Dave Hause in Fullerton.

I saw Dave Hause of the Loved Ones perform a solo show last night at The Slidebar in Fullerton. For those of you unfamiliar with The Slidebar, or Fullerton in general, here's this. Fullerton is located in Orange County, one town over from Anaheim. It's somewhat a college town, as it's home to Cal State Fullerton (where I attend school). In the heart of Fullerton is Downtown Fullerton, full of bars and resturaunts and plenty of ways to pass the time/get in trouble/made terrible decisions. Personally, when I head to DTF (Downtown Fullerton, not "Down to Fuck" as my buddy Chris thought in one particularly humorous situation that I won't bring up here) I prefer to hang at The Continental Room or Heroes. In fact, I pretty much HATE Slidebar. It's full of wannabee's and fakes. Think, dude's that look like The Situation from "Jersey Shore" and girls that look like Audrina from "The Hills." Yikes. However, the one redeeming quality to Slidebar is that they hold free shows from time-to-time. Now most, like Mest and whatever that collaboration between the singer from Unwritten Law and that dude from the Kottonmouth Kings is, do nothing for me. However, every once in a while good bands roll through. I saw the Street Dogs there a couple months ago, and missed Broadway Calls and The Briggs on separate occasions, thanks to work. So as much as I try to avoid The Slidebar, I do make exceptions when necessary.

So I was hanging out at home watching either "Man vs. Food," "Mad Men," or "Eastbound and Down" with my Mom and Dad (we watched all three; it was a relaxing day) when my buddy Ignacio texted me that Dave Hause was playing a free show at The Slidebar. I love the Loved Ones (seems pretty redundant), so I told him I'd be there. He said to be at his girlfriend Casey's house around 8 to meet up. Casey lives in Fullerton, and just a few minutes away from DTF. So I picked up some Newcastle and went to Casey's. At Casey's, Ignacio and I (along with our friend Mike who went with us) discussed how we can't seem to get into Dillinger 4, debated which was better, "White Crosses" or "American Slang" and made fun of "Miracles" by Insane Clown Posse. Then we rolled down to The Slidebar.

Thankfully, it was a Sunday, so The Slidebar wasn't too crowded. We found a table and ordered a drink and waited for Dave Hause to take the stage. There were, by Casey's count, 23 people to see Hause, and it seemed as if only five or six (including Ig, Mike and myself) knew who he was. A perhaps sixteen year old girl named Taylor was there with her Mom and Hause made mention of her quite a bit. It seems that the night before Taylor and her Mom had driven to Pasadena to see Hause, only to find out the show was shut down by the cops. Hause was appreciative of Taylor for coming to the Fullerton show and allowed her to pick a couple songs on the set-list. She chose "Directions" and "100K."

Hause played a good mix of his solo work and Loved Ones material. He was flanked by another guitarist named Mitch who was a really nice dude. When Hause ripped into his first Loved Ones track, "Living Well (Get You Dead)," Mitch noticed that Ig, Mike and I were the only three singing. We noticed this too, so we decided to be loud so Hause felt better, I guess.Well Mitch told us the next time we felt like it, to grab the microphone and sing along. Hause played a couple more solo songs before playing "Distractions" for Taylor. I started asking for him to play "Coma Girl," a Joe Strummer cover they did for their Distractions EP, and Hause told me "I'm not playin' it. Knock it off." I should mention he said it with a smile and a couple minutes later asked me what I wanted to hear. I said "Jane" and he played it. He then played "The Bridge" and "Pray For Tuscon," the only solo song I'm familiar with, before ripping into "Pretty Good Year." Mitch gave us the microphone and we sang along with Hause.


After the show Hause was very appreciative of Ig, Mike and I, telling us after the show that he was thrilled we came out and thanks for participating. We snapped a picture and took off.


Hause was an entertaining dude. He took everything in stride, like when an obviously drunk chick kept running into the room and screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Hause said "bachlorette party?" and I told him "you're the main entertainment." He said "if that's the case, her marriage is in trouble." She then came back and started asking her questions during a song, to which she respdonded "WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I also tried to get him to play "Ball in Chain" by Social Distortion by telling him I saw his cover of it and loved it. He seemed excited and said "Really? Where?" I said "Youtube." He started laughing and looked a bit displeased. He's also a really talented dude. Check out his myspace, or his 7".

That's all for now.