Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival
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Cole was torn up, of course, but Sims says it was a turning point for Evans too. The Didjits toured Europe just three weeks after the accident, and when they returned the bassist failed to show up for a gig at Double Door. Sims closed the book on the band then and there, and didn’t speak with Evans again until last year in Texas, where he had discreetly relocated after the European tour. “I saw his band [Thighmaster] and he started talking about the past, and I said, ‘Yeah, that was pretty weird, man, I didn’t see you for so long, what happened?’” says Sims. “And he mumbled something like, ‘Aw, man, I can’t remember what happened,’ and then he walked away.”
But while the demise of the Didjits was a disappointment, Sims hasn’t exactly been languishing in the interim. The reason he was in Texas last year was to play at South by Southwest with his new band, the Gaza Strippers–a quartet that transfers the hyper energy of the Didjits to outsize 70s hard rock. They returned to the festival last month to play a packed showcase for Man’s Ruin, the record label run by rock-poster artist Frank Kozik, and will celebrate their Man’s Ruin debut, Laced Candy, on Saturday at Lounge Ax. And with the relative freedom provided by the Offspring wellspring, Sims has explored some other creative outlets as well.
The band released a single and played some low-profile shows here and on the west coast. Marino quit after his first bout of touring, opening the door for current skinsman Cory Stateler, 22. Last summer the group was forced to cancel a tour when Sims underwent surgery for suspected thyroid cancer (a node proved benign). Around the same time early Gaza Strippers fan Mike Hodgkiss, 24, was lobbying to join the band as a second guitarist. “I said, ‘I don’t give a fuck what happens to the band right now,’” says Sims. “‘I don’t want to spend another five months playing these same old songs, trying to work him in.’” So while Sims dealt with his medical problem, Hodgkiss jammed with Stateler and Hooper to learn the songs.
