playing it live to a tape moving instead and playing it all together … that’s the way they made records up until the ’80s.  It was good for us because that’s where our influences come from.  A lot of great records were made that way.  There’s a lot of real energy that comes across when you make it that way — there’s mistakes, but they’re real mistakes and I think it comes across.

Do you have day jobs?

This has become pretty full time. We’ve been on the road — we’re about to go on our fourth tour, we leave next week for that, and then we’re on the Warped Tour all summer.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I just wanted to do this.  So I’m pretty happy.  I’m not sure if I could do anything else, really. I’m a bit of a one-trick pony I guess.

What’s the music scene like in Chicago and how do you fit in?

The music scene is amazing, there’s a whole lot of variety, which is good for us cause we can fit in and do a few different things.  We can play with indie rock bands, punk bands, rock-n-roll bands, pop bands, et cetera.  There are a lot of open-minded listeners.

You listed The Police as one of your influences on your Myspace — what’s your favorite song of theirs?

I really like their early stuff, the first two or three records. “Bring on the Night” is my favorite song of theirs.

Have you ever crowd surfed?

[Laughs] I have a few times, when I was younger.  I haven’t in a few years.  I have a chain attached to my wallet and I lost a bit of money once.

What was it like working with Sum 41 and The Offspring?

We didn’t really get a chance to meet Offspring and hang out with them, but they were great and their audience was great.  Sum 41 was really nice, they were really professional.  A lot of people still think of them as kids, but they’re a well-rounded, well-oiled machine — totally functional, totally pro.

What’s the weirdest show you’ve ever played?

There’s been some strange ones, let me think. We played on a race track once which was really bizarre.  There have been some crazy ones.  We got pranked the last night of the Billy Talent tour that we were on by them and their crew — they superglued our drummer’s sticks together and filled the cymbal with baby powder … it just got everywhere.

What bullshit advice did you get when you were first starting out?

We talked to one manager in particular and he said that we shouldn’t be focusing just on the music.  Music has to be the priority.  There’s a lot of D.I.Y. Myspace Internet bands that promote their asses off, and that’s great, as long they are spending as much time rehearsing as they are getting Myspace fans.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that these young bands are working to promote themselves, but I think that music needs to come first.

UCSC’s mascot is a banana slug — have you ever seen one?  Would you lick one as it is a Santa Cruz tradition?

I haven’t.  But they seem pretty cool, yeah, I probably would lick one.

~~~~~~

See AM Taxi live at Slim’s in San Francisco on April 29.  Their album “We Don’t Stand a Chance” comes out June 8.  For more info, visit amtaximusic.com.

Album art from Petrychor's EP, Dryad, available to listen to and download at petrychor.com.

It’s been cloudy around the campus lately, which makes the fact that I’ve been listening to Petrychor’s Dryad EP, a gem of a black metal album, all the more appropriate. Petrychor is a one-man band out of California shrouded in mystery; the sole member, simply known as “T” according to the band’s Myspace page, plays all the instruments. “T” recently put this EP up on his website, accepting donations from listeners willing to give. Not much else is known about the band except what is found on his website, which details the band’s goal and sound: “This is music for meditation, for frustration and anger, for beauty, and above all for communication. Petrychor seeks to expand on and enhance those focuses typically associated with black metal by staying open to outside influences.” It’s these influences that set this short DIY demo apart from the crowd.

The EP opens with the title track “Dryad (I Make My Home),” a 10-minute journey from rain-spattered windows to dissonant and distorted riffs, played as if cutting through the very fog I found myself surrounded by; haunting and unseen. There’s melody throughout the song, it’s just hidden beneath the screeches and banshee cries. Petrychor plays the typical tremolo picking style guitars with crashing cymbals and blast beats, but the guitar solos stand out for their melodies. The end of the song really keys in on the themes of melancholy and isolation found in black metal. Mysteriously beautiful, the atmosphere and acoustic sections of “Dryad” manage to resonate the most within the songs.

“Gamma Leonis” and “…of Salt and Sky” continue the EP’s intimate nature. “Gamma Leonis” opens with sparse piano, setting a tension that is quickly released with such aggression and passion and build-up that you would think that post-rock gods Mono were playing. “…of Salt and Sky” whisks the listener to the ocean, watching the ebb and tide of the water, nature, and even life; an acoustic guitar and twinkling piano play alongside the sea.

Dryad leaves you craving more, fitting in perfectly within the black metal genre. Containing only three songs and clocking in at 22 minutes, Dryad could be longer. However, the proceeds of this EP go toward the creation of a full-length album, which is already in the works according to Petrychor’s Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/petrychor). Despite this EP’s short length, it succeeds in making the listener crave more, and does so without sounding incomplete.

I would give Dryad 4 zombie babies out of 5.

