Friday, May 26, 2006


review of - This Old Gorgeous Armada
Current mood: hot
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Three sheets to the wind
The Gorgeous Armada sails into Off Limits, full speed ahead with freak flags flying proudly

By Carey Wilson


GIVE THAT GUY A HAND
Handsome Gorgeous puts it all on the block and accepts a donation from am anonymous audience member during Friday's Off Limits performance.
Carey Wilson
Review: Gorgeous Armada Off Limits Fri., April 14

www.myspace.com/gorgeousarmada


You've gotta hand it to Handsome Gorgeous, leader of the Gorgeous Armada--the guy knows how to turn a bar room into a party.

A good way to set the tone of the evening's event and warm up the PA system is to have a DJ spin a few prime early-'70s cuts such as Bad Company's "Bad Company," Jethro Tull's "Bungle in the Jungle," the Beatles' "Birthday" and Mountain's cowbell classic, "Mississippi Queen," played loud enough to draw attention to the stage and stir up a little dance floor interest.

Gorgeous next introduced the first of the evening's live musical performers, the acoustic guitar and percussion duo Kill! Kill! Kill!, comprised of singer/guitarist Dolores Madagascar accompanied by (I think) Chester Mysterious of the Armada on djembe--a small African drum--and assorted bells.

Madagascar, dressed in accordance with the evening's theme of blue-collar work wear, sported a jaunty welder's cap and a slightly embellished gas station attendant's shirt complete with embroidered name-patch. Her short set included a nice, almost calypso-flavored version of Tom Wait's "Jockey Full of Bourbon" delivered with a clear feminine voice, a fine, solidly rhythmic strumming style and some fairly hyper djembe accompaniment.

Kill! Kill! Kill!'s incongruous name might scare off potential audience members who think they're avoiding some sort of bad retro-metal outfit, but if you get past her band's name, Madagascar delivers just the sort of acoustic music that can warm up a club audience.

In this case the warming up was a prelude to the standup comedy of local actor, activist, author and all-around promoter DNA. Sporting a backwards cap, over-sized goatee and an on-edge style, DNA delivered sex advice for inept lovers, a Viagra bit that involved using the mic stand as a prop, and a Jimmy from South Park, "What a great audience," sign-off. The audience seemed equally divided between people paying attention and getting a few laughs and those who were talking amongst themselves.

Next up was another young standup, whose name wasn't audible during the introduction, but who had an easy-going, self-mocking delivery and a physical presence reminiscent of Louie Anderson. He also knew when to admit it's a losing battle trying to maintain the attention of a crowd primed more for music than standup.

Hip-hop duo Unified School District hit the stage for a short set punctuated by technical difficulties that kept dropping their backing tracks out of the mix just as the MC would start to get a flow going rhyme-wise. It was a shame because some good beats were happening and a few game souls were starting to take advantage of the dance floor. Once everything started working properly, a track featuring a piano-laced dub backdrop pretty much redeemed the whole affair.

With the bar now packed with a nicely mixed crowd of enthusiastic revelers, the Gorgeous Armada manned the stage like a crew of carpenter pirates rebuilding a galleon. Clad in flannels, safety goggles, trucker caps and tool belts, the band, which had eight or nine musicians and singers spread across the long low stage, opened their set with a rousing version of the Miller Glass radio jingle, "He's the glass man, he'll fix it fast, man," sung in full voice by everyone in the band and quite a few audience members.

Handsome Gorgeous is a charismatic bandleader who obviously is pursuing a unique vision of what a party band ought to deliver, which has evolved over the past couple of years from a mainly acoustic-based, goofball country vibe to a full-on heavy rock band centered on the ultra-solid and tight drumming of Clint Bear, which provided a foundation for some huge electric guitar and bass riffs. With four or five vocalists backing him on every song, and an electrified revival preacher's expressive stage presence, Gorgeous had the whole bar dancing and rocking out in their seats from the opening number to the Farfisa organ-powered encore number.

If you're in the mood to have a good time, keep your eyes and ears open for the Gorgeous Armada; they're sure to float your boat.

