King's X '99 (Issue #1--Porterville Bound)
Some bands just don't hit the heights they deserve. They churn out albums year after year, tour like sled dogs and produce rock music that defies categorization, yet they get buried beneath the pablum that the masses crave. Every music geek has a notch on their bedpost for these bands that they own CDs of, seen perform live, have read about or at least have heard of. These bands tend to be of the "small, but strong and loyal following" type. So for every 10 "insert 90's band here" clones, there is but one King's X. Original, distinguished and true to their form. For the record, I saw that they placed around 80-something on VH1's Top 100 Hard Rock Acts Of All Time and Roger Glover of Deep Purple said that King's X lead singer Doug Pinnick was once asked to join Deep Purple and he politely declined. I've had wet dreams about what "Highway Star" would sound like with Pinnick blasting away on vocals.
King's X are one of those bands that frustrate music lovers. "Why aren't these guys more popular? How can it be that people don't buy their albums? Why can't they get a better record deal and tour larger venues?" I don't know the complicated answer to those questions. But I do know the easy one; people love crap. They crave it. They consume it and they dispose of it quickly so as to move onto the next pile of it. (See: American Idol)
King's X was right on the cusp of mass consumption at one time. They had some decent rotation on MTV with the early 90's single, "It's Love" and even played at Woodstock '94. I saw them live for the first time in 1994 at the very small Cadillac Club in Fresno (many Hazy Concert Memories forthcoming from the CC) and thought that they were on their way to "The Big Time". I've seen them many times since then, in venues of varying size, the strangest being The Porterville Memorial Auditorium in Porterville, CA on January 17th, 1999.
I have to say that I don't quite remember how I'd heard that King's X was going to play Porterville, but I do remember thinking, "Porterville?". I wasn't going to ask too many questions because this was the closest that King's X had come to Fresno in five years and I was resolved to the fact that I, along with the usual group of rock-geeks I hung around with, had only to make the 1-hour journey to the community of Porterville. If not just to see the show, but to also find out how in the world a podunk town like Porterville landed King's X. As a true bonus, Galactic Cowboys would be opening the show. (You wanna talk about underappreciated bands, try GC--King's X are the Stones compared to them).
Porterville is a town of about 40,000 or so in the heartland of California's farming community. This is not stated so as to lead you to believe that there is no culture in Porterville. I'm sure that the good folks in Porterville have just as much of a grasp on the finer things in life as I do, which is to say a loose one at best. But I still could not fathom how this burg got a band like King's X to play the Memorial Auditorium (wherever that was in Mayberry, R.F.D.) when the other California dates included mid-sized venues in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
I had the time to run the errand, so I picked up the tickets at a local guitar shop in Fresno. I asked the clerk/amateur rock star/know-it-all why it was that King's X was to play in Porterville of all places. The word I got was that some "super-fan" had paid out and hired the band to play the little blip on the map. Pretty cool, I thought, and laid down the cash. I was glad I bought tickets in advance, thinking that this could be some intimate affair. Little did I know at the time that it would be intimate in terms of turnout, but in a cavernous setting fit for some touring production of "Miss Saigon", helicopter and all.
The Fellowship was set with Myself, Chet (co-star of past and future Hazy Memories), Randy (also to co-star in tales on this site), Eric, Chris and Lester. We set out excitedly in Lester's van late that Sunday afternoon in Janruary. We found out that Porterville is pretty far from Fresno, full of cowboys and that you can't drink on the campus of Porterville High.
Next Up: (Issue #2--Airline Booze and Cramped Shoes)
King's X are one of those bands that frustrate music lovers. "Why aren't these guys more popular? How can it be that people don't buy their albums? Why can't they get a better record deal and tour larger venues?" I don't know the complicated answer to those questions. But I do know the easy one; people love crap. They crave it. They consume it and they dispose of it quickly so as to move onto the next pile of it. (See: American Idol)
King's X was right on the cusp of mass consumption at one time. They had some decent rotation on MTV with the early 90's single, "It's Love" and even played at Woodstock '94. I saw them live for the first time in 1994 at the very small Cadillac Club in Fresno (many Hazy Concert Memories forthcoming from the CC) and thought that they were on their way to "The Big Time". I've seen them many times since then, in venues of varying size, the strangest being The Porterville Memorial Auditorium in Porterville, CA on January 17th, 1999.
I have to say that I don't quite remember how I'd heard that King's X was going to play Porterville, but I do remember thinking, "Porterville?". I wasn't going to ask too many questions because this was the closest that King's X had come to Fresno in five years and I was resolved to the fact that I, along with the usual group of rock-geeks I hung around with, had only to make the 1-hour journey to the community of Porterville. If not just to see the show, but to also find out how in the world a podunk town like Porterville landed King's X. As a true bonus, Galactic Cowboys would be opening the show. (You wanna talk about underappreciated bands, try GC--King's X are the Stones compared to them).
Porterville is a town of about 40,000 or so in the heartland of California's farming community. This is not stated so as to lead you to believe that there is no culture in Porterville. I'm sure that the good folks in Porterville have just as much of a grasp on the finer things in life as I do, which is to say a loose one at best. But I still could not fathom how this burg got a band like King's X to play the Memorial Auditorium (wherever that was in Mayberry, R.F.D.) when the other California dates included mid-sized venues in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
I had the time to run the errand, so I picked up the tickets at a local guitar shop in Fresno. I asked the clerk/amateur rock star/know-it-all why it was that King's X was to play in Porterville of all places. The word I got was that some "super-fan" had paid out and hired the band to play the little blip on the map. Pretty cool, I thought, and laid down the cash. I was glad I bought tickets in advance, thinking that this could be some intimate affair. Little did I know at the time that it would be intimate in terms of turnout, but in a cavernous setting fit for some touring production of "Miss Saigon", helicopter and all.
The Fellowship was set with Myself, Chet (co-star of past and future Hazy Memories), Randy (also to co-star in tales on this site), Eric, Chris and Lester. We set out excitedly in Lester's van late that Sunday afternoon in Janruary. We found out that Porterville is pretty far from Fresno, full of cowboys and that you can't drink on the campus of Porterville High.
Next Up: (Issue #2--Airline Booze and Cramped Shoes)
posted by Tony at 7:44 PM
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