~~~~~~

You can get the EP from http://www.petrychor.com. Also look for news on the full-length album currently in production.

“Messy, Isn’t It?” is Dangers’s second full-length album, and shows us a band who’s not afraid to do the little things needed to make their music more engaging. Now this isn’t a revolutionary release, but it is, to say the very least, a good one. It’s fun, it’s serious, it’s sarcastic, it’s vengeful, it’s angry. In essence it’s superior to most other bands that play hardcore music. Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just show that it’s still relevant and interesting.

Dangers pull this off with haste and urgency, having songs ranging anywhere from forty-five seconds (“Saved by the Buoyancy of Citrus”), to the three minute closer (“The El Segundo Blue Butterfly Habitat Preserve”). They know how to play fast paced hardcore, but they aren’t afraid to bring down the tempo and pump up the passion.

It’s the little things in this album that really make it stand out. Take for example “Check, Please”, which spends its first 40 seconds thrashing about like a child mid tantrum, until it hits the breakdown at which point the tempo takes a moment to breathe, finding the bands lead singer belting in French.

It’s at this moment, when hearing the pleas of “Mademoiselle, s’il vous plait, please excuse all the flesh I once ate”, that you realize that even if you don’t speak or understand French, you just don’t care. In the end you find yourself belting those lines out at the same intensity regardless.

“Opposable” finds a single voice calling for the bass to start, introducing the hardcore fury that follows. You then hear vocalist Al Brown snarl “A primate with opposable thumbs, to hold the clubs, to shoot the guns”. Overall another slower tempo song, but this is when Dangers is easily at its most dangerous.

Then there’s “Cure for Cancer” and “Cure for AIDS”, the controversially titled duo that, upon listening, are complete opposites of one another.

During “Cure for Cancer” the band plays at some of their fastest, reflecting the quickness and ferocity with which cancer can strike.

The cure here lies in playing faster, louder, and getting all the impurities out with screams and yells.

While “Cure for AIDS” finds the band slowing it down again, here Dangers utilizes its sound to reflect the way in which AIDS slowly takes a hold of its victims.

From the beginning of the song we hear “You are going to die, your parents, your children, they’re all going to die, slow painful with a methadone drip”.

It’s safe to say that Dangers is not holding back. And while some may find this somewhat tasteless, I find that it makes the band more dynamic and mature for touching on such topics and refusing to back down.

There are countless little things about this band and their music that makes them standout. Even their interludes, “Messy, Isn’t it” and “(Love Poem)”, are engaging while giving the listener a breather.

The latter track is layered by monotone voices repeating over one another, “It’s so nice to wake up in the morning all alone and not have to tell somebody you love them, when you don’t love them anymore”.

