The Frustrators at the Troubadour

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Written by Paul Lyons

Monday, 28 February 2011 22:40

The Troubadour is always an exciting place to see a show. When you walk inside, the stage is right in your face, and you have to walk around it before finding a place to stand (or sit, if you prefer the balcony). The 55-year old, 500 capacity club has played host to some incredible performers over the years including Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Tim Buckley, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Guns N' Roses, Radiohead, Coldplay and hundreds more...Contributing to the Troubadour legend is what happened on Sunday night, with the wild, drunk punk rock and roll party that was The Frustrators experience...

Among the three bands opening the show, was a Bay area rock, punk, new wave sensation called The Phenomenauts. Despite the small club setting, the band put on a huge, elaborate concert featuring costumes, dry ice, exploding smoke, and a gun that shot out toilet paper into the crowd. If you combined Devo, The Clash, The Hives and KIss, you'd have The Phenomenauts. The 5-piece unit all wore matching space-age Phenomenauts uniforms...and even sung into customized Phenomenauts microphone stands. One guitarist wore a space helmet, the upright bassist wore flashlight space glasses, as did the keyboardist. The highlight of the super-charged explosive set was their 2007 anthem sing-a-long..."Neptune City."

Reunited after a nine-year absence, The Frustrators are back in support of their brand new EP Griller. Violent Anal Death vocalist Jason Chandler, Waterhog's Terry Linehan, Violent Anal Death drummer Art Tedeschi, and Green Day's bassist Mike Dirnt got together to party the night away at The Troubadour. In addition to the new material, the 18-song, 80-minute happening featured a variety of songs from their 2000 CD Bored In The U.S.A., as well as their 2002 release Achtung Jackass...plus a few oddities thrown in.

After hitting the ground running with the set opener (and crowd-pleaser) "Hide and Seek", The Frustrators played a loose and lively version of their 2000 catchy tune "Then She Walked Away." This was followed by "Trout", a song featured on the Adeline Records compilation CD, Might As Well...Can't Dance. Other fun songs of the set included covers of Blondie’s “Living In The Real World” and The Cars “My Best Friend’s Girl” (as previously done on their Bored In the USA and Achtung Jackass CDs respectively), as well as Frustrators classics like “Stupid”, “The Great Australian Midget Toss,” “Pirate Song” and “AAA.” From the new EP, the band broke out strong versions of “Stigma” and “West of Texas (Part 2).” Of course, no Frustrators show would ever be complete without their classic song “I Slept With Terry”...which the band happily performed early in the set Sunday evening...to the audience’s delight.
From a musical standpoint, the band sounded very good...with Terry Linehan stealing the show with his energetic guitar playing. My only complaint was in the sound mix...as the vocals were mixed way too low for my taste. I was standing right up front, yet I still could barely hear Jason Chandler’s voice. Yet, as referenced earlier, the music was only a part of the The Frustrators performance...

In true punk fashion, Mike Dirnt eschewed the traditional concert format and instead made The Frustrators show more of a performance art, interactive experience. This was very much Dirnt’s night...and he was in a jovial mood as the Troubadour stint was the last show of the band’s tour. Taking shots of alcohol on stage, Mike Dirnt joked with the band and the audience at length before every song of the concert...taking fun jabs at the Oscars, which were held in town earlier that evening, and elaborating on how he wanted to have fun that night...and not rush through the performance with song after song. This was a night to celebrate...and he made sure to emphasize the celebratory mood by drinking from a rubber chicken, having audience members drink from a different rubber chicken, and making sure to have he and Terry Linehan spray the crowd with two bottles of champagne. Adding more to the party, he stopped the show entirely to bring 4-5 people from the audience up on stage to compete for a chance to win Mike Dirnt’s special bright pink underwear. It was a sight to behold.

Needless to say, my evening with The Frustrators was an experience like no other...a big, punk shindig featuring music, booze, laughs and thrills...and a good time had by all.