Constant Companion,
I've been away, investigating opportunities for fun with some party partners. Here's a run down of all the shows I went to this week, mostly in Boston.
Monday 4/9/12 - picked up two acts from France at Logan Airport. Max and Alice who plays as High Wolf and Chicaloyoh were really nice and bummed me lots of Marlboro Lights. Show went down at Gay Gardens. Her set was dark, brooding and captivating, while his was blissful and harmonic. I forget. I smoked hash. Gay Shapes from Worcester played last and tore the roof off. Hypnic Jerk opened and was swell. Electric Cactus and Flesh Control, both played from Richmond, VA but I missed their sets cause I was helping out the French kids.
Tuesday 4/10/12 - Moonrises is a very heady psych band from Chicago that features Magma-esque keyboard and drums and High Rise styled guitar shred. Ms. Libby and Plastic Crimewave shared the vocals, a few songs apiece and Ben Baker Billington held it down on the drums. Listen. Tape on Priority Male link also released on LP by Logan Hardware link. The last act was a Mystery Band, whose set was played in the dark. They made acoustic sounds on scrap metal. Heavenly! Earlier Colby Nathan played. He's from the amazing band Hyena link, who's few releases sound like a mix of Brian Wilson and Ed Askew. Show was at the Whitehaus in Jamaica Plain.
Wednesday 4/11/12 - Drove out to Brattleboro VT with a small crew and descended upon not only the town, but also Marlboro College, where a show was going on aways down Route 9. Much merriment was had when I arrived to find my friends Danny and Christina in the midst of performing their best set yet as Ice Cream. Next up was a single song by Zach Philips (Blanche Blanche Blanche, Bruce Hart) which immediately segued into an impassioned set of new songs by Joey Pizza Slice AKA Son of Salami. The Happy Jawbone Family Band took their usual sweet ass time setting up, but it was well worth the wait. They slayed. Exit college students, enter the 11 person Reptar / Quiet Hooves caravan. Many spontaneous configurations of players produced many startling sounds. The Great Valley played somewhere in there. Show ended at 2am with everyone in attendance, including me, having performed at some point.
Thursday 4/12/12 - Spent the morning chilling in Brattleboro, where I simultaneously saw everyone I knew. Hi Chris, Ruth and Sarah! Got back to Boston just for show time @ the Butcher Shoppe where Black Pus played an energetic set to a moderately-packed basement. The show was good and the human pinball machine was in full effect. It was my first time seeing Chippendale play and I wish it had come ten years sooner when I first heard of Lightning Bolt and was more open to being blown away. Well you can't be everywhere at once. My skin tasted like a hotdog afterwards. Opening bands were all kinda alright to varying degrees: Buck Gooter & Mounds. I missed Skimask.
Friday 4/13/12 - Another show at Gay Gardens. Very enthused young metal bands. Me and some pals played one song after the first band. Good vibes all around, but I don't remember anyone's name. I fell asleep during the 3rd band.
Saturday 4/14/12 - Final day in Allston and I saw two great shows. A friendly house party was going on over at the Rotten Apples' place. Two bands from LA: Sister Fucker (with Vanessa from Coughs) and Bleak End at Bernies laid out some good, if kind of generic punk/grind/metal. All those folks were so nice though. Hypnic Jerk played again. They're the house band at the Smokey Bear Cave and their quickly growing on me. Really dubbed out robo-trip stuff. It was also someone's birthday and their was a rainbow cake. There was a fire and rope swing in the backyard. Yeah! Lower Allston! At 11pm I went over to a really cool new shop called Store 54 and saw Bobb Trimble and the Flying Spiders. Caught the first six songs of their set and I was so happy to be able to sing along to tunes from Harvest of Dreams, Iron Curtain Innocence and whatever that newer one is called. All of Bobb's albums came out in the early 80s and the renewed interest in his music has brought forth 3 reissues and a new live band of younger folks who are really doing his music justice. If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should hear the records: beautiful glam-psych with falsetto vocals and phaser on the guitar for every song! After doing that, definitely see him live. This was my second time and I think the band is really starting to gel. I finally ended up returning to the house party to check out a really loud and amazing set from an impromptu pickup band made up of Allston residents: members of Guerilla Toss, Funny Money and Quinn Miller from Great Goblins.
Oh, New England!
p.s. I meant to put links to all the bands, but that's too time consuming for me today, and you can use google just as well as I can.
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