A cynic’s delight, Danger’s “Messy, Isn’t It?” is as hardcore as it is smart and subtle, drawing you in and then tearing you apart. Can’t say I would have it any other way.

~~~~~

Final Verdict: 4 zombie babies out of 5

On the newest album, Slayer has gone and done what it does best: make dark, violent thrash music. Thrash, for the unaware, is a subgenre of heavy metal that uses fast tempos, excessive aggression and guitar solos. Having been hailed as the “godfathers” of thrash, Slayer became known as one of the original bands to play the style during the ’80s — and there is something to be said about a band that, after over 20 years, is still able to stick to what it does best.

Slayer perfected its fast-paced, shredtastic, apocalyptic thrash metal stylings long ago with classic albums like Seasons In The Abyss and Reign In Blood. However, like any band, they have had a fair share of missteps: Diabolus in Musica found them changing their overall sound to reflect the once increasingly popular nu-metal stylings. But, more often than not, Slayer has stuck to being the same pissed off guys that founded the band so many years ago. And that’s what World Painted Blood is: Slayer being Slayer.

There’s no mistaking the vocals for anyone but Tom Araya, who puts on some good performances for the album. Then there’s the evilest guitar duo on Earth in Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, whose screeching whammy bar dive-bomb guitar solos have always been essential to Slayer songs. Last, but certainly not least, there’s Dave Lombardo who as the drummer sets the breakneck pace and speed that dominates much of the album. Each is essential to the band’s headbanging whole, and their combo makes World Painted Blood a diehard’s delight.

In World Painted Blood, Slayer plays through the entirety of its numerous styles. Songs like “Public Display of Dismemberment” and “Hate Worldwide” harken back to Slayer’s punk roots. Other standout tracks like “Beauty Through Order” and “Playing With Dolls” have Slayer slowing down the tempo and amping up the creep factor, akin to Season In The Abyss. In fact “Playing With Dolls” includes one of the new album’s best moments, when a slow build up leads into the chorus that suddenly manages to amp up the tempo, signaling listeners to start going crazy.

Yet while most songs are exceptionally well done, well played and get your head banging, what they lack is originality. We’ve heard Slayer preach the apocalypse, distrust the government, and hail Satan before — and they’ve done it even better than any song on this album does. While instrumentally Blood has the band doing everything fans want Slayer to do, it’s the content and what they say within the songs that bring this album down.

Granted, the album delves into modern territory with songs like “Snuff,” which reflects on the new age of the Internet and the violence created from it. But with lines like “Action, you’re the main attraction,” it’s hard to help but laugh. There’s also the ridiculous chorus from “The Human Strain”, which features Araya screaming “The human strain, returning plague. Drink the tainted blood from the only child,” which, again, just sounds ridiculous.

It’s these moments that prompt confusion about World Painted Blood. While the overall album thrashes about in true Slayer fashion, it doesn’t add anything new or overtly exciting to their larger discography.

And though no one to my knowledge has ever called Slayer the most poetically sensible band out there despite creating such classics like “Angel of Death” and “War Ensemble,” lyrically the album new album falters heavily in some places; maybe Slayer has reached a point where it can no longer shock us with songs of violence and chaos.

A real surprise would feature an acoustic guitar and a song with the poignancy of Metallica’s “Fade to Black”. Blasphemy? Maybe. You can just call me progressive. World Painted Blood isn’t another Reign In Blood or Seasons In The Abyss, but it isn’t as bad as Diabolous In Musica either. This is Slayer churning out more Slayer, which, while not bad, just isn’t new enough for me.

~~~~~

Scorecard:
Three Zombie Babies out of Five

Source: mickeyavalon.com

I had a naked moment with Mickey Avalon.

Gearing up for his tour to promote his sophomore album to be released this February, Mickey Avalon scheduled a phone interview to promote his show at The Catalyst this Friday.

“Can I call you back in three minutes?” he asked. “I just got out of the shower and got to put some clothes on.” Five minutes later, Mickey Avalon called back.

“You got some clothes on now?” I asked.

“A robe,” he said. “Good enough.”

He immediately set in to rambling about his room at the Red Rocks Casino Resort & Spa in Las Vegas.

“It’s like a club,” he sais, going on to describe the view of Sin City from his suite, which was outfitted with a grand chandelier, multiple flat screen TVs, two turntable booths, a stand up shower, several jacuzzis and a “crazy round bed with a disco ball mirror thing” hanging over it — fitting for Mr. Avalon, who is often described as a “glam rapper.”

The man comes with a story that supersedes his music, about how he grew up in Hollywood, sold pot with his mom at the age of 14 and eventually worked as a male prostitute to support his heroin addiction.

