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The Users : Old fashioned jams done by long time buds
By: Thyra Lees-Smith
There are only a couple of reasons to take a long drive out of town on a rainy night to see a band either A) They are the most talented, exciting band in the world and you are dying to see them or B) They are friends of yours.
Well I've known The Users for a long, long time.
Basically, The Users are 3 guys who have chummed around together since grade school back in the days of Gerald Ford. The fact that they are still able to stand each other at all, let alone play in a band together is noteworthy all by itself. As for what these long term-relationship boys produce, think of it as psychedelic blues/rock heavily stained with influences ranging from the Who and Sex Pistols to the Grateful Dead, Tom Waits and the Cramps. Globs of darkly humorous songs glued together by extended distortion jams. In other words, don't expect to hear these puppies on FM radio anytime this millennium.
At Friday Nights show at the Firewater Inn in Agoura The Users lived up to their long standing reputation for substance enhanced music, well appreciated by fans and friends who show up to their gigs (kind of a suburban troop of beer drinking Dead Heads). Though billed as an "acoustic"set, Guitarist Alan Ewald seemed determined to show the enthusiastic crowd just what electronic boxes could actually do to a guitar without built in pickups. Mike Monsalve on bass sets the overall tone with his heavy/depressing grooves performed with the frenetic energy of a 5-year-old A.D.D. patient. Rick Johnson manages to keep it all together with strong, heavy handed drumming that is not overly frilly but fills the gaps in nicely.
In a set that contained mostly original songs The Users managed to prove that they still possess that original spark of whatever got them to form a band in the first place. And in today's world of soulless boy bands and 16-year-old models who sing, it's kind of nice to see a band that defies convention and retains a vice like grip on what made rock and roll, rock in the first place.
Bitch's Bottom Line: Rocker's who still rock, dude.
Article by: Thyra Lees-Smith
Submitted: April 25th, 2001
Email: thyra@thelmusicscene.com
Photo's by: The Users (.net) website
Artists website: http://www.theusers.net
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