Category Archives: Live

by Salvi C. | September 30, 2011 · 8:17 am

They Went to the Land of the Ice and Snow

October of 1996 found the Dictators on their first and only tour of Sweden. With the possible exception of Spain, there is no other European country that has a greater appreciation for rock and roll than Sweden, and our boys spent a whirlwind 10 days supplying both in the land of the lutefisk.

In between practical jokes pulled by their tour mates, the Hellacopters (“No kidding Manitoba, whale blubber behind your ears is a real-turn on to Oslo women!”) and participating in the Swedish National Pastime, which is making fun of the Finnish***, the band somehow found time to play 9 dates with the Northern Lights as a backdrop.

October 2, 1996, was the first date, at Geno’s in Stockholm. There’s an excellent video of this show that hasn’t shown up on YouTube yet, so you’ll have to take my word for it that our guys were firing on all cylinders.

— Salvi C.

  The 1996 Nordic Tour:  
10/2 Stockholm
 10/3 Linkoping
 10/4 Gavle 
10/5 Borlange 
10/6 Oslo 
10/8 Lund 
10/9 Gothenburg
 10/10 Malmo 
10/11 Copenhagen

  Set list from Oct. 2:
• 1. New York, New York
• 2. Haircut and Attitude
• 3. Master Race Rock
• 4. I Want You Tonight
• 5. Faster and Louder
• 6. Baby, Let’s Twist
• 7. I Am Right
• 8. Call Me Animal
• 9. The Party Starts Now
• 10. I Stand Tall
• 11. Science Gone Too Far!
• 12. You Had It Coming
• 13. Search and Destroy
• 14. The Next Big Thing
• 15. Stay With Me
• 16. Minnesota Strip
• 17. Two Tub Man

*** Q: Why do Finnish people never play hide and seek?
 A: Because nobody wants to look for them.

  Q: How many Finns does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Five. One to hold the bulb, and four to drink enough vodka until the room starts spinning.

My First Time With the Dictators

(And They Were Not Gentle With Me)

Here's HDM on 10/20/78, again sporting his Mr. Potato-Head shirt. Let's hope it hit the laundry pile between 9/19 and 10/20.

September 19, 1978. A summer of scouring the Phoenix concert listings finally yielded the Holy Grail: The almighty Dictators were going to be making their debut at the Paradise on Sept. 19. Darest I go? I had chickened out earlier in the year, when the band made its Boston debut with a couple of stealth gigs at the Rat, but those were on Mondays and Tuesdays, which were no-gos for a working slob such as myself. No excuses this time — it was a Friday, and I was THERE!!

The Paradise at the time was still brand-spanking new, and had the cachet of being Boston’s premier new music venue. What a bummer to get inside, and find out that A. Dancing was not only discouraged but could get you tossed, and 2. The tables and chairs were actually nailed to the floor, so if you didn’t get a chair facing the stage, then you were in for an evening of neck-strain. It didn’t matter to me. These were the Dictators. I would have endured standing on my head if that’s what it took to see them.

After an OK opening set by Thundertrain, who were one part Dolls mixed with two parts Aerosmith, the boys hit the boards to thunderous applause and ripped into “What It Is.” My immediate thoughts were “THAT’S Manitoba?!? He’s so skinny and short!” and “How come Scott is louder than Ross?”

HDM wasted no time before he was dissing Boston fans and sports teams, proclaiming NYC’s superiority to Bostin in every category. Thank God the gig wasn’t two weeks later, after the Bucky Bleepin’ Dent debacle at Fenway, or else we would have never heard the end of it.

Manitoba also displayed excellent sartorial taste, as he sported a homemade T-shirt with a caricature of his head atop Mr. Potato-Head’s body. That was a shirt that they really should have marketed. Another missed opportunity.

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4 Down, 1 To Go!!

(Manitoba, Where You At?)

It all started with a post on The DFFD Blog about Top Ten and the Del Lords doing a “secret” gig at the Lakeside Lounge in NYC, as a warm up to their Spanish shows. Actually, no, it all started when my ex-boyfriend’s band did a co-headlining gig with RTB’s German band in Brooklyn in 2009 … but that’s a story for another day. I had already met 3 current Dictators (the aforementioned RTB, JP Patterson, and Andy Shernoff) and had only two to go. This was my chance to hopefully cross at least one more off my list!! Since I had already friended Scott on Facebook, I sent him a short note asking if the secret gig was still on, and explained that we had a mutual friend so he wouldn’t think I was a stalker. He was kind enough to write back a few hours later to confirm.

Flash forward to 7 o’clock that night, a friend and I are sitting at the bar when, in hushed tones, a gentleman to my right asked the bartender how things were going to work for the gig tonight, as the bar’s website mentioned a $20 “donation.” This sparked a conversation about how we were both huge Dictators fans and were psyched to see one of them in such an intimate venue. He had heard about the gig the same place I had, through Salvi and The DFFD Blog. A few more people trickled in, and we made our way over to the stage area in the back of the bar. My friend and I snagged primo seats, and as I was settling in, I looked over and there was Scott Kempner and his guitar, setting up. I quickly introduced myself to him, we shared an inside joke about someone’s extreme and baffling political views, and I let him mingle with his friends and family.

