Jerk Of All Trades photographer Maggie St.Thomas gets a personal invite to cover the farewell performance of Mink Daggers at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, Saturday night August 3rd, where Ho Dagger, Patrick Dean McQueen Esq., Rev. Mitchell Cartwright, and Jorge E. Disguster took the stage one last time to perform as a special request for their friend Michael Bunuan’s 50th birthday.
Adding to the excitement was the high energy in the air, we were all ready to rock and Mink Daggers left no one disappointed. Blasting their fast rock ‘n’ roll sound that they’re known for, Mink Daggers performed 13 songs and ruled the stage like it was meant for their legs. Starting off their show with a revved up ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen to the cheering packed crowd, Mink Daggers kept the mood fast and aggressive with plenty of their own songs including ‘Light It Up’ and ended the night with ‘Mink Daggers Dead or Alive’.
It was an absolutely killer time, Mink Daggers murdered the stage, I think everyone in attendance would agree.


After the show, Jerk Of All Trades met up with Ho Dagger who was in the parking lot chatting with fans.
You celebrated a friends 50th birthday today.
Michael Bunuan, yes he’s a photographer who loves the Mink Daggers.
What do you see happening after tonight?
I don’t know, we had fun tonight and that’s good.
What was the highlight of the show to you?
Just playing with those guys again and singing with them. They’re all incredibly talented musicians. A year and a 1/2 ago I didn’t think that this was ever going to happen again and for a minute I was destroyed. One of the things that bummed me out about Mink Daggers was that I always knew how great we were.
What was your favorite song to perform tonight?
We played a Queen song tonight which we’ve never done before, we played a Smack song which is a band from Finland, they had a big influence on me. There were a few songs we never played onstage before and when stuff like that happens you never know how it’s going to go, but tonight I thought it went pretty well.
Did you ever see Queen live?
Yes, I saw them for the first time in 78′, I was fortunate enough to see Queen like 5 or 6 times. I would go see bands like The Ramones , The Clash, or The Jam and then I’d go see Queen. If someone asked me if I wanted to go with them to see Van Halen I would go see them too. All those bands are great and they’re all important.
Tell me about some of the music artists who helped shape your style and direction.
When I was a real little kid the first guy that actually reached me was Little Richard, and by the time I could grasp what was going on I was a big Who fan. What was great about Pete Townsend was that he was one of the few in rock ‘n’ roll who could articulate why this music was so important, why it was an art form and why it was culturally significant. Townsend was a giant influence on me and then a few years after that my dad brought home a Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars album and that really changed everything.
So would you say your biggest musical influence is Bowie?
Definitely! The other thing that was great about Bowie was that he was an incredible name dropper. That’s how he got press he mentioned The Velvet Underground, he mentioned The Stooges and T.Rex. I heard about The Psychedelic Furs before they had a record over here because Bowie talked about them. He talked about the Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Talking Heads, and so on . It was like you trusted the guy. If Bowie said it was good chances were that it was. So I listened to a wide range of music, even though I do a lot of loud fast stuff there’s a little bit of all that sprinkled in there.

Jerk Of All Trades would like to extend a very Happy Birthday to photographer Michael Bunuan. If not for his request, this incredible evening might not have ever happened. We can only hope to see more of The Mink Daggers rockin’ together and absolutely murdering more stages with more of that hard, fast rock’n’ roll.
Article & Photographs: Maggie St.Thomas
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