Photos by: Markus Eliance

Joe Sib certainly has a way with words. Especially four-letter ones.

While he takes care to infuse his colorful language to appropriately punctuate the zany ebb and flow of the spoken word tale “California Calling,” he never apologizes for anything that comes out of his mouth. Last week, the crowd was no worse for it, as just about everybody in the house was crying with laughter.

The show, which Sib has been touring across the country, is a reflective piece on his introduction to all things punk. On his website, Sib writes:

“California Calling is about my obsession and love for punk rock – and all of the roads that obsession has taken me down.” – Joe Sib

Joe recalled spending his formative years on a large farm in rural Santa Cruz (filled every weekend with equestrians, hash-smoking hippies and various well-wishers). Joe explained that the turbulent undercurrent to his parent’s marriage, eventually lead to a divorce; Sib tells of visiting his dad’s new “bachelor pad” (at a local motel) as a vacation from his mother’s chain smoking live-in tyranny.

At one of his weekend visits, Sib’s dad took him to a local skate park as an experiment in expanding horizons, promising young Joe that, “If you hate it, we’ll burn it down to the ground and never come back again.” Upon seeing the groups of kids in the skate park, Sib said his dad proudly proclaimed, “Joe… these are your people!” With the exposure to skateboard culture came an introduction to the punk music scene, where Sib gained interest in bands like Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys and Black Flag.

Other humorous anecdotes from the show were Sib’s various transitions in the punk scene; Getting kicked out of class for “indecency,” by responding to the taunts of female peers by flashing his private bits; and flying across the country to see (what he thought) would be the last performance of The Ramones.

The night was nicely rounded out by opening performer, Jesse Malin, a Queens, NY native who, in between blessing the audience with a few choice tracks from his album “Mercury Retrograde“, shared Sib’s manic and lively enthusiasm for storytelling.

Read more about Joe Sib here.

Markus Eliance is a Live Show Correspondent for CWG Magazine. For his nightlife photography, visit YourProofItHappened.com, or his photo archive at ELIANCE Enterprises.