Nervous Eaters / Fast Times / Interfectum / Jumper!
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA 6/5/16
A fellow who goes to the shows is complementing me today on TNB and how much he likes to read it each week. “It’s the best. You don’t know how much it means to me. I even jerkoff to it while I’m reading it.”
I tell him I take that as a high compliment, though I fear he may be exaggerating. I, also, tell him I have a good memory and I’m gonna use that in the review. (Though not reveal his name.)
“That’s okay,” he says, “I don’t mind. Just put in I like TNB better than Penthouse Forum.”
Jumper is the first band to play. They’re a pop/punk band mixed with skate/punk trio who I’ve seen several times now and always enjoy. And they don’t just stick with punk- bit’s of ska and rock and other genres poke their heads in at times. But all their songs are full of fun, honesty and passion and today, to no surprise to me, they rock!
Interfectum (whose cd is reviewed this week) are from Plymouth and play very fast punk music that may have socially conscious lyrics, much like hardcore but are too fast and energetic to be lumped in with that style. I see them as simply high energy punk. Nick, who is a big supporter of them, the singer/guitarist of Fast Times and also organized this show, is filling in on bass for them. This is my first time seeing them and I’m duly impressed. They turn in a great, hard hitting set.
Fast Times is set next to play and there’s some talk that this might be their last show. Which I think would be a shame as they’ve been one of our best bands. And they come from Cape Cod, which when I think about it, is my favorite scene we cover. Not so much for the bands, though they are great, but for the tight knit, hard-partyin’ community they inhabit.
They live in a place where no clubs allow their music so pretty much exist underground and are happy to trek up to Boston to play or even just to see shows. Besides some I’m missing, there’s Peter, Chris Crobar and his brother John, Margaret Jane and Sparrow Cat and or course, my fiancé and girlfriend of Nick’s, Rachael.
Fast Times start their melodic hardcore set with an acoustic sounding number, a song about how “someday Cape Cod will topple into the sea and they’ll be no more traffic and tourists.” They play their usual fiery, energetic set with Jay Genoa, formerly of Red Line Rebels, adding vocals to many of the songs. They end with an early song by them, a crowd favorite “Taco Time.” As Rachael dances in her taco dress, a dress with many little taco’s on it, and when the chorus goes, “Taco! Taco! Taco!” I point each time to one of them.
Nervous Eaters take the stage and Nick’s father, Alan, who usually plays guitar for them has switched to bass today much like his son did for Interfectum earlier. We have two generations of punk rockers here!
The first time I went to a punk club was in 1977 and it was The Rat. It was to see The Cars, this was before they had a record contract, and the only opening band they had that night was the Nervous Eaters, who eventually got a major label recording contract as well. So I guess the Nervous Eaters were the first punk band I ever experienced live.
The musicianship of this band is superb but the tempo is much slower than the previous bands. But that’s how punk was played originally- revisit The Ramones first album! This is closer to Chuck Berry inspired rock’n’roll with un-politically correct lyrics. (They had a song called “Head” before Prince did.)
But it seems everyone is digging it, not just the ones from my age group that are here- Blowfish pops in and his report is here: http://bostongroupienews.com/News061316.html
And because there’s no moshing it’s safe for me to be in front of the stage! I get handed a whiskey from one of the Cape Cod crew. During the song “Shit For Brains” I point fingers above the heads of the members of Fast Times. And during the last song, “Loretta,” one of the best classic local punk songs, right up there with “Alcohol” by Gang Green- Nick joins his dad onstage to sing backups.
After the set I talk briefly with Nick and his father (who I have met before). I compliment his dad, not on his music, but for raising such a good son, a good man that I feel he can take a lot of credit for.
I also have a talk with Becky who I meet for the first time and is part of the Cape Cod crew. She asks why I have to use the name Slimedog? I explain it wasn’t a choice, it just turned out that way but I’m happiest with what I do under that name now and that I hate when people ask- “What’s your real name?”
“So this is real life- you’re kidding me?”- a song by the band Magazine.
My real life is really flawed and always has been and I trust, it will always be.
But my work as Slimedog is what I’m most proud of, I feel it represents the best of me. And more importanley, expresses best on how I feel, how I think and who I am. Much more so than anything attached with “James” does.
So this is real life? You’re kidding me? Where transgendered people are accused of getting sex changes for the express purpose of molesting women in bathrooms? Where an orange-faced rodeo clown is deemed a viable Presidential candidate?
I think it’s important to be safe and well and healthy but real life never held any interest for me and it still doesn’t. While great shows, like I saw today, I live for.
Now the show is over and I’m one of the last to leave. It’s almost nine pm and I haven’t had dinner and I don’t mind. But shows like this I wish would never end. I wish I was still there and the bands started playing again and we did it all over and over and over again, and we would never leave.
But really, I realize my whole life has been like that, waiting for the next show. When the next respite from “real life” exits and what I consider real life- begins.
(Slimedog)
