by Jason Pancake
“Wow, how can you go out every Tuesday (or Wednesday) night?” someone asks me at the coffeemaker. With my dark, sunken eyes, ringing ears, and crooked tie, I say, “It’s Kiss or Kill night!” My older co-workers give me puzzled looks, but somehow, they eventually grow to understand. It sort of reminds me of my favorite scene in the movie “Fight Club” where the fighters go about their ordinary 9-5 jobs in their suits and ties, but they all look noticeably haggard with random injuries. Luckily for me, Kiss or Kill usually doesn’t leave me with black eyes or crutches.
I had been to shows at the Garage once or twice before, but it was at Zen Sushi on Hyperion that I became a regular. One night after seeing the Dollyrots at Mr. T’s Bowl, I struck up a conversation with the band and they told me to come and see them at this sushi restaurant that has rock bands playing. It sounded cool so I went that next week, and then again the next week, and soon it became a regular occurrence. The padded walls, the swinging light fixtures, $2 shots and PBR, kickball, togas, POW-camp style patio. Yes, this was the place to be! The unifying theme that brought everyone together for Kiss or Kill was the music and that was really what helped it work out. People appreciated the music and camaraderie rather than the “scene” and just about everyone associated with Kiss or Kill was either in a band, played an instrument, worked a music related job, was reliving the glory days of being in a band (like me), or was used to hanging around musicians. Most importantly though, it worked because the people involved with and who attended Kiss or Kill were among the nicest, friendliest people I know in LA. What made it so cool was that people weren’t worried about BS, hipster elitist “coolness”, yet also weren’t zombies to the masses.
My first real bonding with the bands and the awesome trio of Johnny 99, Cooper, and Matt came in 2004 when I was a svengali out to find bands to play my Rock Against Bush show. Thanks to them and some Kiss or Kill bands, it turned out to be an incredible show at the Echo featuring a killer lineup of the Bell Rays, Bang Sugar Bang, the Dollyrots, the Randies, and Los Abandoned—all united as one against the Dark Side. We might have lost that year’s battle, but during my time at Kiss or Kill, I discovered that in addition to the expected Left Coasters, New Englanders, and real Englishmen who would share my views, I also found so many great, like-minded Midwesterners, Southerners, and yes, even Texans. When I get on my soapbox to rail against injustices and hypocrisy, it’s wonderful to find people that actually get it. But, you can’t be an angry hippie all the time, so then it’s nice to be able to switch the conversation to geek talk about guitar bridges or reminisce about getting frostbite during the Boston winters.
Special thanks to Johnny 99, Cooper, Matt, Siria, Andre, Amanda, Rob Z, and everyone else who helped keep the train on tracks and running. Thank you Midway, Dollyrots, Randies, Bang Sugar Bang, Silver Needle, She’s Your Sister, UCP, Waking Hours, classic Sounds of Asteroth, Cakecutter, Power Cords, Rainman Suite, Bobot, Pcow, and many more I’m totally blanking out on, for getting your songs stuck in my head while I was negotiating budget items the next day with the Governator’s staffers. Thank you Johnny Pumpkin for being pretty much one of the coolest persons in history.
And there are so many more awesome bands and great people that it would take forever to try to list cool memories of them all now. I’m pretty sure I would leave some important names off my list and feel guilty about it. So as they say, “you all know who you are.”
xoxo,
Jason Pancake
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