Photo by Josue Rivas

Marcovich (left) and Hernández: Just like old times

Check out our slide show of Caifanes at Nokia here!

"No human being is illegal!'' shouted Saul Hernadez in Spanish to a Nokia Theater packed with raza from all walks of life, from the chilango a week removed from Tepito to the fresas who probably thought they bought tickets to Maná. "This is for you raza: don't be mistreated" Saul continued. The couple next to me, a short-well build guy and a young beautiful lady wearing a piratería Caifanes T-shirt, were hugging each other and listening with their ears wide open, taking their Communion from the Church of Caifanes after far too many years.

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Andrew Youssef / OC Weekly

Alkaline Trio
House of Blues
6/12/13
During the intro to Alkaline Trio's "Olde English 800," which opens with singer/guitarist Matt Skiba strumming an A chord, numerous audience members took it upon themselves to clap along. In theory, this is fine. In practice it was a fucking nightmare as everyone clapping along was not only way off time, but way off time in different time signatures. For one brief moment, it was like the pop/punk threesome had morphed into a prog rock band or an avant garde jazz trio. Which, admittedly, would be pretty awesome if it was intentional.

Fortunately, Skiba and bassist/singer Dan Andriano and drummer Derek Grant didn't let something like rhythm-less fans keep them from pounding through a set that differed from the group's April 25 show at the Observatory.

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John Gilhooley

By: Alex Distefano
Ink N Iron
Queen Mary
Jun 9 , 2013
Sunday marked the third and final day of this year's Ink N Iron festival, a weekend event full of classic cars/ hot rods, tattoo artists, models and tons of punk and rockabilly bands. This year, closing the tenth annual event, were headliners NOFX and the Offspring.

Even though a good portion of crowd, which was about several thousand deep, were obviously drunk, hung over, or overdosed on sun, tobacco, and tattoo ink, it didn't stop the masses of fans from crowding around the giant stage set up in the parking lot in front of the iconic ship in the Port of Long Beach. By 7:15 p.m., as the sun began to set, NOFX took the stage and proceeded to shred as their images flashed on two huge monitors on the left and right side of the stage.

See Also:
*Ink N Iron Day 1 - Queen Mary - June 7
*Ink N Iron Day 2 - Queen Mary - June 8

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John Gilhooley

Snoop Dogg
Heat Ultra Lounge
5/29/13 
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Katrina Nattress

Cold War Kids
The Fonda
5/24/13

The Cold War Kids were blessed cursed with releasing an acclaimed debut album. Sure, 2006's Robbers & Cowards ascended the OC bred indie rockers to underground stardom with the snap of a few hipster music critics' fingers, but that's a lot to live up to, and in the subsequent years it was looking like the quintet peaked too early. But then they released Dear Miss Lonelyhearts - a concept album that's namesake comes from a Nathanael West novel in which an advice columnist has a crisis about his readers' suffering - and proved they're not to be forgotten quite yet.

On Friday night, the five-piece furthered its point by proficiently executing songs both old and new to a sold out crowd at The Fonda Theater. Led by vocalist/guitarist/pianist Nathan Willett, Cold War Kids played songs off each of their four albums during their 80-minute set. To the audience's surprise, they began their set with "Rubidoux," the slow-burning closing track off the coveted Robbers & Cowards. After supplying fans with faith that old songs would be played, they delved into 2008's "Mexican Dogs," and "Miracle Mile," the opening track and lead single off this year's release.

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Katrina Nattress

Tyler, The Creator

Tyler, The Creator + Earl Sweatshirt
Fox Theater
5/22/13

Tyler, The Creator shows are known to get a little too rowdy and out of hand, but last night in Pomona Tyler let loose and got silly instead of psycho. Sharing the stage with his Odd Future brother, Earl Sweatshirt, the California bred rapper took selfies with his fans cell phones and sipped Capri Suns instead of starting riots. Supported by OF "pseudo" rappers Taco and Jasper, the Wolf Gang started its set guns ablaze. Without any introduction, they leapt on stage and started spittin' rhymes. Tyler performed songs off this year's Wolf and 2011's Goblin. He marched in place during "Radicals," and covered Nas and Frank Ocean's parts during "48."

