Austin Lucas and The Bold Party @ Union Hall 8.23.11

Almost shit the bed on this one. Were it not for a heads up from Rut, I would have totally stayed on the phone talking to someone who has since proven somewhat shitty and not made it over the bridge to bucolic Park Slope for this show. As it was, I ended up missing Marcellus Hall open owing to social matters, which again in retrospect was a bummer. I enjoyed Railroad Jerk and White Hassle a good bit back in that day and was wondering what he'd been doing. I assume that he's moved out of the LES, as I've not seen him around in a dog's age, but really have to check out what he's bringing to the table with The Hostages.

A couple drinks and an ominous harbinger later, I posted up frontside for good sightlines and some digitization. I like the new record ok, but if anything it was a little lacking in focus. The songs were there, but while a lot of his stronger material is acoustic, apparently Austin wants to meld his rock and song-driven sides a little more, so this time he's got a trio of Bloomington heavies backing him, including one Braddlesnake from his last tour through town. Listening back to the recording, I like the band more in retrospect. The Bold Party seems more a bunch of solid players about Bloomington touring behind Austin than a tight band, but the set was solid. A pretty good selection from the new record in the rock end of things, closing with a solo Go West in the crowd. Thanks to the guy who pointed out that I was in record ready three songs in. If you want a copy of the recording, hit me up via the e-mail.

R

Dos at Skyscraper

All:

Good News:

New dos record is out on Watt's new label Clenched Wrench.

He and Kira do a nice job, although perhaps not one that warranted a fifteen year gap between records. Skyscraper's got my take on it here.

on bass,

R

Hypenated Watt at Skyscraper

JS-NYC Massive:

It's been Maximum Watt around JS-NYC as of late. Check the unsurprisingly positive take on the new Mike Watt record here, courtesy of the fine folk at Skyscraper Magazine.

on bass,

R

Live: The Dopamines with Vacation & Scarlet Letter @ Lost & Found 8.17.11

It's always a cause for much rejoicing when the Dopamines come through town. Initially the tour was going to be with New Creases, but health issues have evidently precluded that from taking place, so Vacation were on the bill in their place. Locally Nude Beach and Scarlet Letter were on the front end of things. While I like me some Nude Beach, the x-factor of not knowing Scarlet Letter and enjoying beer drinking with Drew saw me arriving not far enough into Scarlet Letter set for my cranky old self. They seem like a band from NJ that used to be a lot more hardcore, but has smoothed things out in their old age. That said, I'd put them firmly in the Meh column.

Vacation were up next. They played the P.S. Eliot record release show at Cedar Mansion a couple of months ago with Dead Mechanical and were definitely the band that should have opened. I though they were ok then, but save for the unexpected Thin Lizzy cover, I would have liked to have arrived half way through their set and have been left wanting. Seem like solid dudes and they are far from terrible, but don't have anything that I've been able to latch on to personally.

You can always count on The Dopamines to be a good time. even if they can be somewhat less than tight. The constant rain of (crowd-launched) beer that normally punctuates the average set from said Dopadudes might have something to do with it, but the average just South of D4 level of intoxication they often sport definitely does. Jon W handles the Paddy/Shitwheel smart-ass mic duties and the band generally throws down in a pronounced fashion, even with the curious eventuality of having Mikey Erg in the touring unit as second guitarist rather than his ubiquitous presence on every domestic drum throne in the US. It was the usual Dopamines set, save for Jon's charming suggestion that the crowd be punk enough to shit on the floor. Larry Livermore was called out, a not-particularly well-done pit broke out a couple times, and much (ok, maybe a half-hour) post-Screeching Weasel punk rock was purveyed. See them if you can, perhaps sometime not after midnight on a school night. Here's the web presence.

R

Live: Chixdiggit with Kepi Ghoulie on The Half Moon 8.14.11

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

Rory Gallagher at PopMatters

All:

Lot of Rory Gallagher activity around JS-NYC HQ as of late, at the behest of the good folk of PopMatters.

Here's the first salvo, concerning the 'lost' Gallagher record Notes From San Francisco.

Here's a link.

Thanks to Sarah at PopMatters.

Slainte!

R

Cerebral Ballzy - s/t

Cerebral Ballzy came on my radar when they played a bunch of the NYC Trash Talk shows. Evidently the gents have been around since 2008, but sadly have flown under my radar. I'm sure if I checked they have played a million times at ABC and I've missed them. Having listened to their self-titled full-length, I'm not going to let that happen again. Cerebral Ballzy keeps to a strict diet of thrash, beer and skateboarding, thrashing past the two minute mark only once over the course of the recording. The rest of the time is some aces post-Flag punk rock to rip your face off with. Insufficient Fare and Drug Myself Dumb are tracks for the ages that should get young and old flailing about with wild abandon. Lots of crashing high hats and careening double time changes for your earhole. You know you want this, get Cerebral Ballzy here, curiously enough from your friends at Adult Swim.

R