Rye Coalition at The Bell House

The band called Rye Coalition has existed for twenty years and everyone in the band is my age. Wow, that's sobering. I'm not sure I had even seen a live band twenty years ago unless you count classical orchestras or that one Monkees concert my cousins dragged me to in the mid-80s. I don't think those should count.

Rye Coalition would probably be called punk if they were the least bit pretentious, say if they dressed the part or were political at all. They have that ability to project a sense of sloppiness and wildness while actually playing carefully-crafted songs which you see in experienced punk bands. It's like they're fusing hardcore, metal, punk, and all sorts of loud rock while keeping the resulting musical frankenstein under control. They are not the wildest band in the world but they sure have lots of energy. Their philosophy must be to let the crowd go crazy, and I'm guessing this works out very nicely for them.

Posted: 4/16/2013 at 6:40pm     Tags: Dig Deeper  Norton Records Benefit  Rye Coalition  The Bell House 

The Sonics at The Bell House

I'm impressed when a band keeps going for five years. The Sonics have been going at it for fifty years and they still sound great! I assume they took a few breaks during the last half-century to grow up and have kids and whatever, but anyway, I was expecting at least the singing to have lost some energy over time. Not at all -- each of their three of their lead singers nailed it and the crowd loved every minute of it. Some people may have loved it a little too much since there were several fights at the show! Rock 'n roll?

Considering that they sell out bigger venues than The Bell House it was rather nice of these guys to play a benefit show for Norton Records. They also let Norton co-founder (and A-Bones drummer) Mirriam Linna play on a song. Yeah, she had a good night.

Posted: 4/16/2013 at 6:14pm     Tags: Dig Deeper  Norton Records Benefit  The Bell House  The Sonics 

Amour Obscur at The Knitting Factory

I always appreciate it when a band has special guests on stage who actually do something. It leads to more interesting photos of course, but it also shows that the band understands that they are putting on a performance, not just playing music. After all, I can simply listen to their album if I just want to listen to their music.

Amour Obscur definitely know that they're putting on a show. They dance with the audience and then shoot confetti at them. Now that's what I call effort! Amour Obscur are the whole cabaret experience, not just the music, and are a total blast.

Posted: 4/10/2013 at 8:02pm     Tags: Amour Obscur  The Knitting Factory 

Screamin' Rebel Angels at The Knitting Factory

Screamin' Rebel Angels don't consider themselves a rockabilly band but they forgot to tell their bassist. He's pretty much the poster boy for greasers everywhere.

The band themselves do play some rockabilly but definitely like to stretch their boundaries. They slow it down sometimes and get into lounge and surf territory, then hit the accelerator and crash right into some punk or straight-up rock-n-roll. Or rockabilly. Honestly, yeah, they play a lot of rockabilly. Then they play some swing, or some blues, or just something which is a little bit of all of those things and very, very cool.

Posted: 4/10/2013 at 8:01pm     Tags: Screamin' Rebel Angels  The Knitting Factory 

The Goddamn Gallows at The Knitting Factory

You really don't need me to review this band for you. Seriously, there's a silver skull with devil horns attached to the lead singer's mic stand. All you need to know is "Not metal, psychobilly". Now just enjoy the pretty pictures.

Posted: 4/10/2013 at 2:09pm     Tags: The Goddamn Gallows  The Knitting Factory