Kim Dracula ended their America’s Gradual Decline in Morale Tour at the North Park Observatory in San Diego. We usually work as a team, but Kaiya forgot to request the night off, so I went by myself. All I knew about these three bands is that Tallah has crazy screams, Jeris Johnson is TikTok famous, and Doc Coyle from Bad Wolves and God Forbid told us he loves Kim Dracula, so I was definitely intrigued. Standing in line at the box office to get my passes, I’m always observing the situation, you get a preview vibe check in line. There were three girls in front of me chatting about clothes, and another group of girls came up to them, asking where to go. They were all smiles, complimenting each other, when the one group walked the other girls continued complimenting them amongst themselves. That seemed to be the vibe of the night, people were so friendly, inclusive, and fun!
Sometimes we go to shows and everyone is just dicks for no reason, then you go to a show like this where everyone is cool, it’s so nice!
Tallah was on the stage when I walked in, and I was immediately intrigued because the keyboardist was running across the stage, slamming into his bandmates, and ran back to his keyboard that was on a spinning swivel. Later he was jumping into the crowd. Kaiya was so bummed to miss them. She discovered lead singer Justin Bonitz videos on techniques for different screams. Because of Justin’s videos, and Kaiya explaining them to me, I have a whole new appreciation for that type of metal that I would have skipped over. Justin was dressed in his quirky outfit of a lab coat and backpack with a little stuffy attached, doing these insane screams. Their energy is quite mesmerizing because you can see they are feeling every bit of it. It’s raw, unscripted stage presence, just in their own space, and then slamming into each other.
A shift in genre to the dragon born Jeris Johnson, who was dressed in furry boots and his long wavy hair that he fliped constantly like twelve-year-old me. He’s pretty funny, talented, and just does whatever he wants and it works! He wielded a sword a few times during the show and later on he showed us his tattoo that says “Future of Rock” saying that it’s up to us for him to not regret that tattoo. After a few songs, he said ok I have to do my stupid fucking TikTok song “Damn”. A couple of times he said, I know you’re thinking “Jeris, you’re so talented and handsome.” He said “Lift your phones, not the light, just hold them up! Ok now follow me on Instagram.” Everyone laughed, and hopefully also followed him! Drummer Blakswan came out from behind the kit to rap one of his songs and went out into the crowd. I only knew the one TikTok song but they put on a great, fun performance!
Lights go down and a coffin is pushed out on stage with an American flag laid across it.
Like a dumbass, I’m looking at the side stage for Kim Dracula to come out, when the coffin slams open with just an arm and a pause, then he pops up crawling out onto the stage singing “A Gradual Decline in Morale”. I loved their reimagined covers of “Whip It” by Devo and “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga. For their next and one of their more popular songs “Drown”, they had Police lights and sirens, which always get my attention. I see Kim sitting in a wheelchair with a hospital gown over him. Kim Dracula is a lot of things mixed together from screams, rap, deep talking voice, theatrics, and even a sax solo. There’s a lot to keep you entertained throughout their entire show. This was the last show of this tour but they will be at many DPW festivals and also going on tour with In This Moment and Motionless in White coming up!
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