Neighborhood Shit / Meth Valley / Empty Vessels / Honest John / Monsignor Meth
The Workshop, Quincy, MA 8/23/14
The Workshop is a wonderful place, the Wreck Center is too. Any and all underground venues are great and reflect what punk is all about- meaning, all invited, all ages, all types, sizes, race, gender, sexual orientation and sports team affiliation.
This is a show from The Workshop headlined by Neighborhood Shit, the band whose booking company is called Original Local and who run the Wreck Center as well.
Punk rock is great and any venue open to having punk shows is great by me. And any underground place that opens it’s doors to punk rock and everyone, is not just all right- it’s perfect by me.
Monsignor Meth is the first band and they’re from Rhode Island. This is my first time and I was looking forward to seeing them as I recently reviewed their great CD. The band says they got their name from a priest who ran a meth lab and that was his nickname in the news story when he got busted!
Anyways, in their bandcamp tags they mention d-beat, hardcore, crust and I think of them playing my new category “Garage Metal.”-meaning being metal in sound, hardcore at heart (vocals) and punk in attitude (short, brutal songs), metal without it’s progressive trappings.
And they do turn in a set that matches their impressive CD. Now, I just have to wait to see them again!
Honest John is from Rhode Island, as well. I only see the beginning and ending of their set, if I’m being honest, but I had to duck out once I realized there was no beer for sale, strictly BYOB. No access to beer is like a priest running out of altar boys for me.
But when I return they’re doing their usual potent mix of abrasive noise mixed with hardcore and doom that always sets the crowd on fire.
Speaking of which, when I came back somebody informed me that one of the guitarists, Jay Genoa, set his scrotum on fire by mistake. And a crowd of onlookers had wisely doused him with alcohol to drown the flames. This occurred during their song, “Burnt Weenie On A Stick.”
Empty Vessels from Connecticut is next, a band I hadn’t seen for a while. The last time I did see them they had just lost their singer and bassist but decided to carry on. (Forgot them on a bus or something).
So now it’s a boy on drums and a girl on guitar with occasional vocals and a wide array of guitar effects duplicating the sound of bass as well.
Their songs are loud, clanging and brutal that switch to periods of quiet, reflective playing. I see this band in more the Sonic Youth experimental camp than hardcore but I still dig them.
Meth Valley is next from New Hampshire and they play heavy “fuckin’” metal. (No relation to Monsignor Meth).
This is not contemporary metal. There is no death metal, black metal or metalcore here. This is traditional metal in a high energy way.
Sometimes I’m thinking I’m listening to Blue Oyster Cult jamming with Z.Z. Top but there’s a lot worse things I could imagine. (Bob Seger jamming with The Spice Girls)?
And I imagine these guys are okay. Okay?
Neighborhood Shit is next and I think they are the grooviest band from Boston and that means, I think they’re fly, if you need a more modern reference.
With Alex’s full, aggressive bass- played more like a guitar and his strong, death vocals; Brendan on guitar always adding the right touch- abrasive metal stabs here, dissonant splashes there and lending his high, black metal vocals and Terry drumming adeptly, almost jazzy, progressive, keeping the sounds together- this is a perfect example of garage metal.
This is metal without the self-indulgent guitar solos or complicated time signatures, this music has crust lyrics and everything from hardcore to doom in its rhythms and an overall heavy vibe with a punk attitude.
There is great moshing to be had in front of the stage and great sounds to hear from a little back where I’m standing. And this is a great ending to a pretty great show.
And this is a pretty great venue. The heart of punk lives in the underground as it always has from where it started.
You can leave the arenas for Bob Seger’s new project with The Spice Girls. I’m quite happy hanging here.
(Slimedog)
