 "Photo: N/A")
Nothing kills a good mood like an 8 a.m. final and, after an entire week of wearing the same clothes and living on a diet of Red Bull and cigarettes, most students just want to go out and have a little carefree fun.
As if by fate, just in time to brighten our spirits, comedy/rock powerhouse Fortress of Attitude will be taking the stage at Cafe Coda next Friday night for an evening of wacky stage antics, hilarious Tenacious D-type lyrics and lively crowd participation.
Fortress of Attitude is known for their crazy live performances but, because Friday’s show is being recorded for the band’s first DVD, the guys are planning something extra special.
“There will be props, lights and a bunch of crazy, off-the-wall stuff,” said the mysteriously-monikered Dr. Genius, who sings and plays drums for the band. “There are ‘super fans’ in Chico who will be supplied with boxes of special surprises, which will be used at specific times throughout the show to enhance the experience.”
Despite the fact that the band currently resides in Los Angeles, when it came time to choose a place to shoot the DVD, Chico was the obvious choice, Dr. Genius said.
“We love Chico, they’ve always been good to us,” he said. “The crowd there is great.”
Although the band has much love for Chico these days, it hasn’t always been the case.
“Our first show in Chico was awful,” Dr. Genius said. “We played in this shitty bar and the show was terrible. All we wanted to do was get the hell out of there.”
Fortress of Attitude showed up at the venue, a bar that has since gone out of business, and discovered that the PA system was broken and, because no advertising had been done for the show, there was no crowd, Dr. Genius said.
Luckily, before Fortress of Attitude could bail, “Handsome Gorgeous” and a few other members of local group Gorgeous Armada showed up at the show and saved the day.
“They were so unusually into the show, I thought we were being punked,” Dr. Genius said. “ We couldn’t believe there were people in Chico who knew us.”
After a night of hanging out, the members of Fortress of Attitude made quick friends with Handsome Gorgeous and the rest of Gorgeous Armada. The two bands have been working together ever since and Handsome has been helping the band prepare for Friday’s big show.
Chico has since welcomed Fortress of Attitude with open arms and the band has established what Dr. Genius calls a “sweet-awesome Chico fan base.” They even picked up a new band member, “Buck Knuckle,” from among their Chico supporters.
“Funny bands fit into the scene in Chico really well,” said music industry major Danny Glazier. “Not everyone here wants to sit around analyzing serious music. Some people just want to hang out and have fun.”
Helping people have a good time is what Fortress of Attitude does best. It’s impossible to stay stressed while listening to songs such as “P.S. Gay Car,” which is about an angry letter that was left on the band’s car, and “Dear Aerosmith,” which is about a kid who wants the members of Aerosmith to act as his collective father figure.
“This type of band definitely has a place in music,” Glazier said. “ Music should do everything for people. It should give them what they need — and people need to laugh.”
There will be a fair amount of laughing at the May 29 show if everything goes according to plan, and there is definitely a lot of planning going on.
“We have a big surprise in the mix for the end of the show that’s going to knock everyone’s socks off,” Dr. Genius said. “I’ll tell you this much: It involves a time machine.”
Elizabeth Ghiorso can be reached at
eghiorso@theorion.com
4 comments