The Red 100's have a lot to be thankful for this year. Winning the DOMA for Best Blues Act, the band released an EP, Live Off the Floor, in April. Adding to pile of recordings, bassist/singer Robbie D Love (not D., just D) released a solo album, Love Vibrations, a few weeks ago.
With a show coming up at Trees on Friday, we wanted to get some of Robbie's first show experiences. He credits his upbringing in churches, as well as a fateful Phantom Planet show, for getting to current position. Below, you'll find Robbie's thoughts on his first show, his latest with The Red 100's, and how he doesn't get Seryn.
What was the first show you remember seeing? Were you with your parents? I can't really remember because I've been obsessed with music my entire life, I'm talking about memories of being three or four and rocking out to my Dad's James Brown record collection and singing, "Fellas, I'm ready to get up and do my thing, moving and doing it". My parents have been pretty religious and always dragged my ass to church. Growing up, I never really paid attention to what the preacher was saying, but I'd be rocking in the pews whenever the gospel choirs started singing and shouting. My parents are Southern Baptist and sometimes we'd end up at these little backwater churches throughout the south and the choirs would be whopping and hollering and as James Brown said, "geting up off that thang". I realized early on, that the smaller the church, the louder the choir sang and the more expressive they were. When my band gets on the stage, I always try to channel that sort of energy into my playing and into the show. For me, it's always; don't come a knock'n unless the house is rock'n.
What was the first show you remember seeing? Were you with your parents? I can't really remember because I've been obsessed with music my entire life, I'm talking about memories of being three or four and rocking out to my Dad's James Brown record collection and singing, "Fellas, I'm ready to get up and do my thing, moving and doing it". My parents have been pretty religious and always dragged my ass to church. Growing up, I never really paid attention to what the preacher was saying, but I'd be rocking in the pews whenever the gospel choirs started singing and shouting. My parents are Southern Baptist and sometimes we'd end up at these little backwater churches throughout the south and the choirs would be whopping and hollering and as James Brown said, "geting up off that thang". I realized early on, that the smaller the church, the louder the choir sang and the more expressive they were. When my band gets on the stage, I always try to channel that sort of energy into my playing and into the show. For me, it's always; don't come a knock'n unless the house is rock'n.
What was the first show you paid to see? The first amazing show I remember paying to see was Phantom Planet at Trees back in '04. I remember that show because the singer started crowd walking, not crowdsurfing, but literally walking on people hands all the way to the back of the club. After climbing up to the second floor, he swung his legs around and hung upside from the balcony singing while the band continued to jam away. All I could think of at the moment was, if this dude falls, he's going to die. It was the most exciting thing I've ever seen. Maybe these antics would turn certain people off, but on an young impressionable kid like myself, that night just changed my life and I've been rocking ever since. I enjoy when a band goes beyond playing songs exactly like they are recorded on record. Performing live is the heart of show business, I feel like some people in this town just don't get that. Whatever, rock n' roll will never die and Elvis's hip shaking is still creating controversy around the world and I love it. Never in my wildest dreams did I know I'd be rocking the same stage as the band with the guy hanging from the rafters.
What do you remember about the first Red 100's show? Do you really have to ask? I think we'd all rather forget how we started. We became The Red 100's in August 2008 and played our first show in November at The Door in Plano because no one had heard of us at the time. I don't even know if it's still around. I think there were some teenage emo bands playing there with us. It's quite obvious that rock n' roll and emo does not mix well. We were looking at them and they were looking at us like, Why the hell are you here? All our friends and family came. I was using a distortion pedal at the time that blew everyone's ears out when I stepped on it because the gain got turned up without me knowing. But hey, two years later, we're still blowing people's ears up so I guess it's in my bones. Hendrix all the way.
So far, what's the worst show you've seen? I saw Seryn play record store day last year at Good Records and I was just not feeling the performance. However, it seemed like a lot of other people were digging it, so maybe it was just me. Seryn did win four DOMA awards this year, so either they got better or I was just drunk that day. I'm actually kind of friends with two of the members in Seryn, so I hope they don't hate me for this. But I know not everyone is cool about The Red 100's doing our thing the way we do it, which is balls to the wall rock n' roll. We literally throw all notions of 'finesse' out the window. To each his own I guess.
On a related note, what's the worst show you've played? Worst show ever played? Well, I got two on my mind for that. The first one was a show we played at The Prophet Bar in Dallas over two years ago. We had another guy in the band who was our lead singer. For some reason the guy got pissed off about something and threw the microphone down and left the stage in the middle of the last song, leaving the rest of us looking at each other like, What the hell just happened? He actually left the band a month later during our first recording session as a band.
The other crazy show is one I played last year during SXSW. The Orange asked me to fill in on bass for their SXSW dates because their bass player quit on them two weeks before. I guess no one can keep a bass player around here because I've been asked to fill in on bass for a few other bands as well. Anyway, it was the first day of shows for SXSW and we had two gigs that day. I rolled into Austin around 2pm and we all headed to 6th street and ended up in a bar giving away free bootlegged whiskey from North Carolina.
After taking advantage of Carolina's best and a few beers, I ended up with a hangover by 7pm as we're leaving the free concert The Strokes threw at Stadium Shores. I swear I had to push my heavy ass bass amp down 6th Street for eight blocks to our last gig that night while I'm literally throwing up all over the sidewalk. This obviously wasn't the ideal situation since I only had two weeks to learn The Orange's songs and was messing up the arrangements on stage. I pretty much was still throwing my guts up until the last second before we went on. However, because I love to run around the stage when I play, I somehow rocked my sickness away. Who knew rock n' roll cures hangovers? I didn't.
What do you remember about the last show you played? A few weeks ago, The Red 100's played at Lola's Saloon in Ft. Worth opening for The Knux and Jordy Towers. Our set was really raunchy and out of control because we wanted to make an impression on these out-of-state national touring acts. We wanted to show them what rock n' roll is really about. I ended up breaking a knob off my guitar amp after it fell over from me jumping on top of the thing while rocking out. If anyone has ever been to a Red 100's show, they know I like to climb on shit, jump on shit, and kick shit over. Sometimes it feels like a drunken rugby game up on stage. The funny thing about this show is that the second act, Jordy Towers, was on stage singing his heart out, but everyone could tell that the dude was lip synching all the songs. It was like if N*SYNC turned into a rock band with fake dance moves. Even the people behind the bar was like, Is that dude for real? The guy even had a bodyguard escorting him to and from the stage, and I'm like, Dude, we are in Ft. Worth. No one gives a shit and no one is rushing you like you're Elvis. I guess these pop acts from California think they are something else because they are on the radio. We got paid and I got laid so it turned out to be a pretty good night.