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Sunday, March 12, 2006


History lesson- first show
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

this is a link to MC orovILLe's message board photo sec.

http://www.geocities.com/ecv10jackass/photos/offlimitsclout.jpg

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Christmas Preview
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Blogged under Feature Articles by ryno on Monday 19 December 2005 at 3:11 pm

Handsome Gorgeous rolls into the coffee shop about a quarter after eight. He's been building props, and looks like he could use some Visine (hey, he could have been swimming..). At any rate, the last thing either of us needs right now is a cup of coffee, but finding somewhere else to talk is, at this point, more hassle than I'm interested in. He tries to be a helpful subject; not in the least bit cocky, perhaps even a little nervous. Also, I end up couching out a loogie roughly the size of Cork, Ireland (Pop: 123,062). At any rate, he's working hard to create his second musical ode to Christmas; a performance rich with innovation, sing-alongs and shadow puppets. His band,
which he describes as "a lot of people's side projects" will be keeping musical accompaniment and providing co-authorship to Sleigh II, a gruesome tale of holiday festivities told through song.

Why did you want to do a play in a bar?
Sounded like fun. Sounded like a good idea. Felt like it fit perfectly. Mary from Off Limits asked us if we wanted to do some kind of Christmas pageant. I thought, why not try to do a play, and this year's is different from last year's. We had a little more time this year, and it's different completely.

So, a new story then?
Yeah, it's a new story. The characters are re-occurring. There's Santa Claus. There are elves. There's actually one new character this year, his name's Josh Sleigh. That's an addition, but there's still Little Billy, the Bad Elf and the other characters.

It kind of sounds like how Evil Dead 2 was essentially the same story as Evil Dead but played out differently.
It's not a remake. It's more of a sequel. It's a different story. It would be like You've Got Mail played out with all the same characters as Evil Dead. Although there's still singing, there's still.. I guess I can't tell you more than that.

So then, is there a lot of this show that's on the down low?
Well, yeah. It's gory. It's like a murder-slasher type play, and there's deception. Anyway, we're keeping a lot of it on the down low, but a lot of it is just still in development.

Was it your idea to make it Christmas themed?
Well, yeah. I had originally wanted to do something with Santa Claus not during Christmas. Like in June or something. The reason is because here we don't have things like bar songs. Since most people know the words to songs like "Jingle Bells," you could start singing it in a bar while drinking and people could join in. That might kind of warm everyone up to the idea so they'll start singing in bars.

So to that end, you're interested in finding an identity for Chico?
I guess so. I didn't really think about it like that, but Chico would be a lot more fun if there were. Well, Chico's pretty fun, but with so many people who move in and out for education or whatever, it's hard to maintain an identity because it changes with the fads. It would be fun to have something like, "This happens at this bar, and I know it's weird, but it's fun."

What is the policy concerning audience participation at this show?
The biggest member of our band is the audience. We don't have a reason to be there if we're not energizing the audience. So with this scenario it might be different. People might want to pay attention. It might get a little hard to hear. Still, whatever people want to do to have fun at the show. We usually have skits and stuff for the audience to do. This one's a little different than our normal show. Last year I was dressed as Santa, and after the narrator said "and then Santa said:" someone yelled "I'm gay!" and it was pretty funny; didn't really change anything. We just kept on going after that.

Since the audience receives well to them, have you ever considered including coming out issues into your show?
No. We did a drag show called "Beans for Queens" once, though.

By Charles H. Peckham V

Naughty? Nice? Neither? It doesn't matter, just check out The Gorgeous Armada's Sleigh II, featuring Handsome Gorgeous, this Thursday at 9 PM at Off Limits. 21 & over, $3 cover.

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more beginnings
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

Review Blockade runners
The Gorgeous Armada Fulcrum, Thurs. Sept. 30

By Carey Wilson

Acousti-punk troubadour Brad, a.k.a. Nothing Left, red-lined the sincere-o-meter with his repeated refrain of "One world or no world at all." Calls for inclusiveness are rare in our compartmentalized subcultures, so I figured if the Gorgeous Armada chose this fellow to warm up the audience for its live recording gig, that was probably the reason.

Despite trading heavily in the irreverent humor that armed the original punk assault on the barricades of overly serious rock, the Armada itself is anything but stereotypical punk.

