Hobo Chili / Stray Bullets / Loser’s Circle / Crimespree / Gant
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA 1/27/16
This is me, gliding free on a day off. A real holiday as I work all holidays unless they fall on my day off. Spent the day in Salem, MA with my friend Lisa, drinking Sapporo and eating sushi at Koto and now, I’m here at the Midway. Instead of being at my longest day of work I’m at a long night of play. I time it right to miss the Hippie Hour jam before. I time it right to play.
Gant is the first band and at first I take them as just a straight-ahead hardcore band. But Mike D. is soon in my ear exhorting their virtues. “This is punk. This is the real thing. This is what you rant about.”
This is a band from Maine and though, I’m a bit distracted from saying “Hi” to all the folks I know here tonight, plus the dementia slowly creeping in, I can hear what he says.
Though most of the songs are excellent hardcore, there are few that are really great punk songs, as well.
This is a very, good band and they get a very, good response and I gather they must be a new band as well, as they have no recorded output. But I look forward to hearing them again.
Crimespree are up next, a Cape Cod band that recently played TNB’s Xmas party and one that Andy Bang was very impressed by.
Andy dug them because he immediately sensed their metal (thrash) leanings in their hardcore style. I’m just now, picking up on that during this set though I’ve seen them a few times already. But I would say that this is thrash metal/hardcore at its best.
They play a great set, one that gets the crowd moshing. After the set, Chester, the lead singer, is kind enough to give me a white band t-shirt with an intricate design of a one-eyed cat. (“I’m like the one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store- ” Shake, Rattle and Roll”), one that I’ll wear frequently that is, until my untimely demise from inhaling antiperspirant cans overdose.
Loser’s Circle’s about to take the stage and I just saw them play a mere, six days ago and was blown away by their set. Before they play tonight I’m talking with Jaime, their huge bassist/singer and he’s thanking me for the review of that show.
I retort, “Well, that was last week. You see, this week I have to write something new. So now, no matter how good you play I’m gonna really tare the band to shreds.”
He picks me up by my neck with one hand and is preparing to throw me straight into the wall, when I scream, “I’m only kidding, I’m kidding.”
Whew! That was a close call as he puts me down. I have just enough time, before they start their set, to change my pants as you see- I’ve had a little accident.
They do a play another amazing set, after which I spot Blowfish from Boston Groupie News in the crowd. He’s very impressed and says, “I’ve never seen them as good as tonight.” I say to him, “Well, I said the same thing when I saw them last weekend.”
He goes on to say, “I’ve always referred to them as ex- Refuse Resist,” (as two-thirds are from that legendary Boston hardcore band), “But after tonight’s performance, I won’t do that anymore as they have certainly come into their own.”
I tell him that’s a great line and I’m gonna steal it, but quickly promise to quote him as he has lifted me up by my neck with one hand and is threatening to throw me into the wall. But either way, I think this just goes to show, how much they’ve recently progressed.
I then babble on excitedly about my New Year’s Resolution of not using the term “pop/punk” anymore but then I realize I have to make another one. To always pack more than one pair of pants as it seems- I’ve had another little accident.
Stray Bullets always draw a big crowd and there’s one tonight. The singer announces that there’s one and half million people here tonight but I feel he must be exaggerating, because by my count there’s just barely half that here.
And the singer is wearing a Bernie Sanders shirt and mentions to the crowd that now is the time to organize, and I couldn’t agree more. With their super tight rhythm section, engaging front man and excellent ska/punk songs, it’s no surprise with the turnout tonight. And it’s no surprise that they play their usual awesome set.
Hobo Chili is up to take the night out, led by the debonair bassist Josh, ex- of Red Line Rebels.
And I’ve been led to believe that this is a ska band and perhaps, they were at one time but now it seems their style has certainly branched out.
The second song reminds me a bit of Squirrel Nut Zippers and there’s a definite jazz influence going on.
They do have a ska like horn section, though- a sax, trumpet and a singer who doubles on trombone but I guess the closet style I could describe them as is jazz/pop, a style that is often lame. But these songs are well written, rhythmically creative and energetic and reminds me of what the best horn-driven rock bands of the sixties sounded like (such as very early Chicago).
After their set Josh asks me, “So how did we do? Do we get that F.”
I honestly say, “Even though your bands plays a style that TNB doesn’t cover, I enjoyed the set. And what you play is good, quality stuff.”
He then proceeds to pick me up by the neck with one hand and then throws me into the wall. And while, lying on the ground, amidst the spilled beer, the torn wrist bands and the general bar debris- I have one more little accident.
(Slimedog)
