Review #1

My very first review comes from an old friend, Rich Coffee. Years ago, when I first moved to L.A., my friend Greg and I dove into the local punk-rock scene. It wasn't long before we saw The Excessories and became friends with Rich and his wife/singer Melanie. They became good friends, our favorite local band and our guides through the L.A. music scene- intoducing us to lots of bands and people and venues that became our nightly outings. Rich & Mel were like my punk-rock-big-brother-and-sister... They helped make my first few years in L.A. a lot of fun. I might not have been able to enjoy Al's Bar for the last 3 years it was open if I hadn't met Mel & Rich (who, along with their other band The Black Widows, were the last band to storm the stage on it's closing night and rock the place as everyone literally tore the place apart). Not long after the closing of Al's, The Excessories called it quits and Rich & Mel moved to Vegas. Mel runs the Neon Museum, and Rich has a couple of great blogs: the rock 'n' roll review site Rants 'n' Raves and his politically minded The End of the World.

Sidenote: Rich, also an avid fan of comics, and I would often suffer the embarrassment of "twinkies" when we would both accidentally show up at a club wearing the same Captain America t-shirt.