October 30, 2004
99X Brouhaha
The Tabernacle
By Angeline Vuong

Halloween always tends to attract everyone's inner freak, and it was quite apparent Saturday night at the Tabernacle as 99X brought back their Halloween Brouhaha. Tons of girls used their 'slut pass' for the night, wearing all types of scantily clad costumes. There was a good amount of quality dressed guys as well, including one aptly named What The Fuck, who proudly wore overalls and sported a stuffed pig miraculously growing out of his crotch. Surprisingly though, one of the most popular costumes of the night for both men and women happened to be Paris Hilton.

Luckily, rock 'n roll and freaks go hand in hand, especially at this concert featuring the rockers in JET, along with The Donnas, and Pleasure Club.

Pleasure Club, signed to Atlanta's own Brash Music, kicked off the Halloween festivities. Frontman James Hall commanded the stage, and Pleasure Club raised the dead with the band's single, "Hey Hey Hey, " screaming the line "it feels so good just to be alive." Hall, who fronted the Atlanta based Mary My Hope in the eighties and had a solo career before forming Pleasure Club in 2000, delivered each song with an unparalleled enthusiasm as his band members complimented his charismtic performance onstage during songs such as "High Five Hit Me."

There's a mysterious essence about Pleasure Club that makes them the perfect Halloween band. Watching them live feels like you've wandered upon something illicit and macabre, but too good and tempting to turn away. Once the red lights flood the stage upon these four musicians and the blare of a trumpet starts a song, you come to the realization that some things are meant to be deliciously dark.

After the band's roaring set, the ladies in The Donnas took the stage. These girls are currently touring in support of their new album (produced by Butch Walker), Gold Medal. The Donnas have been kicking ass for nearly 10 years - much longer than their Avril Lavigne prototypes. Except now, they've dropped the "Donna" nicknames and have stuck to their style of Ramones-influenced rock.

The Donnas kicked off their set with "It's On the Rocks," the opening track on their last album Spend The Night. Instantly, it was obvious who were the stars. On stage, guitarist Allison Robertson and drummer Torry Castellano are absolutely engaging. Robertson makes arena rock faces that proves she can rip, shred, and solo with the best of the boys, while Castellano pounds on the skin with the veracity of The Muppets' Animal and the attitude of Tommy Lee. As the band wrapped up their set with their singles "Fall Behind Me" and "Take It Off," the amalgamation of people dressed up as pirates, pimps, showers (yes - showers ), and more reciprocated The Donnas ' vitality.

Although Jet may have Apple and the iPod to thank for helping launch their smash single "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" across the country, these Australian rockers have impressively gained a larger following each time they come through Atlanta. The band has progressed from playing the Cotton Club last December to the Coca Cola Roxy in March and The Tabernacle this past Saturday. The Brouhaha gig is one of the band's last tour dates before going in the studio to record the follow up to their successful debut, Get Born.

Jet are notoriously naughty - a slew of insane stories of drugs, debauchery, and everything in between have surfaced from their last Atlanta show and have made it into the pages of Rolling Stone. There's no denying that the band loves to live in a rock 'n roll state of mind, and their AC/DC / Led Zeppelin / Beatles / Rolling Stones influenced sound definitely reflects their attitude.

The band started their set with "Cold Hard Bitch" as lead singer & guitarist Nic Cester ripped out the song's beginning riff on top of the Tabernacle speakers. Cester's brother and the band's drummer, Chris, blared out the beginning vocals of songs with a snarl that reeked of too many long nights filled with too much alcohol and girls. It was perfect. The band tore through their set that was slightly over an hour, which featured most of the tracks off of Get Born , along with some unreleased b-sides, including " Sgt. Major," a song that makes Cester strangely sound like Liam Gallagher.

By the time Jet kicked out the thumping bass line and tambourine for "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," the crowd that was screaming and clapping along eagerly all night became rabid, and an epidemic of hip swaying and really bad dancing took over the Tabernacle. The band ended their show with the raucous "Take It Or Leave It " as the crowd rushed downstairs to the Cotton Club to watch two of 99X's morning show personalities fight each other in a cage.

The strange ending to a strange evening was all too appropriate. People's ears were left ringing with the sounds of sin and indulgence as they poured out of the 99X Brouhaha into downtown Atlanta, dressed outrageously, and enjoying the rest of their dark night.

www.jettheband.com | www.thedonnas.com | www.pleasureclubmusic.com

99X Brouhaha Photos: (click to enlarge photo)
Taken by Angeline Vuong