Karmahitlist invades Bikerville
Saturday there were two kinds of invasions in Bakersfield. First, Bakersfield was invaded by the
Bakersfield Thunder Run show (biker enthusiasts and biker chicks) and second,
Karmahitlist invaded Bikerville at the Kern County Fairgrounds.
I had asked
Flower in the Dale if she wanted to go with me to see Karmahitlist play at the big Bike show on Saturday. She hadn’t been exposed to Karmahitlist yet and I thought it was time
she fell in love with them too. We arrived at the Fairgrounds around 5:30pm Saturday right in the middle of some biker chick bikini contest. The crowd around the biker chick bikini contest stage was jammed packed with men. It was so crowded Flower and I could barely make our way through the hundreds of sweaty bodies. The last time I had been in that kind of jammed-tight crowd was in New Orleans on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, it was hard to breathe in that crowd. Flower and I stood at the back of the crowd we had just navigated through and looked at the blonde fake-boobed tanned bikini clad girls being judged on the stage.
“This kind of thing is so degrading to women.” I said to Flower. “And look how these men just eat it up.”
She agreed. We walked around to see what the big Bike show consisted of. There were two exhibit buildings with biker clothes, memorabilia, and bike parts for sale, and motorcycles on display that were being judged in a contest. Food vendors and band booths, more biker stuff and beer gardens skirted the two stages.
“This is a whole biker culture/community I wasn’t aware existed to this degree in Bakersfield.” I said to Flower while walking through the exhibit buildings.
“It’s very Oildale.” Flower said.
I nodded, accepting her answer. She’s the local blogging authority on Oildale activities.
Flower and I went in search of Fair style corn dogs. We were sitting at a picnic table eating our corn dogs when Seantastic shirtless with a bull-horn made his way through the crowd proclaiming to everyone Karmahitlist would be playing in 20 minutes on the Rockin’ Village stage.
“That’s Seantastic of Karmahitlist.” I said to Flower.
We made our way over to the Rockin’ Village where Karmahitlist would be playing. JR of
Illpressed, Seantastic and Gus of the
Filthies were hanging out in the beer garden, we hung out with them for a bit before it was time for Karmahitlist to perform.
JR, Gus, Flower and I gathered close to the stage. I turned around and looked at a crowd of people that stood behind us as
Karmahitlist took the stage. Karmahitlist mixed up their set some from their show at the Reggae Fest a couple weeks ago singing a couple of slower songs. Musically they were right on once again! Songs:
Riot on the Streets, Uncle Sam, Why Adam and
No Kind of Love had never sounded better. Seantastic puts on quite an entertaining show! He dances, he jumps, he plays to the crowd, he feeds off the energy of his other band members, he is definitely a punk-rock-God! I just love to watch Seantastic and this band perform. JR got right up next to the stage and danced as Seantastic sang. Later in their set Seantastic ventured out into the crowd and surprised me by coming up close behind me and touching my hair. For a moment… I was in rock-star heaven! I was sad to see their set end. I could have listened to them all day.
“I like them! They’re really good and entertaining like you said they were.” Flower said at the end of Karmahitlist’s set.
Seantastic announced they had t-shirts for sell and were giving away free CDs of their demo and a crowd of people mobbed their merchandise table. Flower and I managed to get a free CD, Karmahitlist buttons and hugs from punk-rock-God Seantastic. I already had a Karmahitlist t-shirt from their Reggae Fest show.
Karmahitlist had invaded Bikerville and stole the show from that strange biker culture/community and I was glad to be there to see it happen.
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