Run with the devil at Mammoth Rocks

As Brian Geller tells it, when he was in his mid-30s, he went to see an Atomic Punks show at the House of Blues in L.A.

Geller, who was married at the time and worked a 9-5 job at Mattel Toys in El Segundo, recalls getting home that night and telling his wife, “I want to be part of a Van Halen band.”

As wives are wont to do, she looked at him as if he were crazy (granted, he may have been) and said something like, “What? You don’t even know how to sing.”

And he’d never been in a band. But he had seen every Van Halen tour since he was 13 years old and he just knew the band inside and out.

Three months later, he had started his own Van Halen tribute band.

And now, years later, he’s the lead vocalist for the band that originally inspired him.

Geller and his bandmates will be headlining Mammoth Rocks next Saturday night at the Village at Mammoth.

What makes the Atomic Punks a must-see band? 1.) Musicianship. Two of the band’s guitarists were recruited by David Lee Roth to play on his tours in the early 2000s. Roth, in fact, referenced the Atomic Punks in his 1997 autobiography.

Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony has performed with the Punks on at least two occasions.

In short, they can really play.

2.) Longeviity (the band has been performing for 21 years) and popularity (voted L.A.’s #1 tribute band three consecutive years).

Geller does have some Mammoth roots. His son Ryan was raised here and graduated from Mammoth High School two years ago. Dad says his son is currently going to college in San Luis Obispo but is going to try and make the show.

Geller himself said he spent two months here during a ski season back in ‘80s, partied his ass off, ran out of money (because it was a drought year and there was no work) and went home. Sound familiar?

How the band was originally formed is a great story. The drummer, Scott Patterson, had his own band. One night, the singer didn’t show up for a gig. So the band grabbed a buddy in the crowd to fill in. They did a bunch of Van Halen songs that night and the crowd went nuts. So after the show, the club owner says they can come back and play again and he’ll pay them double, but only if they play Van Halen.

The owner then puts Patterson on the spot. “So, what’s the name of the band?”

Patterson says Atomic Punks, the name of a fairly obscure song off Van Halen’s first album.

So what can you expect next Saturday? As Geller says, “We don’t think we’re Van Halen. We don’t act like Van Halen. But we love the music.”

It’s a pretty fair bet Mammoth will love it, too.