Friday March 29th 2024

The Damn Garrison / The Stand Alones / Beantown Boozehounds / Barroom Heroes

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The Damn Garrison / The Stand Alones / Beantown Boozehounds / Barroom Heroes
Midway Cafe Jamaica Plain, MA 8/15/14

 

Well, here I am at another Saturday punk matinee. Why is it so dark outside? Is it gonna rain? And why are the remnants of straggly hippies exiting the premises?

Oh, I see, it’s Friday night. Right after the hippie jam, you know what that is- let’s play the same song and the same three notes for the next half hour thing. Well this is something new for me.

First up tonight is the Barroom Heroes. And what a start it is with Nick The Knife playing bagpipes instead of the bass and Davey, the drummer, playing a marching beat along. This is reminiscent of how the Street Dogs have opened their Xmas shows.

In case you haven’t heard these guys are a trio who play traditional punk/street punk and whose combined ages still wouldn’t add up to Slimedog’s age and no jokes about well, what band would?

I’ve seen these dwarfs of destruction play three times in the last month or so and tonight they sound the best. The high light for me is when they play my favorite songs back to back. “Nate” their simple, but poignant song about accepting a gay friend for who he is and “Ginger Ale” a tale about a dying aunt in the hospital who loved whiskey and cigarettes and in the hospital, at the end, has to rely on her morphine and ginger ale instead. Both great tunes, musically and lyrically.

And I’ve heard the boys are now taking an anti-steroid drug supplied by their unscrupulous manager/mom the dastardly, devious dame Carrie Bell. It seems the hope is to keep them looking young even as they age so they can keep their youthful image going.

Best of luck with that and we’re off to a roaring start.

The Beantown Boozehounds are next, I guess a fitting band to follow one named Barroom Heroes. This is a band that was formed from the remnants of Zippo Raid which was an outrageous, great punk band ten years or so ago. It was led by Joe Zippo, though not with us anymore, who will always remain my favorite punk in the Boston scene.

This is a great, fun loving punk’n’roll band with no hardcore but a bit of street punk and Oi tossed in. They start with my favorite tune by them “On The Road” and the set just picks up momentum and mayhem as it progresses.

Towards the end they play their song “D.U.I” which celebrates the popular P.C. theme of drunk driving, always a treat, while the crowd jumps onstage to sing along and guitarist Chad switches to mandolin and strolls throughout the audience.

There’s no one quite like the Boozehounds and they need to be experienced to see how fun they can be.

The next band is The Stand Alones from Austin, Texas- where the food is great, the music is fine and the politicians act like they’ve been out in the sun too long. Drinking class rock’n’roll is how they describe themselves and that’s an apt description. I’d called them punk’n’roll/Oi music, myself.

It seems only two could make the trip though, but filling in on the rhythm section is truly two of the best musicians, I believe, we have in the scene.

First, on bass, is Javier Canales from Connecticut who is generally an excellent guitarist in many bands but whenever I see him on bass impresses me (a former bass player) how well he understands what to play, and what not to play, on the instrument. And second we have Joe Nettleton beating the skins, from the same state, who I’ve seen in Forced Reality, a really great Oi band, that Joe plays amazingly well in as he does here.

It is no surprise to me that they do a wonderful job filling in and the band sounds great. The high light of the set for the crowd would seem to be a Cocksparrer cover. Hope you all make it back here from Texas again, especially our cowboys from Connecticut.

To take out the night is one of the best, purest Oi bands on our site and that is namely, The Damn Garrison from New Hampshire. The only other band that I can’t think of that is as good and truly Oi would be the Broken Heroes from New Jersey.

And any band that brings our favorite punk from New Hampshire, namely, Julia, is all right by me.

I recently reviewed a great CD split, two songs a piece from this band and Anti-Nowhere League! And one of their songs “The Real Ones” I notice right on the spot. A great song about how the punk crowd will always be the outcasts but will also always be full of honesty with a true camaraderie- and it’s a great song as well.

The Damn Garrison, like all the bands tonight, do not play hardcore but do play anthem like working class tunes devoid of cliche but full of powerful music, intense passion and great tunes. And turn in an exciting, great set.

Well, that was a fun Oi show and how long have I been here? It’s dark outside! Oh, yeah- this wasn’t a matinee. How could I forget? But I won’t forget how wonderful the bands were, or the fans are who come to shows like this. Or how beer and whiskey and music and passion and friendships and compassion seem to roll into one- into something you’d never want to forget even if you could.

Can you blame me?

 

(Slimedog)

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