This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the annual Ink-N-Iron Festival takes over the Queen Mary for a weekend of metal machines, tattoos, burlesque, fashion, art, and rock and roll. The Vooduo best epitomises all these elements so, naturally, they’re performing on Sunday at 6 PM on the Tiki Drive-In stage. Of course, while you’re there, you might want to catch Pennywise, who close the festival on the Main Stage.
Shrouded in mystery and steeped in the macabre, the no frills primitive rock and roll powerhouse known as The Vooduo began its most recent incarnation because of a chance meeting at Fern’s, a rather seedy bar in the ‘bad’ part of 4th Street.
“We met at Fern’s,” said Neidi Night [AKA Heidi], the drumming half of the duo. “We immediately realized that we shared alot of common interests, including music. We both share a deep love of old movies, especially horror and sci fi and 50’s and 60’s pop culture, collecting records and interesting old stuff.
“Since Max [AKA Eerie Powers] had already been doing The Vooduo in one form or another and had recently lost his drummer, we decided to play together. He taught me to play drums and voila. I guess we liked the chemistry enough to keep it going for the last 18 years.”
I asked Max about the origins of the band.
“The Cramps were my favorite band,” he said. “I really wanted to do something similar, with the same spirit, so I started The Vooduo in around ’89 or ’90. A lot of the songs we do in the Vooduo I played around coffee houses as Disturbed Max.
“It was a fun time,” Max recalled, “but I felt a bit of an outcast playing that type of music in the coffee houses – not playing Dylan-style folk. My songs weren’t sad or political. They were happy, even though they were about monsters.”
I asked if he found another scene more suited to his style of music.
“Bars!!! Coffee houses are bright and caffeinated. Bars are dark and drunk. I was more used to that atmosphere.”
I asked about their devoted local, and growing international, fan base.
“Long Beach is always a loyal town,” Max said, “filled with great people. But since we’ve been around as long as we have we’ve been fortunate enough to meet alot of other like minded bands from out of town that invite us out to their parts of the world to play, so we’ve gotten exposure in other places and made new fans.
“For example, we recently got invited to play an amazing festival in Bourges, France called the Cosmic Trip. It was a garage/surf/rockabilly festival. Lots of amazing music and rabid European rock n roll fans. European audiences seem to be more passionate about music these days, then Americans. Perhaps they are less absorbed with texting and television. Or maybe Americans just take rock n roll for granted since we invented it.
“We went to France two years ago for a short tour,” Max continued, “and played a rockabilly festival that time, but this was a much bigger event. The bands came from all over: England, Italy, Spain, the States. Some really big bands like The Cynics and the Lords of Altamont. We have a few pics and videos up on our Facebook page, but haven’t had a chance to put up everything yet.”
Max had a long stint as the drummer for the Lords of Altamont, and has played in a long parade of other bands over the years. I asked him how many he’s been in over the years.
“Wow! Too many to mention. I’ve been playing since I was really young, so that’s a lot of bands. I’m still playing with the Harbortown Saints, which is a local band. I played with Levi Dexter in The Daggers, Gypsy Trash, The Paper Tulips, The Nashvillains, The BoilerMakers, Spiderbaby, The Patterns, and Satan’s Sadists, another good Long Beach band.”
Max also has numerous side projects that he activates from time to time. Diode, for example, blends 80’s synth pop and sci-fi themed lyrics, and Manster, his one man band.
I asked Heidi about Ink-N-Iron.
“This will be our third year playing Ink n Iron,” she said. “It’s always a great event. Originally Rob Kruse from the Dynotones suggested us to the promoter, so that’s how we initially got involved.
“It is one of the bigger musical events in this city and what an amazing location! We played it a couple of years ago and got to share the stage with The Woggles, The Fuzztones and The Sonics, so not too many gigs are gonna surpass that.
“This year we play on Sunday on the Tiki Drive-in stage at 6 o’clock. We’re looking forward to seeing the Polecats. It’s been quite a few years since we’ve played with them!!!”
—
For more information about the Ink-N-Iron Festival, visit Ink-N- Iron.com.
Stay connected to The Vooduo through their Facebook page.