It's The End Of The Road, Jack
1/3: Ron Piper's House Party, Fullerton
The Dennis Catron Experience. Tim Racca was off in Joshua Tree, so we played Y&T, UFO and Montrose covers, exposing our hidden bar band hearts.
1/6: House Party, Unknown Location, Chino
2/16: Handlebar Saloon, Santa Ana : Xtra Xtra and Arion's Lyre
3/7: House Party, Unknown Location, Fullerton
4/19: Starwood, Hollywood : Metro Hotel, Billy Cioffi and Ozzy Osbourne (Almost)
Ozzy Osbourne's legendary Randy Rhodes lineup were going to do a surprise club set until some asshole called into KROQ and let the cat out of the bag. The show was packed with stoners who still believed Ozzy'd show. I have video of us from this night, and by the end of the set there's a ton of "Ozzy!!" chants from the back of the room. Poor Metro Hotel went on last and got bottled off after three songs. Ozzy!!!
Side note, my ex Michelle was Randy's girlfriend in high school, and when I took her to see Quiet Riot at The Whiskey in 79' they made goo-goo eyes at each other most of their set. I didn't mind since he seemed so nice and he really was that freakin' cute! ;-)
5/16: Lisa Somebody's House Party, Fullerton
5/19: Woodstock, Cypress : L.A. Bugs and Odessa
5/20: Ichabod’s, Fullerton
6/13: Colonial Manor, Anaheim : Direct Drive
We heard Direct Drive (headliners) did 'Born To Be Wild' in their set, so we opened with it just to be dicks. Tyranny of the Has-Beens!
6/25: La Vida Hot Springs, Carbon Canyon : The Vectors, The Tweezers and (Unannounced) The Genius Bros.
The Genius Bros were a joke band (3 Mechanics, 1 Butch) that popped onto the set unannounced. The great Tweezers (Ernie Kaboing, that's a hell of a rhythm guitar player, btw) didn't go on until 1:AM and they were pissed.
7/16: Bit Of New York, Los Angeles
Michael Dane and Tim almost duked it out, which would have been more exciting than the show which we played to all of about 12 people.
7/17: Handlebar Saloon, Santa Ana : Anxietea and Missing Persons (Almost)
Missing Persons had just gotten signed to Capitol and we were totally looking forward to seeing them. During their sound check, our drummer Sandy was outside stressing out over hearing the legendary Terry Bozzio, and we lied through our teeth with lines like, "Oh, he's all technical... He sucks!!" Dale finally decided they were too important to play this dive (in her defense, it did have peanut shells on the floor), got into an ugly shouting match with the sound guy, and then they took their ball and went home. The Handlebar cut admission in half for the lesser two bands after that.
7/31: Handlebar Saloon, Santa Ana : Tweezers and the legendary Naughty Women
Tim Maag came back for our final shows. We finally got to play with our friends, the great Naughty Women (legendary Fullerton band, 3 years earlier than us), and their singer Beatrice borrowed and then stole my pricy white satin pants. Naughty Women were fucking Gods.
8/9: Jezebels, Anaheim : Rubber City Rebels and Bumper
Tim Maag's last gig (again). He and we knew that was about it.
8/22: Colonial Manor, Anaheim : A La Carte, Dante Fox (Great White's Jack Russell), August Redmoon, James Dean, La Machine, The Name, Speakezy, Anxietea, Metro Jets, Bad Habit, Sleeper, J.P. Fires, Bonnie Rose Band, and The City Kids
O.K., this is a weird one. I remember the 8/9 Jezebel's show as our 2nd to last show ever (by my diary, anyway), then this flyer turns up on someone's Facebook page. I have absolutely no recollection of this show. I emailed Tim and Scott and they both insisted we played it, Tim even describing the giant sound system the hall rented. A La Carte were (and are still) my favorite band ever, and I suspect I'd remember being on a bill with them, as well as Scott's old bandmates Sleeper who we'd never played with. Either The Mechanics played as a power trio without me, or it was a complete blackout night in my history of complete blackout nights.
Unknown Date, Julie Perrah's House Party
Eric Overman's one gig as a Mechanic, and it ended up as our final show.
After The Fact
Eric quit the next day, Sandy, Scott and I liked his vibe, so we took off with him to do something else. We played as La Mort for three years in a 2nd Wave of Metal (think Saxon/Sampson) style, even showing up on a Metal Massacre comp with (gasp!) Slayer (Metal Massacre III - Eric also did the nifty cover art). We played with my teen idol Fred Taccone from The Strand for a while, Ty Cobb from Berlin, and a few other bassists (we even auditioned the great Kurt Baumann of The Pontiac Brothers - We must have been out of our fucking minds to pass on him!) before hanging it up. Michael Dane came back for one final show in 1985, which can be heard here shortly.
Tim Racca went on to a string of projects with people like Mark Fullerton, John Scalzo, Ty Cobb and the late, great Randy Carr, finding his niche in his home studio where he records prolifically. Tim does all his own engineering, guitars, bass, drums, and all vocal parts. I hope to post a bunch of his recordings here shortly. His version of Edith Piaf's 'Soul of Paris' has to be heard to be believed!
Reunions
Unknown Date, Julie Perrah's Wake
Our lone, spontaneous reunion. Wish it was under better circumstances. Everyone misses Julie. She was the prettiest and brightest star of all.
Unknown Date, Reunion Jam - 1984ish(?)
Sometime around 1984 Sandy, Tim, original bassist Brett, Scott (? - honestly can't remember) and myself met at our old Fullerton studio and did a set of old songs for old friends. Tim was on a detuning kick and we did everything in Eb which sounded bizarre. Wish I remembered more of the circumstances.
1/17/2007: The Galaxy Theatre, Santa Ana : The Dogs, The Detours, Gary Lamming, Kill DeVille (Almost)
Scott and Steve Gee set up a 30 year, Friday night Mechanics reunion with some awesome opening acts (like The Dogs, major hero's of mine). Brett was even going to fly out from Arizona to take part. It of course collapsed, which is fine, as the stage probably would have done the same under our newfound, middle-aged girths.
