Batusis and Prima Donna - Washington, DC

Wow, what a fuckin' night.  I, my brother and two buddies suited up and hit The Black Cat for a night of loud guitars and alcohol!  First thing first, we gotta get there, so me and my two buddies meet up in Virginia and drive into DC, where my brother lives...he took a cab and met us at the venue.  It wasn't open at 8:00pm, and we were starvin', so we grabbed some sandwiches at Manny & Olga's Pizza (HUGE portions for a decent price, by the way).  It's a real hole-in-the-wall with no seating, so we stood outside and I got mustard all over my hands.  Good food ain't neat!

After the food, we discovered a tiny little record shop, Som Records.  You walk down a narrow flight of stone stairs and enter a tiny slice of vinyl heaven.  Within five minutes I heard a Velvet Underground bootleg being played, saw a double-LP Heartbreakers set (L.A.M.F. and Bataclan, Paris), Sylvain Sylvain & The Teardrops, and a pretty cool poster:

OK, our gullets were full, and appetite for music was sufficiently increasing, and the venue's doors were open...

The Black Cat is perfect:  dirty with a pool table, pinball machine, a stacked jukebox (Suicide was up front!) and a great bar.  First round is on me!  I copied my brother - as usual - and had a Pabst Blue Ribbon to get goin'.  Shane was in the pisser so I grabbed him a Stella, and Coop had a Captain & Coke.  We sat around and chilled for around a half-hour or so waiting for the music to begin.  Cheetah was walking back and forth through the place and was more than happy to shake a hand or two.  He never stopped smiling.

A toilet at The Black Cat

As soon as we heard the speakers boomin', we knew it was time to get in line.  About one minute and a handstamp later, we walked into "The Backroom," which is a pretty small, hot and sweaty little place with a stage raised about a foot off the floor and floor-to-ceiling speakers on either side.  The band we saw onstage opening for the Batusis wasn't good - THEY WERE GREAT.  Okay, here's the equation:  punk aggression + glam get-ups + a saxophone + a keyboard + lots of white-boy R&B riffs = Prima Donna.  The songs were anthemic, rude, crude, and beautiful.  And when the lead singer - Kevin Tyler Preston - stripped off his shirt to reveal a figure which Iggy may have owned 40 years ago, Cheetah Chrome took the stage and they did a stunning rendition of the Dead Boys' All This And More.  Really...it was fantastic.  They are touring continuously right now and I REALLY implore you to go and catch one.  They really knocked me on my ass. Preston is a fuckin' maniac! I bought their CD, but there is no way it'll compare to the brief set they played. What my buddy Shane will never forget is that after the last song, guitarist Erik Arcane accidentally dropped his Les Paul and smashed the headstock clean off - a $4000 mistake! As Shane pointed out, that turned out to be one expensive night for Mr. Arcane!

All This And More - Prima Donna with Cheetah Chrome

Erik Arcane and his soon-to-be-dead Les Paul, David S. Field & Kevin Tyler Preston

After a short set, Prima Donna left the stage and the room emptied.  While standing out in the bar, Cheetah walked through again, so I grabbed him and asked him to sign their EP.  "Oh, you've got the promo!" is what he said!  15 minutes and another PBR later, the Batman theme started to play over the speakers...

All I can really say is that Cheetah and Syl LOVE playing together.  They are having such a good time that everyone staring at them had huge smiles on their faces for the whole show, beginning to end.  It was a small crowd - about 50 people - but goddamn, they played as if there were 5000.  Other than a douchebag spitting beer at the band twice (the soundman then pwned him - and me - with a bottle of water and the douche never came back), the show went without a hitch.  Lez Warner and Sean Koos make a great rhythm section, too.  If you missed this tour, you really lost out - and tickets averaged around $12!  A concert performed by a couple legends for only $12?!  C'mon, what else are you gonna spend that on - dinner at McDonald's?  Starve a little and go to a show, instead!  As for the set, their take of I Wanna Be Loved was incredible.  It was definitely a highlight for me and Coop.  My brother was more partial to Sonic Reducer, as it brought back memories of a girl and a mix-tape from long ago...

Sylvain Sylvain, Lez Warner, Sean Koos, Cheetah Chrome

Syl and his gorgeous gold Gretsch

The setlist

The beer-spitting douchebag