The Dickies / Love Canal – Live In Fontana, CA

Welcome to www.thedickiesshowreviews.com. Just kidding, I do a lot of show reviews for The Dickies because it is my favorite band, and I am very fortunate to get the guest list hook up most of the time from drummer extraordinaire Adam Gomez… so there. Both bands performed two rocking sets that sounded great in the acoustically perfect theater. News Flash! Now there is a medium-sized, quality venue called Stage Red for punk rock and other musical genres here in the dry, dusty Inland Empire. Owned by rock star Sammy Hagar (who grew up in Fontana) the Stage Red building is a historical landmark that was constructed in 1937 as a single-screen movie theater. It is lavish, but not to the point where it feels uncomfortable, the staff are incredibly friendly and helpful, and the iridescent tiles in the sparkling bathroom made me feel like an honored guest whilst I was taking a piss.

Just before the show I had the pleasure of meeting the young woman I mentioned in my previous show review of The Dickies in Pomona. At that show, she was joyfully singing every word to all of The Dickies songs. Her name is Chelsea, she is has more than a 4.0 GPA, and aspires to be a biochemist one day. She became part of both band’s performances that evening. Just before Love Canal took the stage, I looked around the medium-sized, viewer-friendly-from-all-places venue and noticed the crowd seemed a bit light, but not disappointingly so. Well, Stage Red is still relatively new, and it is not yet on most people’s radar. Original member and rhythm guitarist Eric VonArab was getting ready to perform, and because he is a veteran vertical skateboarder, I gifted him two vintage Powell tailguards and two vintage Vision tailguards. He was stoked on the classic plastic collector’s items. Eric VonArab is also a walking encyclopedia of skateboarding and punk rock history, and you can hear him impart his punk rock cred in “Clockwork Orange County: The Rise of Orange County Punk Rock!”

The last time I saw Love Canal live was way back in 1984 when they opened for JFA and CH3 at The De Anza Theater in Riverside. This is no-nonsense, no gimmicks, straightforward punk rock hardcore of the classic 1980s variety… that never gets old. This is the stuff we listened to while riding my backyard vertical halfpipe that made the neighbors uncomfortable, but made us aggressively stoked. True to form, one of the first songs was “No Friends” (no, not the Adolescents’ song), that was 45 ripping seconds of adrenaline-pumping punk rock that had the strength of the spirit of the old days with the intensity of the present. People were not slam dancing much, as it was mostly an older crowd with a few youngsters in the mix.

Chelsea and her two young friends were doing their three-person slam pit thing near the rear of the stage area and this caught VonArab’s eye. He invited them onto the stage to continue their punk rock frolicking, and they happily obliged. VonArab then gave them $30 from his pocket, and I think this made them punk rock professionals. Yeah, it was a great set, and what stood out the most for me was the band’s pumped-up version of Tom Petty’s “Need to Know.” Love Canal is punk rock done right and these guys have decades of experience in various well-known bands. Bosco, the gruff-voiced vocalist has been crooning for Love Canal since 2011 and he was formerly in D.I. and Doggy Style along with current drummer Stevie Dirt. Lead guitarist Carey Howe has been in the band since 2011, and before that, he was in the old metal band Leatherwolf, so that explains why Love Canal now has shredding metal solos from time to time. The new guy is Brad Jackman, who joined in 2022, but wait! He was also in Convicted and Final Conflict! Brad was also best friends with famous 1980s vertical skateboarder Neil Blender and he was also a sponsored skateboarder for Madrid and G&S. Love Canal’s first album, It’s a Dog’s Life, So Blow it Out Yer Ass, from 1984 has been reissued by Last Punkrockers Records with eight bonus tracks, and I hear a new album is coming soon so keep an eye out for that.

Then it was time for my beloved Dickies. Shortly before the show, I asked bassist Edward Tatar if he owned any other short pants because he is always wearing his signature camouflage shorts. He seemed politely annoyed, and said he does have other pants, and he is sponsored by the clothing company that makes the shorts. I forgot the name of the brand and I will get that to you next time. A quick look at my notebook reveals that I took almost no notes. This means I was having too much fun to write things down. The joy began with the melodic classic “Rosemary,” followed by “I’m OK, You’re OK,” and my favorite cover song by done by The Dickies, the madcap version of The Moody Blues’ “Knights in White Satin.” I love that song so much that the original sounds weird. Looking around, it seemed that more people showed up but the audience was still a bit on the sparse side. No matter, this did not diminish the band’s performance one bit.

As I mentioned before, It was mostly an older crowd that preferred dancing to slamming, but Chelsea and her two friends were still going at it with their party of three slam pit. Stan Lee must have seen them onstage during Love Canal’s set, so he motioned for them to come back onstage and do their thing. They happily did that for a while, serving as temporary punk rock go-go-dancers. Later, during “Manny, Moe, and Jack,” Leonard waved Chelsea back onto the stage. I thought he wanted her to sing with him and so did she. When she approached the microphone, Leonard waved her off with a smile. It was an awkward moment, but Chelsea got the hint, shrugged, and danced her way offstage with much more grace than Ashlee Simpson did when she got caught lip syncing on Saturday Night Live back in 2004.

Just after “I Got It At The Store,” Leonard reminded us that his long-awaited book will be out next summer and he was lost in thought for a moment. “Um, and what else?” he thought out loud. I yelled: “It’s really great to be here!” Leonard quickly took the cue and said: “And it really great to be here! Wherever this is!” Laughter ensued, and we were entreated to “My Pop The Cop.” Was Leonard’s dad really a police officer? We should all read his upcoming book to find out. Adam Gomez’s wife and young daughter were in attendance, as this show was only a 10 minute drive from their Fontana home. Rhythm (and occasional lead) guitarist Ben David Seelig was more rockingly animated than usual, and he no longer had the mustache that made him look like a substitute math teacher. The set ended with the ever-popular “Gigantor,” and the encore consisted of two more favorites, “Killer Klowns From Outer Space,” and what else? “Banana Splits” of course!

Thanks once again to Adam Gomez for putting me and Cathy on the guest list and you readers be sure to visit his Drum-thru Drive-In, and check out his Sweetwater page where you can get his recommendations on professional musical equipment.