Avalon’s new identity as a musician began when he met Simon Rex (aka Dirt Nasty), the former MTV VJ, now rapper, who got him in the recording studio, as well as clubs with Hollywood’s rich and famous.

In 2006, Avalon rose to fame with his self-titled debut album which detailed his life journey and L.A. lifestyle, with it’s silicone, sex, drugs and of course, rock and roll.

Mickey Avalon spoke with City on a Hill Press about his views on Hollywood and hippies, false Wikipedia entries and the dirt on his falling out with Dirt Nasty.

CHP: I read the LA Weekly piece on what was essentially your life story. I’m sure you get a lot of questions about your past prostitution, drug use and family history. How does it feel to be so explicit about your life? Does it get old?

When we did the piece years ago, I wasn’t really thinking about hiding anything. I kind of said everything.

It feels like a different lifetime—not that its not relevant anymore, I don’t necessarily revisit those times in my mind. When they wrote all that stuff, I was still in the middle of it and was poking fun of it. I liked a lot of that stuff I was writing about.

It’s a little trickier now that I have success. People might misunderstand the jokes.

CHP: Most of your songs have to deal with a certain Southern California lifestyle. For example, “So Rich, So Pretty” talks about girls who obtain beauty through designer clothing, plastic surgeries and eating disorders. What do you think about the Northern California? What would you write about?

Being that I live in SoCal, I just kind of wrote was around me. People are a lot the same around, but then there are differences. Northern California is more hippie. I say that in a good way. I don’t think hippie is a bad word. It’s not as plastic.

People are still funny no matter what. I moved to Portland awhile ago. I got married and had a kid. I wanted to leave all the stuff I talk about in my songs. I wanted to raise my kids in a good area without that bullshit.

I was shopping at the health food store and had to get food for the kid and thought that the hippies loved everybody and were open-minded. They had like dreadlocks and tie dye and Birkenstocks. I thought that was uniform for loving everybody and being open.

However, they were really into everyone that looked like them. They didn’t treat me really nice and it felt like L.A. in a way. I thought I left this materialist shit, these people were still were like, “My club is better than your club.” I had a shaved head. Since I didn’t have dreadlocks and Birkenstocks I didn’t really fit in.

CHP: Speaking of L.A. culture, what do you like most about it?

Most is the weather and being by the ocean. Go somewhere where you like the weather.

CHP: Least?

Everyone’s into their career. If you met someone, rather than “How are you, what’s your deal?”, they would ask “What do you do?” Everyone’s so driven. Rather than going to parties and having fun they’re to trying to network and be ahead.

Where I live, it’s not easier because people are full of shit. It’s so hard to find people that aren’t.

CHP: According to Wikipedia, you attended Webster University in St. Louis before you signed with Interscope Records.

That’s the only thing that’s not true. I’ve been to St. Louis one time and I didn’t go to college.

I did a brief stint at a community college in Portland. I got some little loans to pay for the classes. I took some art classes and a few writing classes. I actually became a writing tutor and got paid. At the time, the most I’d gotten paid was minimum wage—five to six bucks. They paid me nine bucks.

I dig school. Some people are really anti-school. If you have the means to do it, do it. I didn’t—I was already married and had a kid.

CHP: I read you used to be apart of a well-known graffiti crew in Hollywood. What kind of art you doing now?

I did [art] when I was younger. I will [again] when the time’s right, when I have a nice collection of paintings that won’t be connected to Mickey Avalon. I do oil paints, paint figures and stuff.

Take for example Marilyn Manson. He’s a painter and does cool watercolors. But then people might want to go because of Marilyn Manson. I’ll rather them like the art and find out later that it was me.

My favorite living painter is a guy named David Choe. I went to school with him. I didn’t even know he was artist. He is the sickest painter. He does paintings on campus and painting outside. Graffiti, but not pieces with letters. He does the crazy figures and scenes and shit.

