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Dark Meat Break Ear Drums, Get Shut Down

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To celebrate the unveiling of their new fall collection of music-inspired watches and accessories, Vestal Vestal Headquarters in Costa Mesa, CA hosted a parking lot bohemian bacchanalia on June 27 featuring Athens, GA 17-piece Dark Meat. Flanked by a giant digital clock counting up, the fete had the feeling of a reverse New Year’s Eve. Revelers lined up in front of big balloons floating in the night sky marked “beer,” “vodka,” and “absinthe” acting as roadmaps to particular poisons (the latter served by nurses with tongue-depressors used as cocktail stirrers).

Long before the band took the stage, its members had infiltrated the mingling masses with face paint and beads, and, by 10 P.M., the tent filled with the piercing sounds of their horn section, as they launched into “Well Fuck You Then,” from their debut, Universal Indians. Noticing that some intrepid attendees covered their ears, Jim McHugh asked at song’s end, “How’d that hurt motherfuckers?!”

After an a cappella intro to “Freedom Ritual,” during which patrons — perhaps getting ready for Sunday’s Euro 2008 final — were soccer-kicking cups of absinthe and beer into the air, around 10:29 P.M., word came from the band that they’d been shut down by the cops.

After trying an improvised unplugged incarnation, even McHugh had to give up, grabbing a clear plastic divider that encircled one of their two drummers, unbuckling his jeans and exposing his backside in the classic “pressed ham” gesture. With a toss of glittering confetti, the music was over, but the party marched on.

More photos from this show >>

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo byAuxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

Dark Meat / Photo by Auxy Espinoza

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