BOBOT ADRENALINE
www.myspace.com/bobotadrenaline
"How We Came Across Kiss or Kill"
"Bobot like many bands was struggling along in the dead Los Angeles music scene that was around prior to 2004. The 90's had been nice, and when those bands went away starting around 2000-2001 well, you had to be there to know just how vacant it was. Bobot Adrenaline was playing oddball places like one off clubs in studios and the CIA, benefit shows and way the hell out in Pomona or churches in Pasadena.
Crap!
Then one night in 2003, me and my friend Tommy happened to be at Spaceland when we caught a set by Ze Auto Parts or as I affectionately refer to them as - the ZAP girls. We instantly saw a band that was all about fun and rock and I quickly exchanged info with Ilse so we could play shows together and she invited me to see ZAP play at the Garage another night. I ended up going to the show and what I walked into is I believe one of the last Kiss or Kill shows at the Garage. I saw Bang Sugar Bang for the first time there, talked to Matt, he gave me a CD and told me that they were moving this club they had started to Zen Sushi soon.
When KorK started up at Zen I went down to check it out and within minutes knew I had just walked into a piece of Los Angeles history in the making. I called my bandmates the next day and told them we had found what we were looking for. This club - Kiss or Kill - was the homebase Bobot Adrenaline was in desperate need of and from that moment on my only goal was to get us into Kiss or Kill.
I went every week. I think I gave Cooper a demo maybe I can't remember. I told them we were playing a show at the Scene Bar and surprisingly enough her and Matt showed up! How bizarre was that?! If you've been in a band for only a brief time in Los Angeles, you know that no booker is going to go to another club to see if they want to book a band or not. That's just nuts. I knew that either these people were completely unique or they had no idea what they were doing. Either way was fine with me!
We played our first show February 10th of 2004 on the bill with The OAOTs. We were back the next month with Midway and Bang Sugar Bang. We started playing it regularly watching other bands slowly wander in from the desolate LA music scene like Rainman Suite and Blockage to find refuge in the little red and white room. I still remember the first night the Rainman Suite guys loaded in. Any band that came in the door knew right away they were about to play a club that had something very special going on. It was a giant family.
As the crowds grew bigger at the shows the more apparent it became that the local journalists - some of who I knew - were giving us the cold shoulder. The club was packed every week and the LA Weekly wouldn't so much as give us an "also recommend". We were completely ignored. I was elated! I could go see the latest incarnation of the latest garage band sounding garage band play to 15 people and they were the next big thing, but the Kiss or Kill bands with the crowds, the mosh pits, the surfing, the beer showers and amazing bands packing in this little room every week didn't warrant such a spotlight. I knew then we were all doing something right at that point.
By the time KorK moved to the Echo, Bobot did their residency in March of 2005. Some of the best shows we've ever played and our biggest shows to date. I couldn't believe the rainy night they bumped us down to the Echoplex and the place was still packed! That's the photo you see on our website or MySpace, looking over our shoulders on stage at this crowd.
No matter how many times the club moved we went with it, because as I told my bandmates after walking into Zen Sushi for the first time, "we have to be a part of this thing, because it will not last." Good things never last forever - that's what makes them special. Kiss or Kill lasted way past what I thought it would do. Hell I think the Masque in the 80s only lasted 2 years maybe a little more and I'm sure people who were there would tell you only 6 months of that was any good.
Collectively as musicians we mapped out a very large niche in LA music history. Turn all your Kiss or Kill photos black and white and put them up against all those photos of the Masque or CBGBS or Gilman Street. There's no difference. We were all in it for the same reasons - to play music.
Thanks Cooper, Matt, 99 and all the punters at Kiss or Kill"
Pepper, Corey Mac, and Bryan
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