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January:
After some final vocal sessions
(at Pennywise's Redondo Beach studios in January), the
new album was mixed by Bill Stevenson in Colorado and
efforts were made to get the thing released. Many people agree
that this is the best-sounding, best-produced Last album to date,
and the band is extremely pleased at the way it turned out. Unfortunately,
the expected Summer '05 tour never materialized.
June:
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Joe had better plans for the Summer of
2005 - starting the season off by getting married to Misfortune Cookie bassist Lisa Torres.
Following their June wedding in Las Vegas, part of their honeymoon
was spent travelling to Fort Collins, CO, where the Last performed
again at the Starlight, which is where Joe and Lisa first met. |
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September:
Meanwhile, final preperations
were being made on a couple of CD reissues: Warfrat Tales
and Keats Rides a Harley. Both compilations
were released in the early '80s, and both consisted of some great
LA bands, such as The Last, The Gun Club, Wednesday
Week and the Leaving Trains. Although released by
different labels, the decision was made to hold a joint record
release party for both CDs. Furthermore, someone had the great
idea that maybe each band could play using the lineups they had
when these records were released.
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Easier said than done, as both
Vitus Mataré and John Frank hadn't played
in over a decade, and weren't quite sure they wanted to participate.
John Frank: "For me the practices were the most fun—getting
to renew old friendships, getting to play and hear the old tunes
again, and getting to reawaken many old memories of good times.
The practice before the show on Saturday has allowed me to think
of myself as a drummer again—a very good feeling indeed...The
show was fun, and it was great to be able to have my wife Mirma
hear me drum for the first time...Thanks again to everyone involved,
especially Joe for bringing me back into the fold... Also thanks
to Vitus for continuing to ask me to play even after I had said
no..."
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Fortunately they changed their
minds, and the lineup eventually was comprised of the same one
the Last had back in 1982 (with the addition of Mike,
who was not in the band back then): Steve Andrews,
Vitus Mataré, John Frank, Joe Nolte,
John Rosewall and Mike Nolte (pictured below, left
to right).
The show was fantastic. The
Last put on a great show, as did The Urinals, Wednesday
Week, The Question, The Human Hands, The
Earwigs and Lunch. Especially cool was seeing so many
friends there - many of whom hadn't seen one another in decades.
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Joe
Nolte: "That whole experience
was way more fun than I could've imagined, and although I had
a feeling we'd find a way to pull it off musically it sounded
way better than I think any of us would've believed."
... |
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| Vitus Mataré:
"The
re-release party at the Echo was great. Many familiar and interesting
faces from over 20 years ago. The sets were all fun and getting
to perform with Joe and Mike was an unbelievable treat. Them
Noltes have never sounded better. John Frank, John Rosewall,
Steve and myself all ended up repeatedly thanking Joe for having
us up there. We even got into an argument as to who should be
thanking whom. Obviously it's the friends from all over the place
who took the time to find the Echo on a Saturday afternoon that
we should be thanking." |
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