Dave Navarro & DJ Skribble
December 22, 2007
Pawn Shop Lounge
Better Than: A fistfight in front of a mirror.
Contrary to unpopular opinion, kids still get riled about rock; when the rock comes dosed with bottom heavy rap, they get really riled. Make that: really, really riled. Witness Dave Navarro’s and DJ Skribble’s Pawn Shop set last weekend, which riled the kids into a swing not seen since the rockers faced off with the Bloods in Boys in the Blackboard Jungle.
And by swing I mean fists – dig? Oh not between the rock and rap crowd, mind you, and not just among the boys, either, but predominately between a gaggle of gals who acted as if they were being initiated into a gang. I’m talking ‘bout a pushing, shoving, cussing, hair-pulling, bitch-slapping cast of nasties straight out of some badass back alley.
Perhaps the lasses simply got fed-up with all the customary seasonal cheer, or maybe they’ve never gotten so close to a certified rock star, but whatever the reason, it was ugly – and I for one wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Neither apparently would Navarro and Skribble, who fed off the feline frenzy with a whole lotta frenzy of their own. You know Dave: the tatted, hatted and pierced six-string slinger whose TV exploits seem to garner more press than his stints in either Jane’s Addiction or Red Hot Chili Peppers. And if you don’t know Skribble, it’s not for his lack of action (he reportedly logs 300 dates a year), airplay (Saturday nights on New York’s WKTU), output (on Oakenfold’s Perfecto Records), pedigree (ex of Young Black Teenagers) or precedent (Skribs first faced-off against Les Claypool when he toured with Primus).
Together the tag team blow it up. In fact, the cats literally blew-out the sound system – twice – during a dashing mash-up of LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” Of course the system was already reeling after a long, low and booming rendition of The White Stripes’ “Icky Thump,” which had enough bump-and-grind to shut down an arena, so there’s really no blame to name. And neither Navarro nor Skribble seemed the least phased by the defusings.
Hell, if anything, when they came back with Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” and a clash of Notorious B.I.G. and Joan Jett, the dynamite-wielding duo seemed apoplectically giddy at the prospect that it might happen again. Then, to the pump of Yung Joc’s “It’s Going Down,” and the harrumph of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” it did, provoking the crowd to hush into a downright wild.
And inducing me to leave. Call me a coward, but three shutdowns and a cat fight to the retunings of classic neo uber hop rock is plenty. Yet when I left the still boisterous building, it wasn’t as someone who’s had his fill of fun, it was as someone who’d found that there’s still fun to be had – the louder and rowdier the better.
Rock on, brother and sisters. -- John Hood
Personal Bias: I crawled out from under hard rock, so any kinda revisit gets me going gone.
Random Detail: Dozens of Pitbull wannabes sporting Foster Grants leads me to believe there’s still hope in the wild world.
By the Way: Navarro just wrapped his directorial debut – Broken. Find out about it here.
