Missing Blink

>> Fenix TX skate around the comparisons

by CHRIS BARRY

Having a sister who is boinking the head jerk from Blink 182 is a mixed blessing if you're a guy trying to work a little cred for your punk rock band. On the one hand, the major labels all of a sudden take an interest in you, hoping that some of that multi-platinum Blink spunk may have baptized you in the crossfire, and fall all over each other to sign you up for the big bucks. You also find yourself first in line to tour with the crazy So-Cal hitmakers. Lots of chicks, a bit of cash, something for the press to talk about--the association definitely has its perks.

Except that suddenly you're associated with one of the lamest bands in the history of lame punk rock bands. And people resent you for it. How cool can you be if you're hanging with Blink 182? People show up at your gigs armed with rotten fruit to throw at you. They call you a sell-out. You suffer all the usual shit from jealous people who've probably never even heard your band.

Such is the quagmire Fenix TX, formerly River Phoenix, find themselves in these days. "We get kids with mohawks and GBH shirts coming to our gigs ready to hate us just because of the Blink connection," says drummer Damon Delapaz. "But we don't give a shit. What are you going to do? People either hate us or love us."

And the Blink 182 comparisons aren't really, when you get right down to it, all that fair to begin with. Both bands may share a penchant for goofy, un-PC lyrics and play big guitars in the time-honoured So-Cal punk tradition but, outside of that, well shucks, you're talking apples and oranges. Fenix TX still tour in a van, for Christ's sake! And they're kind of ugly.

"I don't think our label really understood what we were about when we first hooked up with them," pipes in bassist Adam Lewis. "They were trying to market us as some kind of boy band with guitars and we had to fight them tooth and nail on every fucking thing. It was a constant struggle. But, you know, at the end of the day we're still probably better off being on a major label than most of our friends struggling back at home. Shit, we get to go out and play rock 'n' roll as a full-time job. How bad can that be?"

At the Vans Warped Tour at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Friday, Aug. 10, noon, $38, all ages