Live: Insubordination Fest - day two

Day two (or three, if you count the Thursday pre-show) is always the marathon day at Insubordination Fest. Things start early and go late. It's at these junctures where one finds how one can handle the permissive PBR promotions Sonar always drums up for the affair. Having unwisely opted for much wine with Keith the night before, I was more than a little bit damaged by the time I started the day.

Having missed the mighty Banner Pilot the night before, there was no way I was going to catch an o-fer and miss Gateway District. BP mastermind Nate Ganglehoff also tenures in the band, along with Half-Pint from Rivethead/Dear Landlord, Maren from the Soviettes and Carrie from The Salteens. Things were a little shaky, but I thought they were pretty great, even if they played in front of a half-filled room. I haven't had a chance to listen to their new full-length on It's Alive, but it sounds like it's worth checking out. Review soon!

Lemuria were up next. It was the last date of their tour, but the kids hardly mailed it in. Only a twenty minute set, but a damn good one. I didn't get a chance to speak to them to see what the next move is for the crew, as the last record's been out for a bit, but I trust there will be new material soon. I caught the end of the Full Of Fancy set after they wrapped. They are a nice match with the Lemuria. I like those kids more and more. The ladies can sing and the band is tight. I need to get me that record soon.

More Dear Landlord was next. Those guys are so great. Buy the DL records as well as all their other/previous bands records immediately. Sell a Vampire Weekend record or something. They played pretty much all their songs, and had Carrie from Gateway District come out and sing the cover from Dream Homes to sweeten the pot further. So good. The gents are real busy, so go out of your way and see them as soon/much as possible while you can.

I killed time before The Measure (SA) set by catching part of Wimpy from The Queers solo set. He was backed by The Secretions, but that wasn't enough to sway me into listening to more than a song or two. Guess I'm not a Queers fan. So sue me. The Measure were good, though. The guitar player that needs to get canned was still pretty annoying, and evidently drunk and/or on pills, but the rest of the band stepped up nicely. At one point, Drunk stupid tattoo guy mentioned off-handedly that the band wouldn't be playing much while Lauren dealt with some personal issues. Here's hoping that they are handled swiftly and healthily and perhaps revolve around some staffing changes in the Measure (SA) franchise.

Had some time to kill after, so I grabbed an iced coffee and an issue of Go Metric! and relaxed a bit before catching The Arrivals. I hadn't ever intentionally seen The Arrivals and was damn anxious to rectify the situation. Met some lovely female Fastbacks fans beforehand and chatted while the gents set up, then proceeded to lose my shit for the duration of their far-too-short set. The sheer barrage of hits, combined with the knee-weakeningly lovely Hallie Unlovable dancing next to me, made for the set of IF for this guy. I hear that there may be some East Coast shows toward the end of the summer, which makes this shut-in way happy. Great songs, great people. Buy them drinks.

I caught a bit of The Adorkables afterward, but opted for a drink and some sun before local heroes Dead Mechanical took the stage. No lineup changes since the last time I saw them, which is somewhat notable. The newest 12" on Toxic Pop is still getting shine. If you like the first couple of Jawbreaker records, the gents are well worth checking out. They seemed to get a local of local and out-of-town love. Here's hoping they get back up to NYC real soon. I saw a bit of The Parasites beforehand. They sounded decent, but I think I prefer Dave backed by Ergs.

Got back to the main room to see the last couple minutes of The Methadones levelling the room with their pop-punk chestnuts. If you liked Danny's tenure in the Screeching Weasel, you would do well to snap their stuff up post-haste. If you're unfamiliar, you could do a lot worse to start than the split EP with The Copyrights. Toys That Kill were up next, and awesome. They are another band I never had seen live. I had hoped that I wouldn't be as disappointed as I was with Underground Railroad To Candyland and luckily I wasn't. Good, fast, hooky punk rock that had all the old heads in the crowd way happy. I though TTK were no longer a band, but if you can see them in this day and age, I assure you that you should.

TTK were the last band of Insubordination Fest for this asshole, as there was a pretty big void in stuff I wanted to hear and it was easily three hours before Dillinger were going on, so I bailed to be fresh for rehearsal next day. I'm sure D4 were great, but I've seen a lot of them. Even with my not seeing any of the headliners and missing Banner Pilot, Insubordination Fest 2009 was a great time. I can't see not going again next year.

R

Live: Full Of Fancy, Lost Locker Combo, The Unlovables @ Cake Shop 11.16.8

It was a busy weekend for the pop-punk set as The Ergs! and Hunchback played their (assumably) final sets over the weekend in NJ. Chris Grivet (of The Steinways drumming fame) got this show together as a NYC capper. It featured a couple of now ex-Ergs, as well as the final show from 1/3 acid casualty band For Science and a gang of other scene luminaries making the devil's music.

The whole thing had a 'Saturday afternoon at SXSW' kind of slow and hungover air about it. As it was Cake Shop, I showed up at 2:30 to find they were still waiting for a bartender and that nothing was going on, but managed to browbeat the doorguy into taking my money so I could wait as the JS-NYC hq while they got their shit together.

45 minutes and some Gangland later, I returned to find the Unlovables setting up. That was both good and bad, as they were who I really wanted to see and I expected the old man in me would kick full-force afterward. The Unlovables were playing second, assumably as Hallie was performing in/with Fuerzabruta, and proceeded to rock the hell out of the place. Hallie has not gotten any less attractive since I've seen the Unlovables last, I'll tell you. It was kind of a short set, but pretty stellar for the second band on at a matinee. I hope those kids have a new record soon.

Without turning things totally in the direction of the lecherous, I kind of only stayed to see Lost Locker because of the glockenspeil player. Man oh man oh shevitz is that one attractively bookish woman. LLC is a school-themed band fronted by Mr. Jim Florio of (quasi-heirarchically) Bugout Society, MRR, and the Shemps. Think school outfits, wacky songs about scoliosis and the like. They were quick to label themselves as 'prop-punk' and pelt the crowd with no end of crap from the Tri-State areas finest dollar stores. Not exactly good, but certainly fun, and I refuse to front on Bugout, especially after that whole White Castle incident some years back. That said, Castle Carnage was pretty much the only thing not on the floor after their set. I don't think I'd ever buy a record, but it's fun to watch.

Next up was Full Of Fancy. These ladies (and a dude on traps) are sort of a NJ Soviettes. They sure do have great gear, if I may digress into gear dorkdom. I just wish they had better harmonies. I'd say the bassist is the stronger of the two singers, but a lot of the times they sang together were not the most aurally pleasing moments of the night. Oddly, Miranda's voice didn't show too much wear, even after playing the last Hunchback show the night before. I really want to like FOF, I'm going to try the next one drunk and see if that works for me.

For Science played after, as did The Steinways, but my OMS kicked in and I bailed to go sleep on my couch. I heard that Jeff Erg stepped in the breach for the final FS set, ironically (and somewhat anachronistically) due to the FS singer having a bad acid trip and bailing for NOLA and then Hawaii. Kids today. I heard that Jeff killed it, so maybe he'll step in full-time and give those kids some new life. The Steinways closed things out, but I was well into my Robotussin fueled covalescence by that point.

For a show at Cake Shop, not a bad time. Grivet definitely deserves props for making it happen. Once the NJ pop-punk deck is reshuffled, hopefully we'll get some more rock from the kids soon.