On November 17th, Los Angeles's Melrose nightclub ‘The Gig’ was privy to not one, not two but three amazing bands and a surprise guest that rocked the Buffy and Angel fanbase! Billed as ‘The Buffy Gig’ the first sign that something was cooking, other than the forthcoming turkey at Aunt Nikka’s, was the over extended line to the club's entrance, winding its way around the block even b e the doors opened! And while those ‘in the know’ dined at Cafe Luna around the corner, itchin’ fans eagerly awaited entrance to what would be a party to rock the night away. Darling Violetta, Velvet Chain and Four Star Mary... you’ll have to read on to find out who got up on stage and sang his bleached whites out!
Once inside the small but dark and cozy environment, patrons were enlightened with DV’s ‘Spoiled & Rotten’ video as it gleamed from the monitors to get the crowd in the right mode for said event! Tonight’s performance would explode upon the stage with, Darling Violetta, known to Angel fans as the creators and performers of the haunting and now classic Angel theme. The crowd was ready and wailing to hear these ‘kick ass’ guys play. Led by the amazing vocal talents of Cami Elen, their song list included ‘Awesome’, ‘Spoiled & Rotten’ and ‘I Want To Kill You’ all off their new CD ‘The Kill You EP’. The audience was more than enthusiastic to be washed over with the opening number of ‘Cocoon’ which could have brought down the house right there!
The front of the stage was, without a doubt, Bronzer-heavy, and we gathered a few comments from the locals as well as the distant travelers that came out to catch these guys perform. “Cami (lead singer) has an awesome set of pipes!” enthused Hitman. It was the first and foremost observation from most fans that had never seen DV perform prior to tonight.
Jymm had as much fun chatting
with the fans as he did performing!
“I thought the evening was very entertaining on the whole. Darling Violetta was electrifying, highlighted by Cami's incredibly powerful voice,” chimed in Seeker, who lives in the L.A. area and has seen them before. The music was rounded up to 10 with the skill of Gerri Sutyak on cello and Atto Attie on bass.
After the first set, DV retired to the club floor to mingle among their fans and we caught up with Jymm Thomas (guitarist) for his thoughts on the night. "Oh, it's a lot of fun. It's great to have all you guys out here, too!" He had just as much fun chatting it up at the bar as he did up on stage and was eager and willing to talk to everyone. Drummer, Steve McManus was on the verge of celebrating his birthday the upcoming Sunday, and both his parents were on hand all the way from Canada to get a first time glimpse of Steve on stage in a venue that was other than jazz. "We've never gotten to see him play live like this. It's amazing!" and as Steve was first to say "Dude, this is so cool!" all we could do was agree.
It's Spike! It's James!
It's... Kurt Cobain?
When everyone was just about settled down and relaxed, the surprise appearance of the evening appeared — James Marsters! Better known to Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans as her vampire nemesis, Spike, he's been known of late to pop up at events and lend his aspiring vocal talents. He's also been appearing at L.A.'s 14 Below club doing a rotation of concerts. Tonight he accompanied himself on acoustic guitar, dressed au casual in just jeans and a white T-shirt, but with an attitude that was as charming and predisposed to laugh at himself as anyone in the audience. He certainly is a charmer and his brief interlude was quite enjoyable. Seeker had more of an honest approach to the actor’s musical skills. "James Marsters followed with a brief set that was more notable for his star presence and amusing dialogue than for his musical talent, but was nonetheless a good time." With his contribution of Kurt Cobain and Bruce Springstein, James was happy to laugh at himself, "Kurt Cobain has just damned my soul for that," as he laughed into the crowd and they cheered back. CoA West Coast reporter slay_me was on hand enjoying the concert and received a warm smile and nod from James. Of course, she held the unrulies at bay as she attained her spot up front, saying something about security?
"I came out here with like 4,000 songs and they told me I have to keep it down to like half an hour so... " "Johnny Cash!" someone from the crowd screamed out. "What’s that? Johnny Cash? Free Bird!!! No way," James laughed, "oh man, that would be too soft today. Let me go back to some more Bruce." He had a nice rapport with the fans while on stage. "James responded to me!" Hitman added with a rye smile. "Actually, I think the tape was fuzzy. What sounded like ‘You can't believe how cool this is!’ was actually ‘You can't believe how cool Hitman is!’" he added laughing. Actually James responded with, "Man, you have no idea how cool this is. Thank you, William Shatner! Okay one more, we’ll do another . . . fuck it, we’ll do Kurt Cobane." Cheers once again broke out from the gang in front, and James came back at them with, "Yeah, you scream now, yeah okay!"
This close to Erika, of Velvet Chain.
Another round to converse with the crowd and refresh the tumblers while Velvet Chain set up for their chance to woo the place. Although they were hampered by technical difficulties, that didn't affect Erika's fishnets according to Hitman. "Velvet Chain delivered a performance that was not up to their usual standards, but Erica's stage presence was still enough to provide a few shining moments," stated Seeker. Glad to be in the audience and less than 10 feet from lead singer, Erika Amato, few of the guys could complain as she soothed and then rocked the crowd with many of the fans favorites! "Yeah we had a lot of trouble with the monitors, but the fans are great!" said Erika after their performance. Although from their stage advantage they had to work through a few rough spots, from the audience they sounded great and looked fantastic as Erika knows how to work the Diva Groove!
The shirt says it all,
Four Star Mary loves the divas!
"Finally, for those smart enough and lucky enough to wait around till the end, Four Star Mary came through with a rousing, rocking set to cap off the evening," Seeker gave us the roundup. "They played a few new songs, catered to the crowd with the Buffy spawned hit ‘Pain’ and finished with a great, hard-edged cover of the Cars ‘Just What I Needed.’ All in all, I doubt anyone from the BtVS crowd left without feeling that they had definitely gotten their money's worth." Four Star Mary, otherwise known as ‘Dingoes Ate My Baby’ when Oz rocked The Bronze, won the award for best dressed. Cami & Steve ran to the front of the stage and bowed down before the band who sported new softball shirts with "DIVAS" on the front bringing a roaring cheer from the Diva heavy crowd.
For a local gig to end at 1:30 in the morning is more than any Buffy or Angel fan can ask for. Certainly worth the trip from New York! The bands were amazing, the fans great, the place rocked on and even when things didn't all go as planned there was still music to groove by. If you are ever in the Los Angeles area, you must check all these guys out! They will not disappoint! As always, check out all their web sites and taste a sampling of their tunes. They can be found at: www.DarlingVioletta.com, www.VelvetChain.com and www.FourStarMary.com
Written
by West Coast Correspondent, Darren Danforth
CityofAngel.com would like to thank Jymm and all the members of Darling Violetta for being gracious with their time, hangin’ out and signing the CD’s for the Give-Away! They Rawk!
Video stills of Darling Violetta courtesy digitalMoe & Bob Berg. Photos of Four Star Mary and James Marsters courtesy Bronzer bhd.
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