Handsome Gorgeous, looking like a good-humored version of Metallica's James Hetfield, complete with Fu Manchu facial hair and bald spot, led his band, which included tapdancers and horn players, in a short set that included "Bullfrog," a rambling account of a frog's lifecycle accented by some tasty blues licks from Knuckle's guitar. A group shout-along about "Elephants, monkeys and chickens" had the audience enthusiastically alternating the lines, "The sky is falling,/ Elephants never forget/ We're not monkeys, we're apes."

Pretty amazing when one considers that Fulcrum does not serve alcohol in any form and none of the participants were visibly drunk.

C. W. McCall's '70s trucker anthem "Convoy," augmented by the background vocals of guitarist Uh! Uh!, segued woozily into Bob Seger's "Turn the Page," which somehow included a little finger-pointing dance move. Then the Armada broke loose from its moorings on the stage (OK, floor) and drifted triumphantly into a fusillade of backslaps and laughter from the audience. One could not help but surrender to the Gorgeous Armada.

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In the beginning
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

It takes an armada
Chico party-rock outfit the Gorgeous Armada is leading the charge in the battle for beauty

By Jeremiah Wade


BEAUTY REGIMEN They don't get that pretty by accident. The Gorgeous Armada poses before a show. From left, Ocho Nueve, Jhonny Rainbow, Uh! Uh!, Buck Knuckle, Handsome Gorgeous and Katie Kat.
Photo By Ocho Nueve
Preview: The Gorgeous Armada: Downtown Music Revolution: Sat., Sept. 25, 7 p.m. Fulcrum Records (live recording): Thurs., Sept. 30, 9 p.m.

www.hotornot.com


The Handsome Gorgeous legacy began on the bizarre Internet site www.hotornot.com, which hosts photos of contributors to be rated by viewers on a 1-10 scale of "hotness." Gorgeous' valiant attempt to redefine what is hot consisted of squeezing his meandering physique into a skin-tight sleeveless shirt and tan-line-revealing shorts. Modeling his long unruly locks and Easy Rider Fu Manchu moustache, he enigmatically poised himself next to a gargoyle and a picture of Jesus.

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The masses responded with ambivalence, unprepared for this 21st-century Adonis.

Hardly discouraged, Handsome, whose mother knows him as Anthony Dipasqua, decided to assemble several of Chico's most attractive young musicians and artists into his glamorous band the Gorgeous Armada. Musically capable, the mostly acoustic band maintains a loose rhythm that is driven by the tap dancing of member Salsa Delicious, ne Sarah Oliver.

Over bass, several guitars and an occasional horn Handsome articulates his stories of love and the struggle to fit in a world filled with bullfrogs and tsunamis. Original songs and popular covers of bands as diverse as Outkast and C. W. McCall are punctuated by one-of-a-kind stage theatrics that have included the smashing of a guitar filled with candy, fruit cocktail wrestling, baton twirling and a life-sized cardboard cutout of a missing band member.

Recently, I attended a backyard "Armad-a-que" in attempt to grasp what may be next for the group. A carwash to buy Armada headbands, a sign language interpreter, a full horn section, a tap-dancer-versus-DJ battle and performing Aqua's hit "Barbie Girl" in Spanish were some of the possibilities being discussed by the lowbrow, high-concept collective.

I left inspired by their enthusiasm and began preparing for the band's inevitable coup de thtre to shake up the ever-elusive Chico fun scene.

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Monday, March 06, 2006


Photos by Oroville
Category: Art and Photography

Thank you Oroville


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SNOW RIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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the mystery exposed

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Ocho & Buck

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Gorgeous Armada Christmas Task Force

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Myface.com

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BUY THIS MAN A BEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(it may save your life)

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Sunday, March 05, 2006


Refreshing Flavor - Feb 4 off limits , The Shw is the Rainbow, The Americas, The Eloi
Current mood: GLEEMING WITH PRIDE
Category: GLEEMING WITH PRIDE Dreams and the Supernatural

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We put the Listen in Glisten. Image hosting by Photobucket
Full Thrusters and we'er coming in Hot. This should remind you that if you play with fire, you'er gonna get burned.Image hosting by Photobucket

cool the burn with refreshing flavor.Image hosting by Photobucket

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Gorgeous Armada

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Nov 16, 2006
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