John “Speedo” Reis getting ready to knock us out of orbit! photo by kim moenich
One of the great things about marrying a man who likes the same small music genre you do is inheriting all of his friends who might happen to play in some of the cool bands within that genre. A few months ago, one of those cool friends, Sam Paulson, announced her band, Man Or Astroman, was going on a short tour with Rocket From The Crypt. Knowing that we were going to be fresh off a trip to LA for PRB’s Fight To Unite (which was a trip entirely for me that my sweet husband really didn’t care much about), I knew I would have to buy him tickets to see both his friend and two bands he loves. So off to NYC we went!
“Avona Nova” playing her otherwordly tunes. photo by kim moenich
Man Or Astroman formed in the early 1990’s in Alabama (of all places!) as a primarily instrumental surf rock band, blending elements of surf music with punk rock. I remember seeing them in the mid-90s and being blown away by their originality. The crazy costumes, “playing" an Apple printer, the whole thing was unlike anything we had going on at the time (except maybe for Atom and His Package). Sam is the first woman to join the band, and she uses the pseudonym “Avona Nova," fitting right in with other members, "Birdstuff," “Star Crunch," and “Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard." Together this foursome are an interstellar force to be reckoned with, and they put on one heck of a show. If you are looking for a reason to smile and jump up and down, run, don’t walk, to see Man Or Astroman!
John Reis (aka Speedo, aka Swami, aka Slasher) formed Rocket From The Crypt in 1990, after his band Pitchfork broke up. He almost simultaneously formed Drive Like Jehu, the band I knew much better, and saw more often than RFTC. Rocket was a punk rock-adjacent band, and my purist self was much more into bands that were more straightforward punk/hardcore/screamo. But I was always aware of RFTC and saw them once or twice at some of the festivals I attended back in the 90’s. However, since they reformed in the early 2010s, I have had the opportunity to see them quite a few times, and every time I love them more and more.
The story behind how this tour came to be is truly one for the ages. At the beginning of the year, John Reis announced that thanks to fans, all of the original master tracks of RFTC songs that had been lost 35 years ago and sold off in liquidation auctions, had been tracked down and repurchased. Rocket fans had begun to see some of these masters pop up on Offer Up, a resale platform, in Orange County, California. Reis was able to buy all of them back, and get them “baked”, to recover the original tracks. The band put those sounds together to create the new album, “Scream Frankenstein Scream”, and so this tour was born.
The show was so full energy and humor, with Speedo often referring to RFTC as "ShaNaNa" and talking about what a joy it was to be performing again after so many decades. The sparkly shirts, the onstage antics, and the out of this world musicianship made this a show worth traveling for! And pick up your copy of “Scream Frankenstein Scream”- not only do you get two new songs, but this version feels much more energetic and alive (which we could all use a little of nowadays!).
