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Naked Aggression – 10.28.2022 Halloween Party w/ Get Greens, The Church Crowd, Triste, CFTC and SVA

It was going to be a night of

noise,

dirt

and fury.

Although dusk keeps everything well-lit for some time after the sun drops over the mountains in the open desert sky – 

you keep your headlights on while cruising these long, straight roads. Occasionally a car will pass, sometimes on their phone and drifting well into the wrong lane. Always good to hedge your bets. To my left is the nearly open and bare desert, to my right, homes fill my eyeline. Somewhere down at the edge of the suburban sprawl of the desert valley in Lancaster, I find my way to this party.

Finding parking near the front of the house, the stage is visible through the side yard as people load gear into the back. After situating myself, I load up my camera gear and backpack before heading to the side yard. There is meat being prepared for food while On The Moon Foods sets up their booth of freeze dried goodies and ski masks across the way, leaving a spot in the middle for Naked Aggression merch.

As the yard opens, the stage is against the wall to the left
while the rest of the space to the right is open dirt; with the exception of a
lone palm tree, close to the back. It almost hides the sound table if it
weren’t lit with string lights. The other side yard has a portable toilet and a
fence containing stuff belonging to the home-owner.

Goodies from On The Moon Foods

Aside from making all sorts of freeze-dried foods, On the Moon Foods also makes decretive ski masks and other fun things for sale at their booth.

 The stage is decently sized but loses some room for the speakers. Each side is adorned with a truss-tower, all but one light focused on the crowd and the tops adorned with carved pumpkins. It is very AV to light the pit so well. 

Stage

A sight of things to come with The Church Crowd

As dusk creeps into night, the crew finishes sound checks as costumed teens and young adults begin to fill the yard. The dirt in front of the stage is covered in rugs and carpet scraps, perhaps with the intent to help prevent dust – but this would be a hopeless cause.

It was going to be a night of noise, dirt and fury.

It is not often we in the Antelope Valley get to see Naked Aggression. I first saw Kirsten Patches and her band of punks when they reformed in 2003 briefly as Meet the Virus before taking back on the Naked Aggression name. Since then, every few years for over a decade they would play some of the now closed venues out here. It was a treat to see them any time they were here.

What we DO have out here, often, are parties. Wild house parties, especially as the temperatures cool from fall through spring. Bringing Naked Aggression back out here after a decent amount of time without them, at a party, is amazing. This is especially awesome after having just recently seen them play at The Regent Theater in Los Angeles for the Nothing Less Booking/Nacho Corrupted produced Pre-CY/CY Fest. After years of seeing them in local clubs, I got to see them in a large theater and a house party almost back-to-back.

While it would be clutch to throw a generator party in the style of the Gen-X Palm Desert scene from the late 1980’s/early 90’s – the days of desert parties without permits are long over. Modern technology, tracking, drones, and the general buzzkill of living in a conservative military town really dampens these kinds of events. Instead, people out here have found cleaver places to have events that may not be as public and brash as the Los Angeles River – but happen to be unique none the less.

From a literal underground tunnel/storm drain, under a highway overpass and of course an abandoned building almost in the middle of nowhere- are some of the memorable places that have been used more recently for shows. When these get too impractical or you get a band that should probably have something more legitimate in terms of removing legal repercussions, you throw a house party.

A Lone Palm

I found myself cozied up next to the single palm in the yard anytime I was away from the pit. There is something about it that I fount fitting for the location.

Dirt and Combat

Like any good Punk show, the pit never stopped and we got a healthy amount of dust in our lungs (and everywhere else)

A fucking wild house party.

Visions Through a Screen of Dirt

Like a dense fog, dirt filled the air throughout the night.

AV Rabid Productions knows how to throw just that kind of rager. Pure DIY and community based; this is peak punk rock. The sort of thing where aficionados and people who aren’t into the genre(s) would lose their minds and hate it. Lighting and sound are attempted in earnest but resources in such places have limits. The kind of show where the technicalities are managed to a certain point before everyone shrugs and moves on to the set. 

Is your amp working? (kinda) 

Is the microphone working? (I think so?) 

Great. Let’s do this.

This isn’t a slight either, not an insult. No. This is EXACTLY the kind of laid-back DIY environment where these scenes and communities thrive. An alternative to the larger venues with good presentations at a higher ticket cost and rules. 

Not that rules are always bad- as I get older, the more I am horrified about the things that I used to see at concerts out here. IFYKYK sort of thing. There aren’t many venues that didn’t eventually close or go through a buy-out after a series of dark events that we don’t need to get into here. AV Rabid was on top of things however, with not just security present, but a crowd that wasn’t going to tolerate any shit.