As I was patting myself on the back for appearing so calm and collected, I spotted a familiar looming figure. It was Andy Shernoff shaking hands with the crowd. Apparently the people at the next table from us were who he was there to meet, and the next thing I knew he was sitting next to me, and he remembered me. More back patting ensued. Andy’s friend introduced himself to me as one of his oldest friends, back from the days of New Paltz and the Teenage Wasteland fanzine, Bobby “the Brain.” He told me how they used to print the fanzine by hand on mimeograph paper. I was truly in awe of being surrounded by Dictators history.

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Filed under Adny, Live, Top Ten, Video

by Salvi C. | August 31, 2011 · 1:06 pm

More G’days From Down Under

As a follow-up to our previous post about the Australia tour, here’s a great shot from the 8/25/02 Sydney Harbour Cruise of the Handsome One exchanging a “good onya”’ with Bill Gibson of the Eastern Dark.

The Eastern Dark was a fantastic Australian band back in the 1980s, whose “Johnny and Dee-Dee” 45 belongs in every music library that’s worth a toss. They used to cover “Minnesota Strip” back in their early days, and were gobsmacked when the Master Plan returned the honor by covering “Walking” on their first lp.

Many thanks to Bill Gibson for the use of the photo, and for the Aussie spell check on “Harbour.”

— Salvi C.

Irene 1, Del Lords 0

Trees down. Roads closed. Power lost. Basements flooded. Del Lords cancelled.

Yup, stupid Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene put the kibosh on what would have been a kick-a** bash Saturday at the Roots Hoot House Concert in Peace Dale, RI.

Luckily, Tuesday’s gig at the Lakeside, disguised as “The Elvis Club,” gives us an opportunity to catch them before they leave for this weekend’s gigs at the Turbo Rock Festival in Spain.

— Salvi C.

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Filed under Live, Top Ten

by Salvi C. | August 22, 2011 · 1:36 pm

The Thunder Down Under!!

This week in 2002 found our heroes entertaining the Blokes and Sheilas on their first, and to date, only tour of the world’s biggest prison colony. The 4-piece line-up (Scott was temporarily on the roof) roared through 9 dates over a 10-day period, culminating with a quick stop in New Zealand to placate the Sheepshaggers.

Way, way up there on the “list of gigs I wish I’d seen” would be their date from this tour when they played a Sydney Harbor Cruise. I can picture the Harbormaster having to haul the captain in on a littering violation because of the Fosters cans clogging the bay in the wake of the ship.

Pics are courtesy of the Barman at the I-94 site.

— Salvi C.

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Filed under Dictators Assembled, Live

by Salvi C. | July 13, 2011 · 4:02 pm

Didn’t McDonald’s Start This Way?

Let’s see now: We now have Faster and Louder in Boston, the Cancertators in Spain, the Handsome Dicz in Wisconsin, and now Manifest Destiny in California. 2 more, we can file for corporate status, and global domination will finally be ours!! Personally endorsed by our own Top Ten, Manifest Destiny plays their farewell gig on Tuesday July 26 at the Starline in Fresno.

— Salvi C.

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Filed under Cool covers, Live

by Robbiecube | May 11, 2011 · 12:07 am

Blame It On the Burgoo (aka, It Was Atticus’ Fault)

The Dictators’ Kentucky Tour, May 10-11, 2002

Another year, another Dictators-related road trip, this time to the land of the Kentucky Derby, Muhammad Ali, mint juleps, Fort Knox and the Louisville Slugger.

As soon as Salvi arrived at Midway early Friday, we hit the road toward the glorious bluegrass of Kentucky, by way of Cincy, home of our future RTB friend, Dawnowar. Passing Riverfront Stadium (we shoulda caught a few innings), and it’s still-under-construction replacement, crossing the Ohio, into sleepy Newport, Kentucky, home of the Southgate House, site of the Dictators’ first-ever Kentucky gig.

The Southgate House is on my shortlist of cool rock venues. A huge mansion near the river, a bar & restaurant upstairs, and in the basement, a ballroom/concert hall that had served as the birthplace of the Thompson Submachine Gun (see Al Capone). Tables and chairs surrounded a dance floor, great sound, good sightlines and cold, cheap beer.

Cincinnati band Thee Shams opened with a tough set. The Dictators took the stage, clawing through a 19-song, 76-minute set — heavy on “D.F.F.D.” — with HDM proclaiming, “We can’t curse tomorrow night, so we’re gonna curse a lot tonight.” (He did). At one point a tipsy, short-shorts-wearing Kentucky woman hip-checked our table, sending my old film Kodak flying, never to take another picture. But like a bat broken delivering a game-winning hit, it died happy. The Dictators’ set flew by in a blur, it wasn’t until we later listened to Sal’s tape that we realized just how fierce that set was. The weekend was off to a kickazz start.

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