Kermit’s Finger / The Grommets / The Only Things / The Instamatics
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA 7/21/18
I’m having a bit of a flashback here. A bit of deja vu.
I feel like I’ve been here before.
Oh, hell! It’s the Midway- duh! I’ve spent most of my last twenty-five years here for Christ sakes.
But this show, these bands- seem eerily familiar. The way the sun hits across the bar through the side window…the way Jill, the bartenderess, looks at me with a withering, smile that communicates, “Oh, God, I have to put up with this old fool again.”
I distribute my disbursements to the staff, the ones that I bring every week, the ones that contain caffeine- whether it’s coffee or cola.
And then take my reserved spot inside the press box.
The Instamatics start playing, they’re a mostly, all instrumental surf trio, with some original sounding originals and some surprising covers. They kick off with “Monkey Beat”, my favorite original by them and, I know this is gonna be a great day, regardless of the few people I assaulted who are now being attended to by the EMT’s.
They cover alternative/goth band The Cure and German/electronic band Kraftwerk and then “Comanche” by Link Wray. The later, “The best song ever written,” according to Eric The Fruitbat, bassist for this band and also, The Grommets. And husband of Kris, from The Grommets, the one who controls the purse strings as she is, obviously, the brains of the operation.
Not a bad choice of best song, but I gotta go with “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy (I Got Love In My Tummy),” by The 1910 Fruit Gum Company. A choice echoed by many musical scholars.
They have a great drummer, Jarred, filling in today, who actually makes less mistakes than the other players. Make no mistake about that!
This is a fun, punkin’, surfin’ band and they play a very enjoyable set.
The Only Things are one of my favorite bands we cover. They have excellent songwriting, superb playing and have created a couple of my favorite songs over the last couple of years.
But I do think it’s entirely unfair, if you should hold my liking them so much- against them.
And the only thing that’s strange about this is, they’re probably not what most would consider a punk band. All I know is that in the eighties they would have been considered a kick-ass, respected new wave band and most of those old bands that fit that description are punk as far as I’m concerned.
The bands, this band, makes me think about most are The Pixies and The Replacements- maybe not the punkest bands you can think of but great bands, nonetheless.
They kick off their set with the one-two punch of “Dandelion,” which is also the name of their great new release, followed by “Punch The Clock.” Both songs are great mixtures of garage, pop, punk and rock’n’roll.
They have three guys who sing lead, a drummer who plays great- simply but solid, an excellent lead guitarist and put enough guts and grit to go along with their great melodies.
And ending with “Let’s Go To The Moon,” a song I picked as best song of the year once, just adds the cherry on the top of their exciting, fun set for me.
The Grommets play next and they, too, have a fill in drummer- Abby Normal, from the late, great Killer Abs!
In fact, there’s so many fill in drummers today, I notice a glass case on the side of the garage that says, “In case of emergency, break this glass.” And there’s a drummer inside it! (Though I do notice he’s not looking so well, as their appears to be no air vents for him!)
Abby does a great job filling in for the deceptively, simple punk songs The Grommets play.
A song popped into my head, like it happens often, while I was getting ready for work this week. It happened to be “If You’re Phone Doesn’t Ring It’ll Be Me,” a song that happens to be my favorite by them, one they do play today.
They also play “I Don’t Wanna Be Old,” which I sing backup on, as is required, as I’m always the oldest person at their shows.
Great set by the great people who put on this great event.
After assisting a grandmother, that I pushed into the potato salad earlier, Kermit’s Finger is pleased to play.
When I mention to the bassist, Ed, how folks might find this to be a strange occurrence, he replies, “Not really, this happens at most of the shows we play.”
Kermit’s Finger is next to play and they’re a band that’s been around for a while and have a style that seems to be where punk and hardcore meet and then take you to a destination that is more than excellent. If I called them hardcore, you’d probably say “Not really,” like wise if I called them punk, you’d probably say the same.
But if you called them wonderful then that would be a good start. Scaled down to play half acoustically today, you get a toned down representation of their fiery, live sets but you still get the great songs and performances and what you end up with is one great set.
Today’s lineup was great, much like the lineup I saw about a month ago at The Grommet’s annual porchfest. In fact, now that I think about it- three of the bands who played today played that show as well!
Now, that explains why I got the sense of deja vu today and maybe you’ll get that, too. That is if you read my previous review.
(Slimedog)
