Spark Plug Night at the Crest

Friday, February 18 I finally made it out to Torrance’s premier venue the Crest to catch Spark Plug night. Spark Plug is the on line and print fanzine successor to last year’s re-boot of Flipside, Flipside 2010. The Spark Plug folks have been doing regular gigs here since late last summer and I’ve been very curious about the place. The line up that night consisted of Sassafras, Million Kids, Standard & Poor, Electric Children and a special farewell appearance by Gary 84, a band that features members of Million Kids and the Hi-Z’s.
Sassafras kicked things off with a loud and exhilarating set. Sassafras have recently stripped down to a two-man line up with Sailor Alexander on guitar and vocals and former Inazuma drummer Teppei. Sailor played all the instruments on the band’s debut self-titled CD and Sassafras has a brand new album on the way. Million Kids rocked the house next and Gary 84 squeezed in a couple of songs in between the Kids and Standard & Poor. Standard & Poor features long time White Flag drummer Trace Element playing a lot of old school punk including a little riff of the Sex Pistols "Pretty Vacant" and a full on cover of David Bowie’s "Suffragette City." Electric Children closed out the night with selections from their upcoming full length Fantasy Land. Electric Children’s front man, Eddie Lopez has been threatening to do a Leaving Trains cover set for quite some time now. We’ll all just have to stay tuned for that.
As for the place itself, while it is a bit of a drive from Los Angeles (20 miles and 30 minutes from my beloved Silver Lake), quite a few brave souls did venture out to Torrance on what was a considerably rainy night. For those who don’t know where Torrance is exactly, it’s out by Redondo Beach, Lawndale and Gardena in the South Bay. I had heard that the Crest had undergone a remodeling and I’m told it’s an improvement. I’m just unsure of why anyone would intentionally make their venue look like a Shakey’s Pizza, but to each his own. But I will say that the (literally) dozens of flat screen TV’s that line the inside walls of the place does tend to give the stage area a bit of a Best Buy vibe. On the plus side, it’s free and the beers are reasonably priced.

If you happen to have a designated driver, check out Spark Plug night at the Crest and by all means check out the latest issue of Spark Plug at sparkplugmagazine.com