Back in 2010, the defunct Holy Molar -- Bobby Bray, Justin Pearson, and Gabe Serbian of The Locust, Mark McCoy of Charles Bronson, and Maxamillion Avila of Antioch Arrow/Heroin -- released the live DVD Dentist The Menace, which was shot by Matt Driscoll (The Pizza Series) on the band's 2003 tour at Gilman St in Berkeley, Knitting Factory in LA, Chain Reaction in Anaheim, Che Cafe in San Diego, Modified in Phoenix, Jerry's Pizza in Bakersfield, Capitol Garage in Sacramento, Dijecta in Portland, Graceland in Seattle, and other venues. During this concert-less pandemic, Matt's been unearthing a lot of his never-before-seen footage from over the years, and we're now helping him debut ten videos from the 2003 Holy Molar tour, including tons of footage that didn't make it onto the DVD.
Bobby Bray says:
It was the best of times, it was ridiculous times. It’s easy to miss live shows like that, especially as more clubs/bars are permanently closing due to COVID-19. Some of the clubs on that tour already don’t exist or stopped having live bands years ago. But others like the Che, Gilman, and Chain Reaction have survived thus far even though they aren’t owned by a huge company like Live Nation, which could likely weather the storm better. There is a lot of effort that gets put into these independent clubs and there’s a lot of risk too. So it’s great to see places like Chain Reaction getting support to be able to continue, for the moment. It would be great if governments/societies valued music and the folks in the industry a bit more—enough to keep independent venues alive at least.
Whatever happens with the election in the US it is easy to predict that live music would likely be a positive, if not necessary outlet when getting on with whatever the ensuing timeline is. Hopefully the right time for live shows to resume will be soonish, although there is a good chance it won’t be here in the US or in much of Europe it seems. If governments would invest in better ventilation/air filtration systems for businesses/schools and people would use better masks (KN95) maybe infection rates would slow down enough globally for shows to come back.
In this current ridiculous moment in human history I miss being able to experience moments that somehow resemble the absurdities of reality, like during a song [starting at 18:18] at Graceland in Seattle where a kid gets rolled up in a rug like a burrito and JP tries to kiss another kid who seemed to be having one dada post-hardcore hell of a time. I am really glad Mark didn’t break a different kid’s glasses while singing though.
When I was in high school Antioch Arrow practically single-handedly changed my path from death-metal to whatever path it is I took. So I was really glad to be playing music with Maxamillion at the time.
The audio is from the camera mic so when it’s on stage it sounds nuts. But what this raw footage lacks in production it makes up for in absurdity.
We were touring with XBXRX and Ex-Models who were both at great points in their histories. Holy Molar was more of our no-rules crazy band that could explore anything and resonate with the great molar from beyond for ideas! Good times.
Watch all ten videos:
