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The Brimstones @ Otto’s
Photo by Christophe Lopez-Huici

In a month of raucous shows, the single craziest had to be the Midnight Monster Hop last Saturday at Otto’s Shrunken Head. The back room of Otto’s is neither spacious nor well ventilated, and the place was packed by the time The Othermen took the stage. The combination of their wild garage sound and onstage energy sucked the crowd right in. Then they took it to the next level: they brought out a pizza. You know how a baseball game gets a lot more interesting when there’s a beach ball around? (Or anything else for that matter… “oh look, the moon!”) Well, likewise. Any attitude which was left in the room vanished as the crowd passed a large cheese pizza overhead and gobbled up all thirty or so tiny slices (how thoughtful!) while the band played a song called… “Pizza”. It was ridiculous, and that made it extra cheese. I mean extra fun.

So if you had to pick a band which could top those guys, The Brimstones would be a really, really good choice. They’re known for their onstage antics, but if your band inspires a guy to show up in a gorilla suit then it will be a show for the true antic connoisseur. It got crazy fast, with people trying to swing dance in the crowd, a small mosh pit, and lots of species-baiting of the gorilla guy. Some of the audience couldn’t take the heat (I cannot imagine how the gorilla guy managed) but those who remained got to watch a female audience member try to join the band by playing organ. Personally I couldn’t hear it, but if a lovely lady wants to drape herself over a Farfisa and knock a glass right off of it and into the audience where it smashes on the floor (not the first one that night) then who am I to complain?

Oh, and the show was free. Fuck. Yeah.

Marcus