Earl Sweatshirt rapped with Tyler, and Tyler contributed to his colleague's songs too. The crowd got exceptionally into the up-and-comers tracks, he's gearing up to release his sophomore album, Doris, and played a lot of new material--the standouts being "20 Wave Caps," which he performed with Domo Genesis, and "Whoa," the first single off his upcoming debut. As he rapped, Tyler rode around on his bike, waving to his fans. During the hook, as Earl rapped "G-O-L-F," and the crowd finished with "Dub-A-N-G," Tyler put his signing skills to good use and translated the letters into sign language.

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Katrina Nattress

Youngblood Hawke
The Observatory
5/21/13
It's been a turbulent 10 years for Sam Martin and Simon Katz. Together, the two saw their former project, Iglu & Hartly, rise to moderate success and then crumble before their eyes. But when one door closes another opens up, and for the longtime friends the demise of one project guided them to something bigger and brighter: Youngblood Hawke.

Recruiting fellow Los Angeles-based musicians, Martin and Katz got their groove back and began writing songs and touring again. And now, a mere few years later, Youngblood Hawke has toured the country, released a successful debut album and single ("We Come Runnin'"), and received placements in "American Idol" and a forthcoming Coke commercial.

"Raise your hand if you were at our last show at the Constellation Room," Martin asked the packed Observatory last night in between songs. Only a handful of fans' hands shot up, and that show was last August. It's hard to believe that in less than a year a band can grow this exponentially, but after watching the six-piece perform, it's understandable.

See Also: Youngblood Hawke Are Flying High After Being Flat Broke

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REUTERS/ Steve Marcus

If you were my boyfriend...I'd burn those "Hammer pants."

With Tracy Morgan hosting the Billboard Music Awards this year, we were all anticipating a few shenanigans to go down courtesy of his sharp comedic tongue. Truth be told, we think he played it rather safe. Broadcasting "live" (yet somehow the East Coast once again saw it before us on the West which is total BS) from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and with tons of appearances by favorites like Madonna, Macklemore, David Guetta, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and the "Purple One" Prince, it was obvious that Twitter was about to come alive with squeals from tweens and more importantly, rib-jabbing comments from the cynics. And of course over here at the Weekly, we were just chomping at the bit to see what would be flying around the Twittersphere when the show was going down. Following the hashtag of choice for the show "#BBMA and #BBMAs," we captured a few gems that had us in stitches while this year's Billboard Music Awards kept us both entertained and totally annoyed.

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Jackie Connor

Charlie Musselwhite and Ben Harper

Doheny Blues Festival
Doheny State Beach
May 18, 2013
Summer festival season officially started in south Orange County over the weekend as the 16th annual Doheny Blues Festival kicked off the 2-day concert series at Doheny State Beach. Although weather remained temperate with cool ocean breezes, the bluesy tunes turned up the heat from all three stages for a sprawling celebration of all things raw, rugged and "down home." Bonafide bluesmen,and housewives with sauced husbands in tow danced around in cheesy cowboy hats to the fine, electricfied tunes of artists like Joanne Shaw Taylor, Tedeschi Trucks Band and headliner Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite. Here's a taste of what we saw this weekend.

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Adam The Bat

Cannibal Corpse

By: Alex Distefano
Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse
The Observatory
May 16, 2013

It's been a while since this many bodies were packed so densely for a metal show at the Observatory. But, when you have two of the most brutal bands on the planet--Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse--performing back to back, I guess a little headbanging hysteria is to be expected. The two bands performed together as part of the Decibel Magazine Tour, also featuring old school East Coast death metal veterans Immolation, LA's up and coming Abysmal Dawn and the Bay Area band Cretin, who have been in and out of the scene since the early 90s.

The sold out how was about one thing and one thing only: Extreme music. People weren't here to mess around. It was saturated with people from the get go, and only filled up more as the night went on.

See Also: Cannibal Corpse Take One Last Bite Out of the Festival Season.

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