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ASK ME ABOUT MY PHILOSOPHY, BABY

Chris ZieglerWed. March 26
 

Group grope with the Angry Samoans


ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY

Saw Metal Mike Saunders once before an Angry Samoans set, hunched in front of the merch fence at Chain Reaction in about 2001 without anyone capable of discussing his fearsome Britney Spears predictions around: “Mark my words,” he’d written, “20 years from now ‘Hit Me Baby’ and ‘Oops’ on oldies radio will seem like songs that’ve been around since the dawn of time, as definitive of their era as ‘Da Doo Ron Ron.’ [ . . . ] Less than Madonna, but way more than Annette, our girl is certainly an icon of our time, deservedly omnipresent though hardly larger-than-life.” 2001—who cared? And now Britney is a level up or at least lateral from superstar—industry—and Saunders pulls in no talk-show pundit funds hopefully because the happier responsibility of leading the Angry Samoans into generation two devours all surplus attentions. But he had then and now the chance or curse to be too far out front: inventor of the terms “heavy metal” and more presciently “shit rock” and then conceptualizing Samoans as an attempt to “invert” (if I remember right) Black Sabbath. By this date—about 1979—the most homeomorphically ambitious action ever considered for a Sabbath record was probably “flip.” Years up on chumps even then—Samoa punk puts out alien vibes at triple speed with weird purity found little elsewhere; “Metal Mike is to the pop song as Franz Kafka is to the short story,” said Saunders brother Bonze. A man who knew too much? Now Saunders’ Samoan Revue dips in from its asteroid base with a set list of classics! covers! fun! and who knows what other terrible predictions unsaid? As another touring star explained: “I’m impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.”

ANGRY SAMOANS WITH SMUT PEDDLERS, ALL DAY, SOCIAL TASK, KILLROY AND NOISE ATTACK VAULT 350 | 350 PINE AVE | LONG BEACH 90802 | 562.550.5566 | VAULT350.COM | SAT 7PM | $11.50-14.50 | ALL AGES

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