CHP: You were in a rap group called Dyslexic Speedreaders along with Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy and Beardo. In a Myspace blog entry posted August 16th, you wrote that the Dylexic Speedreaders were “finito.” What happened?

Unfortunately, things happen that you hear happen to people but you don’t think will happen to you. Bands break up and hate each other. We thought that it wouldn’t happen to us because we’re boring.

Soon things got in the way. Money stuff. We were best friends. I had a manager, then we all had him, then I left him, then they stayed with him. That would’ve been fine, but things got worse and worse. Not only did they not help me out with that situation, they got in the other side and screwed me.

I still have to send money to my old manager, shit they could’ve helped me get out of but didn’t. Our first few tours ended costing me a ton. I come back in the negative and my manager paid them also. They came home with a certain amount of money and I came home with negative $50,000. Everyone got their commission except me, so I got deeper and deeper in a hole.

It got to the point where we couldn’t really talk.

CHP: You and Simon Rex (Dirt Nasty) aren’t friends anymore?

No, we’re not anymore. Or Andre Legacy. But Beardo’s on tour with us. He’s the only one I’m friends with.

CHP: Tell me about your new record. How’s that coming along? How is it different than your first?

The only difference is on my first record I hadn’t played any shows. I wrote from my head whereas now I still work in my head, but say for a chorus, I think about some things work better live. As far as the chorus, I think more of the audience and what they would take to better.

CHP: I first heard your music when I was cleaning some dude’s apartment in exchange for weed my freshman year of college. He was playing “Jane Fonda.” Under what circumstances do people usually play your music?

Sex, drugs and rock and roll. People said they get laid to my music. Boys and girls—people say they get lucky at my shows. Even if they don’t dig what I’m doing, they can pick somebody up.

