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Hot for the Holidays Tour
Live at House of Blues Anaheim
December 10, 2025 Review by Kevin Gomez
Santa still has a couple of weeks, but the newly rebranded Spike and the Gimme Gimmes came to town, specifically the House of Blues in Anaheim Friday night for what has become their annual holiday show.
Although known for being a supergroup with an ever-revolving lineup, the current five members of the Gimmes have been together for quite a few years now, which helps explain their exceptionally tight performance. The premiere cover band brought along quite possibly their strongest lineup of bands for Friday’s show.
The evening started with local favorites Greg Antista & The Lonely Streets. They opened with the trifecta of “Shiver,” “Halfway to Whole,” and “Nasty Weather.” The band brought a classic sound of pure punk mixed with rock and roll, at times oozing bluesy rock.
I spoke with drummer Jorge E. Disguster, a local legend in his own right, after the show and he explained that singer and guitarist Antista went to school with OC punk legends Mike Ness and guitarist Frank Agnew, both founding members of Social Distortion. I could sense a strong influence from the legendary Social D in The Lonely Streets’ sound.
Agnew, of Adolescents fame, shred on guitar for the love song, “Rosalita.” Antista introduced their next song as “a holiday tale as old as time.” But then continued with, “you know, your old lady calls the cop… and you wake up in a Tijuana jail” and they played the breakup song, “U-Haul.”
They decided to end with an actual holiday song and played their take on Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”
The PA started playing “2 of America’s Most Wanted” which could only signal one thing, everyone’s favorite homies Manic Hispanic. If their first song, “Wasted,” didn’t get the pit fully going, their take on Bouncing Soul’s “True Believers” entitled, “Mas Chingones” was the spark the crowd needed to ignite like a powder keg.
It was good to see co-lead singer Louie Perez, III, back in action as he had missed the last few months’ shows recovering from surgery earlier this year.
You’d never know as he sounded great and was back to his usual antics, nut-checking fellow bandmates, Efrem Schulz and Gilbert Pichardo.
In typical convict fashion Schulz and Pichardo tossed out bags of ramen (“the spread” as they call it in the pen) into the crowd. Warren Renfrow began the infamous bass intro for Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” which could only mean one thing, “Holding Cell.”
Perez dedicated “Chancla Abuser” to all the women with the “Wu-Tang chanclas.” Pichardo poured his feelings out for “double-wide” women in “Big Hynas.” They played their ode to our current president with “Naranjo” (Spanish for “orange) with the lyrics, “all I know is he’s a tonto, the Naranjo really don’t know nothing.”
NOFX is always a sure-fire way to get a nasty pit going, and one of the gnarliest pits all night began as Elvis Cortez started playing “The Brews” leading into “Cruise.”
A special moment came as Manic welcomed Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham on guitar and David Hidalgo on drums, both of Social Distortion fame.
The band paid homage by playing “Mommy’s Little Cholo” before wrapping things up with “Paisa.” As Manic Hispanic paid their farewells Perez told the audience, “I’m going into the hospital Wednesday and if I don’t make it back, I fucking love you.”
All night the stage was decorated with several pink Christmas trees, two giant nutcracker statues flanking the drums, and a giant ornament hanging from the ceiling with the “gg” (Gimme Gimmes) anagram.
Spike Slawson and the boys took the stage as he began playing the gentle opening to “Santa Baby,” before the rest of the band exploded into their punk rock take on the holiday classic led by guitarist Jake Riley’s insane playing. Wasting absolutely no time they jumped right into a block of country covers, “Jolene,” “Country Roads,” “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” (which saw Slawson riding an inflatable reindeer), “On the Road Again,” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.”
Slawson paid tribute to the late great Ozzy Osbourne telling the crowd, “The Prince of Darkness has left the building,” and the Gimmes played Black Sabbath’s “Changes.”
CJ Ramone led the incredible bassline for their brilliant mashup of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Love Will Keep Us Together,” which Slawson told me was the ingenious creation of drummer Andrew Pinching. Keeping with the holiday spirit Slawson brought out a jingle stick for their take on “Feliz Navidad.”
John Reis began playing the guitar intro for The Clash’s “Janie Jones,” which led into their cover of Abba’s “Dancing Queen.”
The Gimmes even kept things contemporary with their cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” featuring Riley’s guitar intro from “Ever Fallen in Love?” The Gimmes closed their regular set with Elton John’s “Rocket Man.”
Spike brought back his ukulele for their encore as they played their latest single, “All I Want for Christmas is You” highlighted by “Suburban Home.” They kept that sleigh a-rolling with Slade’s, “Merry Xmas Everybody.” They crushed a glorious version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” because as Slawson put it, “if you don’t like Judy Garland, fuck you.”
As things came to a close, the Gimmes wrapped things up with a bow with the aptly titled “End of the Road” before playing one last reprise of “Feliz Navidad.” Merry Gimmes to all, and to all a good night!
SHOW PHOTO GALLERY
by Todd Markel Photography
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SID 251211 | TRACI TURNER | EDITOR
