I had hoped to see this show with Rut after he did me (and his partner) did me the solidest solid in the history of solidity recently (which I repaid by not reporting favorably on his debut with the aces Vagina Panther a couple weeks ago), but my bozosity precluded such endeavors and I posted up solo at the Half Moon.
As I reflexively spout to any one who utters the words Chix or Diggit, they really blew the last time they came through town. It was a profound bummer, as they had rocked the hell out CBGBs the time previous and I was way anxious for a recap. Like I said, they blew, and I was not exactly over the moon that the Chixdiggit return to Gotham in 2011 was on a boat for a double sawbuck. Sans Rut, the pot was sweetened by some seasonal thunderstorm activity and sparse attendance, which made the boat a considerably more lively experience from the onset.
The first opener dropped off, although they evidently still thoughtfully provided backline, and Kepi Ghoulie was up and off to the races, backed by most (all?) of Chixdiggit. Kepi is a great time once a year, from where I sit, and as it had been a couple, I grinned my way through the duration of the set. He's pretty quick with a one liner and a hell of a dancer, ingratiating the post-Insubordination Fest crowd nicely before exiting with a vow to have the gents drink their entire garbage can of beer before the returned.
While they seemed as lubricated as the average Canadian, no one seemed particulary worse for wear on team Chxdiggit, although KJ mentioned Mark had thrown up on stage the night before at Insub, so maybe they were in recovery mode. And did I mention that the tiny ship was fucking tossed? The attendance seemed well below the 200 person max, and that lack of ballast was obvious as the boat pitched pretty heavily, but thankfully it didn't stop the boys from Calgary from romping handily through over an hour of Chixdiggit favorites. Those familiar with the Chixdiggit canon can do the math and will realize this meant that most of the catalog was covered, no doubt to appease those that had traveled from the UK, Spain and/or Norway from the show (really). In fact, I'd say more than half the crowd wasn't from North America. All parties seemed stoked to be there, although for the record, no one was so enthusiastic as to sport matching red white and blue tie-dyed USA shirts save for the Chixdiggit dudes. And this from a band that snuck into the States for the shows. It was a pretty damn good time that I wholly endorse seeing if you can. I understand they will be back in a couple months, so keep an eye/ear out. In the interim check out the new
Safeways Here We Come EP that is out currently on Fat Wreck.
R
I had hoped to see this show with Rut after he did me (and his partner) did me the solidest solid in the history of solidity recently (which I repaid by not reporting favorably on his debut with the aces Vagina Panther a couple weeks ago), but my bozosity precluded such endeavors and I posted up solo at the Half Moon.
How I couldn't have fallen for Teenage Bottlerocket when I first encountered them still confounds me, but as I saw them at the ill-fated Chixdiggit show I can't shut up about, perhaps I will leave all that negative energy in the sub-basement of what used to be the second Knitting Factory. Eight years on from the release of their first 12", Red Scare has re-released Another Way in remastered form, along with their debut EP A-Bomb and the track from their split with Bob The Welder. It's a neat package that wraps up the early Teenage Bottlerocket years nicely. Personally, I would snatch this up just for a remastered version of Mini Skirt, but lovers of new school Ramones jocking would do well to snap up the reissue of Another Way. Here's a link.
Teenage Bottlerocket is another band that has really got under my skin (in a good way) in the last couple months. Their CMJ set this year was a real rager that Luke and I really enjoyed a ton. I revisited all their records after that and continue to be astounded that I wasn't as into them the three times I had see them previously. I'm sure I've whined here previously about the show at the Leonard St. Knit TBR played with Chixdiggit where the Alberta crew was utterly terrible, with a thrown together band backing KJ that barely knew any songs. The TBR kids offered to back KJ to try and salvage the proceedings, but it was all in all a total disappointment that probably tainted my feelings about these proud sons of Laramie. 
