There aren’t all that many things in Long Beach to be proud off. We lost our surf, roller coaster, and any live music scene years ago. This town is in need of more success stories like West Coast Choppers and Jesse James.
Last Saturday, Nov. 12th, WCC threw their 10th annual No Love Party. I had never been before but will make it a point to not miss one in the future. Especially not if bands like Danzig are going to randomly stop by to play for some old friends.
When I started driving around Los Angeles giving away some cream I’d stop by WCC on the way back into Long Beach and see if I had any takers.
A few weeks ago I got an email about the No Love Party. I knew I wanted to give away ice cream and thanks to the nice people at WCC, they covered the cost so that everything would be FREE. I loaded up the truck with 2500 treats and dropped it off Friday night.
It’s generally more fun to not yell that the ice cream is free. That way I end up hanging out with people that really like ice cream. It started off slow then picked up between bands. Bessy was dead center stage about 50ft back which meant I saw the full sets of all the bands that played that day, including Manic Hispanic, The Adolescents, High on fire, Droid, and xDEATHSTARx.
The cream wasn’t moving to quick and keeping it frozen ice cold was becoming a task. I decided not to worry about it and have a good time. I could only eat so much and had to call it quits after four or five pieces. Jesse came up to grab a stash and I loaded him up with some secret Triple Chocolate King Size Drumsticks. Damn those are good!
The energy in the crowd was high before Danzig took the stage. It was all a surprise until the drummer jumped on stage to check his equipment. I didn’t even know anything about it til maybe a half-hour or so before hand. Best yet, Doyle from the Misfits jumped up for a few songs and destroyed it with his cordless guitar. I had to keep my eye on the truck so I couldn’t take full advantage of the mosh pit. They were so into their music and the crowd was so into them that it didn’t even occur to me that they might play “Mother”. They came out and played it for their encore and the crowd finished off the day in perfect Long Beach fashion, dancing, singing, and having a great time.
The Lucha Libre wrestling took place between band breaks and by standing in the door well I could easily see above everyone. I still can’t believe what I saw. You can get a little glimpse in a couple of the pics here. Derby Dolls set their track up on the other side of the stage so I didn’t get to see them skate at all. I was glad a few stopped by the truck. Since I couldn’t make it over there I’d fill up bags with some goodness to take back to the rest of the Dolls.
Later that night after transporting some ice cream to more frozen confines we headed over to Alex’s to catch Beehive and the Barracudas and the Sultans. Gonna get those pics in a couple days.
Big thanks to everyone at West Coast Choppers, especially Dave, Khobe, and Jerami.
