 "Photo: Peter Alexander")
 "Photo: Peter Alexander")
Off Limits was taken over Saturday night by punks, pomade and pompadours as locally manufactured Madcats Pomade and Devil Kat Rock Productions celebrated their one-year anniversary of bringing rockabilly music to Chico.
Local heroes The Shankers and their sick and twisted whiskey shenanigans were again a delight, with solid minimalist '50s rock 'n' roll of Carl Perkins and Ritchie Valens but with the exuberance and maniacal behavior of Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
The band is more suited for steamy living room shows than stages.
"This song's about Charles Bronson … looking for love," guitarist Johnny Shanker hooted, wrapped up in a cape and Buddy Holly-esque glasses.
He wails into the mic, and the reverb sustains the crooner's notes. Bassist Kerra Shanker broke her low-E string midsong and Hulked-out while ripping it up over her head before finishing the song. The band gave a strong performance despite playing with an emergency fill-in drummer who didn't seem to beat the skins with the vigor he probably ought to have.
Ukiah horror punk band Sick Shooter was the fly in the ointment. Everything was a disaster. This includes the stand-up bassist's tone, which sounded like a child running around banging a wooden spatula on a 5-gallon bucket, and the coordinated black-on-black, perfectly pressed punk band T-shirts and the obvious rip-offs of the Misfits, Nekromantix and the Horrorpops.
These 18-year-olds are a work in progress, but it helps that they're drinking the same Ukiah water that spawned such notables as AFI, Tiger Army and Loose Change. Let's just hope they spend more time with their instruments and not their mirror.
It's hard to believe that Moonshine's sweet rockabilly is from Oroville circa 2006. The fun-spirited group is a nice look at what appears to be a hard-working band making good. The band even has a rough side, covering Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."
After the crowd thinned considerably, the Moonlight Cruisers and their boozy bar attitude was too much. Acting as if they're the best, the Cruisers' muscular front man spent more time growling and howling than producing real singing. The facial sneers and expressions signaled the doom of this band, which has real potential. If the band could put the meathead mentality away and focus more on its traditional Mexican influences, it would sound more like a sexy Los Lobos and less like a bunch of phonies.
Devil Kat Katie continues to hold down the fort for rock 'n' roll in Chico with another solid show, even if one band was less than stellar and the crowd forgot their dancing shoes at home. Off Limits is undoubtedly going to feel different now that Mary Messina recently defected. It's hard to say who is going to pick up the slack that Mary and Katie have been holding for so long. Chico can only hope this doesn't signal the end of what has become a cornerstone of the rock 'n' roll scene.
Matt Kiser can be reached at
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