The Monday Show Low Down (Or “Cause All Of Your Schemes Are Busting At The Seams”)

I know how the recent dearth of live music over the holidays has driven you into the waiting arms of multiple family dinners, complete seasons of TV shows on DVD, video game addiction, and/or quasi-legal psychedelic mushrooms, but it's all over now... This week sees the return of a ridiculous number of options for great shows by great local bands.

Let's see what it has to offer (or something).

Monday, December 31
- Pity Party, Restaurant, Fat Lip, Lady Michelle Sinclair, & Special Guests @ Little Radio
- Gram Rabbit, The Blood Arm, & more @ The Echo
- Paris a Go-Go w/Rufus Wainwright & Belinda Carlisle @ The Hollywood Bowl
- New Year’s Eve w/ Dub Club All Stars feat. Sister Nancy, & Ranking Joe @ Echoplex
- NEW YEARS EVE with Veruca Salt, Donita Sparks & The Stellar Moments w/Run Run Run & Repeater @ Safari Sam's
- New Year’s Eve w/ Dub Club All Stars feat. Sister Nancy & Ranking Joe @ The Echoplex
- Cinema Stereo, Fabmswendy, Seasons, Fuckass, Firethorn, The Beeters, Sirens, Manhattan Murder Mystery & Eden Proxy @ Mr T's Bowl
- Eagles of Death Metal, Hello Stranger, & The Ringers @ The Roxy
- Dengue Fever @ Temple Bar
- The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series w/ Anaban, Foot Village, Softboiled Eggies Redglaer, & John Thill @ The Smell
- New Year’s Eve w/Aztlan Underground, Ollin, Aztlan Nation, & Geronimo @ The Scene
- Sweet And Tender Hooligans & Frequency @ Spaceland

DECISION:
It'd take something pretty special to get me out among what my dad charmingly refers to as "all the amateur drunks" out on New Year's Eve, but I'd say that shows at Little Radio and Spaceland look like the best of them.

Tuesday, January 1
- The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series w/ Ima Gymnist, Magic Johnson, Vomit Bomb, Party Fowl, NASA Space universe, & Apathetic Ronald McDonald @ The Smell

DECISION:
Leave it to The Smell to be the only music venue open on New Year's Day, as they continue this week's Ten Year Anniversary celebrations. (If you regularly listen to KXLU, these shows will make you nonchalantly explode.)

Wednesday, January 2
- General Bastard, Spit, & Kamikaze @ The Scene
- Bodies Of Water @ Mr T's Bowl
- Dub Club @ Echoplex
- No Little Kindness & Guesstimates @ Mr T's Bowl
- The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series w/ Megafuckers, Epsilons, Child Pornography, A.M., Plague Of Dandelions, & The Adapted @ The Smell
- Maria Taylor, Whispertown 2000, Robert Francis, & Nik Freitas @ Tangier
- Oliver Future @ Hotel Café

DECISION:
The last time I saw Bodies of Water play live, I finally realized exactly why people seem to like them so damn much.

Thursday, January 3
- Spaceland On Ice w/ Mezzanine Owls & Hearts of Palm UK, @ Pershing Square
- Batman Vs. Predator & Tweak Bird @ The Silver Lake Lounge
- The Kris Special, Solar Wimp, Walk, Warm Climate, & Circles & Circles @ Mr T's Bowl
- The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series w/ Babyland, Captain Ahab, Electrocute, The Mae Shi, Dommm, & Lucky Dragons @ The Smell
- Real Rock & Roll Prod. presents Versa Vice, Light FM, On the Surface, Lightnin Bill, & Sea of Cortez @ The Echo
- Lux & Ruby’s Burlesque-A-Go-Go w/Ladykillers, Angus Khan, & Skywreck @ The Scene
- The Airborne Toxic Event @ Spaceland

DECISION:
You know, going to Spaceland on Ice with Mezzanine Owls and Hearts Of Palm UK at Pershing Square early on Thursday and then hitting either The Airborne Toxic Event at Spaceland or Light FM show at The Echo sounds like a really great night.

Friday, January 4
- You Me and Iowa, Thailand, Cavil at Rest, & Calamity Magnet @ Spaceland
- Katie the Pest, The Chase, & Jim McCray @ Pehrspace
- Club Underground w/ Sky Parade @ The Echo
- MasterSlashSlave, Box Violet, Teddy's Cheer Club, & The Monolators @ Mr T's Bowl
- The Circle Jerks @ The Henry Fonda
- The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series w/ Scarella Bad Dudes, Upsilon Acrux, Damion Romero, Bipolar Bear, Jarrett Silberman, & Peter Kolovos @ The Smell
- Pigeon John, The Greasy Beats, & El Haru-Huroi @ El Cid
- 22 Jacks, Jackson United, & The Dirges @ The Scene
- Modus Operandi, The Syncope Threshold, XOversa, Catch the Fallen, & Any Day Now @ The Troubadour
- Sea Wolf & Afternoons @ The Natural History Museum

DECISION:
The line-up at Spaceland on Friday looks pretty fun, but I've already gotten tickets for the fantastic pairing of Sea Wolf and Afternoons at The Natural History Museum. (Wonder if the two groups will play any Irving songs as an encore that night...)

Saturday, January 5
- Kenan Bell, DJs Pubes (obey/giant), Andrew Clark (Monsters Are Waiting), & Frog @ The Scene
- Actress, SD Choir, & Intercept @ Bordello
- Luke Top @ Pehrspace
- BILL, The Amadans, Fascinoma, & Evangina @ Mr T's Bowl
- The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series w/ John Wiese, Flaspar, Lacoste, Tik///Tik, Knight Rider, & Logo Moi @ The Smell
- The return of BOOTIE LA: Dj’s Paul V, Mysterious D, & Adriene @ The Echo
- Rebelution, Tomorrows Bad Seeds, B Foundation, & Rude Boy Roots @ The Troubadour
- Amateurs, Frankel, Apollo Heights, & Veil Vanish @ Spaceland

DECISION:
You can't go wrong with Amateurs and Frankel at Spaceland on Saturday night, but Luke Top at the BYOB-fabulous Pehrspace is fairly tempting, too.

Sunday, January 6
- Fatso Jetson, House of Broken Promises (ex-Unida), & Black Gasoline @ The Scene
- Eleni Mandell, Jonathan Wilson, Angela Correa, & B.R.A.M. @ Tangier
- Part Time Punks @ The Echo
- Clark 8, Whitman, & Codpiece @ Mr T's Bowl
- The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series w/ No Age, Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda, Fast Forward, Silver Daggers, Disaster, David Scott Stone, & Hard Bop @ The Smell
- Benefit for the L.A Gay & Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation w/ Rademacher, EKUK, Venus Infers, The Weather Underground, & El Ten Eleven @ Safari Sam’s

DECISION:
The Smell's Ten Year Anniversary Series culminates on Sunday night with a performance by No Age, while the great Rademacher and Marvelous Toy play a benefit show over at Safari Sam's.

That's it. Please let me know if I've missed anything. And happy goddamn new year and stuff.