This alternative to large venue-seeking in favor of community-based events is a much needed and welcomed thing out here. Everything has a list of pro‘s and con’s and if you came to this event looking for a visual and auditory event with good seating- this is almost the exact opposite of that. If however, you came looking to get-the-fuck-down and dusty, hardcore or bring that combat (as CFTC says) then this is EXACTLY the place to be.

SVA was the first band to take the stage as night finally fell upon the sky. A lone red light backlit the band with some bleed from the side yard lights. Full of the sort of youthful angst that punk rock thrives on, SVA may have started their set as people were just arriving but by the end of their set, they had a modest pit going. They warmed the crowd up out of their “I just got here” shyness. As always the misfortune of being the opening punk band, everyone is always late. This is probably why the second half of their set felt much more comfortable, like warming up the engine, the crowd was finally willing to move. They reminded me of the angsty, early Discord EP’s; fast, energetic and perfect for some moshing and circle pits.

S.V.A.

Getting the night started with youthful aggression, S.V.A. was able to get everyone focused and ready for the evenings event.

S.V.A.

C.F.T.C.

Vampire, Pimp and Pirate throwing it down while someone wears Boris' head.

As they reached the end of their set, the yard began to really fill out. Costumed fiends abound (with a high amount of Payasa makeup) Pirates, Pimps, Ninja’s, Zombies, you name it. It was at this point I saw CFTC prepping the chicken suits and Boris, their mascot. Undoubtedly their combat would be intense and the general energy of the night began to feel palpable.

With a pop of confetti and an explosion of fury, CFTC hits the stage hard. In costume, we got a pimp and a pirate front and center. Now, CFTC or Cock Fucking Titty Cunts are a cynical but almost loving celebration of desert trash (their first album is titled “Fast Trash”) with an aggressive Hardcore/Crossover edge and it was like an enema to the crowd. In only moments, the yard was filled with dust and floating paper as everyone went wild. 

At some point several kids hoisted a boogy-board-riding friend above their heads. Running him around the pit like a Mosh-King, they were having a night they would not soon forget. Or maybe they won’t remember it at all. These kinds of shows go either way. Several of the moshing chickens were losing their suits, torn and falling to pieces. Boris the mascot was covered in blood, relentless and eventually headless.

The Boogie Board Mosh King

Hoisted by his friends, he was the king of the pit.

Every CFTC show I have been to ends the same way; 

a lot of smiles, 

a little blood, 

a lot of confetti 

and headless chickens.

The reprieve from the dust and pit maneuvering was brief as
Triste hit the stage next. Two members were dressed in their finest Black Metal
attire, joined by a classic, but bearded polygonal Laura Croft. 

Combat

Every CFTC show has costumed fiends and Boris

Triste

Laura Croft and Black Metal.

Triste

Get down like it's 1996

The juxtaposition of costumes and themes was a thing I enjoyed far too much. For as much as CFTC made the crowd pit and circle, Triste got the crowd to bounce. Their brand of Hardcore skirts the lines of breakdowns, thrash and punk beats with the vocals laying down in rhythm with the drums. You can and WILL bounce to them live. Hopping down from the stage, vocalist Fredy disappears behind the crowd as they continue the night with unrelenting force. At this point the crowd was almost like a human wave machine set far too high, releasing clouds of dust into the air and sending their energy everywhere.

By this point I knew I was covered in dust and needed to get my lenses dusted off before the next band starts. This is when a couple of hours sipping from my water bladder meant my actual bladder needed relief. This is also where the group of drunk girls hanging at the portable toilet left a long line, only for people to discover that it was indeed empty. 

I probably would have stood there waiting all night after one girl said they were waiting for their friend. Only, there was no friend inside, they were just drunk and lost in conversation. Thankfully for me, someone else decided just to check. Once it was my turn, I held my breath as long as I could while I used a one handed maneuver so I could light the inside with my cell-phone. Afterwards, I promptly walked back to my car to sanitize my hands and clean my lenses the best I could. After I re-situated myself, I dusted off my lenses and headed back into the yard I got to chat with some familiar faces and cough out some dirt filled phlegm.

Sneaking back into the corner between the speaker and the wall of the yard, I watch as The Church Crowd takes the stage. After a brief technical difficulty with an instrument cable (I think that’s what it ended up being) they beckoned the crowd to them with the hums of guitar. Almost like a middle ground between the genre-stylings of the night, The Church Crowd is the sort of straightforward Hardcore punk that reminds you of the latter 1980’s and early 1990’s hardcore but with the sort of style our desert loves. Even their logo, most often a cross of a hockey-masked killer in a Dre-esque Zig Zag logo, invokes their style. The dirt flew high as they slammed through their set, complete with the return of the Boogie-Board Mosh-King atop his friends heads.

