Shows: Mannequin Piss/Annihilation Time, A.M. Vibe

Caught the Mannequin Piss/Annihilation Time show on Wednesday night at the recommendation of Mel and Lisa. It was a true punk extravaganza over at The Tower, the best dive bar in San Diego, in my estimation. In the midst of the beer-spraying and moshing, everyone was incredibly nice for some reason, offering us their edamame snacks and introducing themselves. Before the show, a friendly young man in a Motorhead shirt offered me a snort from his bottle of… Well, whatever it was he had in there. I politely declined but an offer is an offer and does not go unnoticed by this writer.

The bands had a ton of energy and the drummers in particular had great chops. It was fun to watch the kids in the small pit shove each other around; the spitting of beer was not quite as amusing but made for good theatrics all the same.

A.M. Vibe played the Pink Elephant last night to a somewhat thin crowd for a Saturday night. I guess it was fairly early for most at 11 pm but I was dumb tired. Lisa and Mel had been to the Casbah and met Porter, A.M. Vibe’s bass player, at the door so after our mini cast-and-crew screening of Flamingo Tango and HRH Electric, Persnickety’s latest shorts, we headed over to the Pink Elephant (ELEPHANT, DAMNIT, NOT BAR PINK!) to hear ‘em play.

For only three people, they make quite a bit of (delightful!) noise. Porter holds his bass bent almost double and his thrumming rhythms shine amongst Lisah Nicholson’s fuzzy guitar riffs. Mark Vernon plays a mean set and together they form a sound that reminds me of Ultrababyfat with perhaps a tinge of (as my friend Chris pointed out) The Cranberries (without all the extraneous trilling). All in all, a good night even though I was plum tuckered.