Went out last Sunday to see Proudflesh open for a bunch of other bands at the Bottom Of The Hill. Proudflesh features Sothira and Jimmy from the original lineup of Crucifix, and their new debut CD, is in many ways the 23-years-later follow up to Crucifix's well-loved Dehumanization album. My late girlfriend Maati produced that one, so Sothira and I go back a couple of decades, and I wanted to support him and his long-overdue new release.

Sothira and his various lineups (Proudflesh has been around since the late 80s) have developed a slightly more metallic take on the Crucifix sound: less Germs, more Sabbath, with Motorhead as the glue that holds it together. We saw a version of the band at a New years eve warehouse party in Oakland 14 months ago, and they were struggling a bit; Jimmy wasn't there, and Sothira looked a bit alone with two willing-but-not-at-all-seasoned bandmates. Still, they were inspiring, pulling out a couple of Crucifix tunes like "Steelcase Enclosure" and an instrumental version of "Indochina" (Sothira sticking to bass as the song is too fast to sing and play at the same time & dedicated to the tsunami victims.

What a difference a year makes. Jimmy was back, and playing great rock and roll guitar in the most nonchalant way. The new drummer locked with Sothira's bass, driving through the often-lurchy rhythms (a lot of songs are in 6/4 time, which makes for some neck-snapping instrumental breaks in a punk-metal band), and Sothira was beaming, shouting his lyrics (rants against the Machiavellian powers that be, delivered with lots of heavy metal melodrama...it's good stuff!), tearing off compelling, ultra-distorted bass lines, breaking into some cool dance moves in his white shoes, and just looking cool with slicked back rockabilly hair. They sold a stack of CDs. It was a success. Davis and I filmed the whole set with two cameras, and I think we got some good footage. We hope to be meeting up with Sothira soon to discuss what to do with it.