After The Church Crowd finished, some friends of mine arrived at the concert and also felt a sense of nostalgia for these sorts of things. 

The Church Crowd

Let's go to church.

The Church Crowd

A lonely red light fills stage right as the crowd is illuminated in a purple haze.

Although, often times our memories are always singed with the hindsight of years of life and tolls. This night however, seemed to be a significantly safer space than the ones we used to go to as teens. At this point the night seemed to be running a little behind and we could hear a significant amount of conversations about curfews and people needing to be home before midnight. 

I guess the kids today are more responsible? 

Nah. 

I would bet that the digital leash of a smartphone and threats of losing it are probably effective enough for a lot of kids.

The energy was high as the crowd was ready for Get Greens to hit them with their brand of Stoner, Drone-y, Crusty, Crossover, Hardcore. This was honestly the most explosive set of the night. The kids were at maximum hype, maximum drunk and on the verge of curfew. Once they took the stage they didn’t slow down once. Furious song after furious song the crowd belted out the lyrics, moshed as hard as they could and the Mosh-King boogey boarded his way through it all. The dust spun and kicked into the night sky like smoke from a fire pit and everyone was undoubtedly having a great time.

It was near the end of the Get Greens set when the curfew clock began to tick as the kids needed to start calling for rides. Unfortunately, it meant that too many of the kids were going to miss out on the amazing and still timely Naked Aggression. I would be a liar if I wrote that we didn’t have a chuckle at curfew and how little it meant to us as teens… good on them for being more responsible.

Get Greens

Heavy Sludgy Hardcore Crossover

With Kirsten dressed as the Devil, complete with wings and a tail, Naked Aggression took the stage. With everyone dressed for the chilled desert night, they have a brief sound check before noting the kids hopping on their phones, arranging pickups and the older part of the crowd gathering closer to the stage…

Backyard Festivities

AV Rabid Promotions, Kirsten Patches (Naked Aggression) and Chris Martinez (CFTC)

Naked Aggression

Clad in costume, coathanger in the air for "Killing Floor"

“Oh no, it’s curfew!”

Kirsten says into the mic as the band gets situated, “If you don’t know us, we are Naked Aggression.”

With that, they were off. If you have ever seen them live, you know that they are full of energy and really feed off of the bond to the crowd. That’s why they are one of those bands that no matter when, where or what the show is, people gather at the front with as much or more intensity than the band themselves. With lyrics covering leftist ideology, politics, anti-war, feminism, abortion and everything else that is just as important today as it was anytime before, Naked Aggression is just as significant to punk rock as many of their contemporaries – if not more so. They will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the best punk bands of all time.

Growing up out here in the desert, a Naked Aggression patch was just as commonly seen as any other punk rock patch you didn’t get at a store in a mall. I have no doubts that their popularity in this desert is partially due to the fact they have always made a point to come and play out here. Be it drinking beers and skating around the parking lot of the El Dorado in Lancaster, being genuinely cool people and cool to the fans, or just laying it down on stage in only the way that they can – the only things that have changed is that the band is better than ever. This is no joke. Obviously, decades of playing will get you better, but their newest release “Party Down” is their best yet, not just musically but also because they still slam as hard as ever. It was a struggle to take shots and get good footage because I kept finding myself dancing to the songs or just watching the band. Not that this is a problem, but I had to keep reminding myself to shoot.

I love the dichotomy between going to larger venues with hundreds or even thousands of people to see a band then going to see what may be a small show, but a legendary one none-the-less. With some folks on the rooftop and folks getting down and dirty in the dirt, this was a party to remember. Antelope Valley style, and thankfully, without much incident. Super rad for Naked Aggression for playing, all of the bands slayed so hard.

Naked Aggression

Kirtsen Patches and Craig Onac

Naked Aggression

Meghan Mattox

Naked Aggression

Hail!

AV Rabid Productions throws a rad party.

If you had to leave early, you really missed out. But. You probably know that already.

If you haven’t seen them. You need to.

If you HAVE seen them, then you know, it is ALWAYS a good time…

… at least it always is out here in the desert.

Naked Aggression: Website Instagram Bandcamp

Get Greens: Bandcamp Instagram

Triste: Bandcamp Instagram 

CFTC: Bandcamp Instagram

The Church Crowd: Instagram

S.V.A.: Instagram

AV Rabid Productions: Instagram Youtube

AV Rabid Productions

On top of the world