Tijuana Bibles!

The Tijuana Bibles playing at the 360.

It's been two or three years since I first met Pete Gleeson playing floor hockey (with the Mullets) and over the course of time he has told me that he was in a band and I should see the band play some day. I would like to clarify that Pete has never pushed the band on me but maybe talked about it once or twice in a matter of fact, dead pan, laid back kind of way. You could see the band or not. Didn't matter either way. That's Pete in a nutshell I suppose.

That said, I've never been able to see the band play until today. The reason? It's always been something. Someone's birthday, working late, helping someone out, and an assortment of other things that would pop up at the last minute and cause a conflict in scheduling. Usually I'd just get busy doing other things and just forget. Days later I'd walk down the street and see the remains of a flyer for the band half glued to a telephone post and think "Oh crap. I missed them again."

The big motivation this time was an email I received saying this would be the last time they played for a while. It's like buying the last item in the store. There's only one left. Get it now or it will be gone... forever. My brain usually then goes into impulse buy mode telling the rest of myself "Must buy". That's how this email affected me. Lodged into my brain was "Must see show.", "Must take pictures of show.".

The only problem between me and seeing the show was another friend, Nilla, having her birthday that same night. As luck would have it, Pete's band wasn't starting until midnight. Most birthdays don't go that long right? Wrong. Nilla's birthday started off at her apartment at around 8:30. By the time 11:00pm rolled around the group started making it's way out the door to go salsa dancing.

We arrived at the salsa club and noticed a huge line up to get in. That was my chance to make my get away. I said my goodbyes and cabbed it over to the 360 in the span of 15 minutes. Half the time was stuck on College waiting behind other cars taking their passengers to other clubs and resturants. Once my cab made it to a small alley going southboud it was smooth sailing for that point on. I arrived in plently of time. The second band was still playing. Pete's band wouldn't go up for another 40 minutes.

The Tijuana Bibles were nothing short of amazing. They kick musical ass! Aluminum Baseball Bat, Go Go Rock & Roll, and Tokyo Topless are just some of the tunes they played. Hearing the band play live had the energy reminiscent of seeing the Ramones (without the arguing between numbers). High energy, guitar, drum beating, trumpet, keyboard playing music filled the 360 like a wave of rock and roll should.

I ended up staying around to blab to some of the band members and gush how great they were to hear and shoot. Speaking of which, the shot above was taken at the right time through a huge crowd of people. It kind of reminds me of the superfriends pose with Wendy and Marvin. by Looking at the picture it's hard to believe that they were in the middle of playing and not just standing still posing (as I pat myself on the back).

For a mere 20 bucks I managed to score two of their albums, "Fists of Fury" and "Custom Made". Gads! It's 4:35 am! I just got in the door. Time to hit the pillow.