Strip clubs play my songs a lot. People said they’ve worked out to it, appropriate for a song like “Jane Fonda.” That’s about everything—expect sleeping.

~~~~~

Mickey Avalon performs today, November 6th at The Catalyst. Show begins at 9pm. Tickets are available for $25 online or at the box office.

You can stream Mickey Avalon’s new single, “Stroke Me” on Myspace.

Sept. 13 @ The Catalyst Club, Downtown Santa Cruz

More Cowbell.

That’s what the audience wanted and what it got as the seven-man alternative/reggae band One Pin Short, hailing from Las Vegas, started off the evening.  The band put on quite a pre-show for a modest crowd, including a daring spectacle by guitarist Jesse Magaña, who climbed atop the club’s interior second-story balcony to strum a solo. The band was surprisingly harmonious and managed to get the sparse crowd clapping along to their melodies about peace and revolution.

Orange County natives Suburban Legends followed, and temporarily stunned the crowd with what might best be described as sounding like a boy-band infused first-grade sing along.  Though some might classify the band’s style as childish, there’s also no doubt about the group’s professionalism: with choreographed moves you probably haven’t seen since the ‘N Sync days, and energy level normally attained only by chugging 12 consecutive cans of Red Bull, these boys really know how to work a crowd.
Drummer Derek Lee stopped to chat with City on a Hill Press before the show, and mentioned with certain sadness that the night’s show would be the last one of the tour, which hit cities throughout the U.S. and Europe.   The band went all out for its last show, playing classics from its 11-year career.  Aside from their well-received rendition of the Disney song “Under the Sea,” most of the set was fully recognized only by the two high school girls in the crowd who donned “Suburban Legends” t-shirts.

Many of the members of the eclectic crowd probably wouldn’t jam out to a Suburban Legends album alone at home, but there was nary a soul at the show who could keep from chuckling and grooving with the boys as they goofed around on stage.  The younger and rowdier attendees even started a mosh-pit as horns sounded and rainbow lights flashed.

Headliners Reel Big Fish finally burst onstage and got the crowd going straight away with a spunky, fast-paced version of Aha’s 80s-era hit, “Take On Me”.  Riddled in between their own hits and crowd favorites, the band played a well-received cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” an exciting rendition of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” and a hilarious adaptation of “Beauty School Dropout” from the movie “Grease”.

The mosh pit grew steadily and practically exploded with the onslaught of “Where Have You Been,” and a guest appearance by Suburban Legends guitarist Brian Wayne Klemm, a roommate of Reel Big Fish singer Aaron Barrett.  When Klemm stepped on stage, a wild guitar battle between the roomies ensued.

As the evening reached its pinnacle, Reel Big Fish busted out with the beloved song “Beer”, transporting all in attendance back to the nineties — an era Barrett never fully left, with his impressive sideburns and Hawaiian floral button-up.

When the night seemed like it couldn’t get any more epic, the band announced that it was master of all musical styles and subsequently delivered multiple renditions of their song “You Don’t Know” in various styles: punk-rock, bluegrass, disco, country western and screamo.

As the night drew to a close, Reel Big Fish consoled the audience with the following words of wisdom: “The bad news is we only have one song left. The good news is you can’t get herpes twice.”

It was an undeniably entertaining evening.  There were flashy dance moves, an epic guitar battle, back-in-the-day tunes, and trumpeter Scott Klopfenstein’s adorable thigh-high blue sailor shorts and nerdy glasses.

Oh, and the cowbell.

Sept. 16 @ The Catalyst Club, Downtown Santa Cruz

Arriving before the main event at a live gig is always a gamble.  Apparently everyone decided to play it safe and wait to show up until Sugar Ray was on stage, because opening act Aimee Allen sang to a crowd you could count on two hands.

Allen’s lonely soulful voice was as sad as her numerous pleas for bar patrons to stand up and move closer. But, try as she might, she could not guilt us all into scooting forward.  Decked out in a plaid shirt and studded belt, her slightly ska sound inspired one viewer to draw a comparison to Gwen Stefani.  Her voice carried over accompanying acoustic guitar, and the reggae and dubstep influences would probably have been well-received had more than a handful of people showed up.  Perhaps her single in the recently released slasher film “Sorority Row” will bring her into the spotlight and deliver bigger crowds next time.

While the Huntington Beach-hailing quartet The Dirty Heads played after Allen, members of the crowd bobbed and swayed to an infusion of reggae, hip-hop and Sublime-inspired ska punk.  For a while, I was convinced that the band’s lead vocalist, Jared Watson, was actually “Jay” of “Jay and Silent Bob”, thanks to his serious stoner vibe.  Alas, there was no mangina display — only organically rhythmic beats with a familiar, laid-back, So Cal surfer ambiance.

By the time headliners Sugar Ray took the stage everybody was ready to dance, and leading man Mark McGrath blasted onto the scene in classic black wayfarers, with a swagger that seemed to warn patrons they were in for a real spectacle.  “It feels like its time for a No. 1 song from 1999!” McGrath shouted at the crowd just before busting out the catchy pop tune “Every Morning.”

At 41, McGrath is arguably still as sexy as ever, despite exclaiming that he had his hair freshly highlighted and frosted for the current comeback tour – one which he seems well-aware isn’t going to be on the cover of Rolling Stone any time soon.

It’s been 21 years since Sugar Ray’s initial formation, and the band doesn’t seem any closer to taking itself seriously. McGrath recently joked in an interview that, “We’re certainly not the most talented guys, and I can barely sing, but how about two thumbs up for just having fun?” — an attitude that that is conspicuously infused into songs on their newly released album, amusingly named Music for Cougars.

The recent show adhered to the same ideal; indeed, the night was less about high-quality tunes and more about entertainment, something McGrath became well-acquainted with during his four-year stint hosting the entertainment television show “Extra.”

Highlights of the show included seeing the band’s softer side during a tender performance of “When Its Over,” which McGrath wrote after his first broken heart at age 21.  McGrath’s crotch grabs, inspired by the late, great King of Pop and a freestyle karaoke battle between fans on Kid Cudi’s song “Day and Night” also stood out.   An all-out homage to the nineties, the band finished up the night with an extended version of the hit “Fly” — and  the only thing better than that was glancing over and seeing UCSC student Bryan Strauss’s belly, which read: “Do Me Mark!”