Usually when you
throw “stream of conscious” and “guitar player” in the same sentence or on the
same stage, folks like Adrian Belew come to mind. New England guitar slinger — well, I suppose it’s not really slinging
if you’re sitting on a stool — Johnny
A played whatever came to mind Thursday night within a tight musical
framework. Rock, blues, jazz and all that frequently bumped around within the
same tune as A shifted between genres, styles, and
tones. The progressions unfolded like a sort of musical evolution, as tunes
went from soft and sublime to oddly augmented to full-on rock ‘n’ roll roar
with A digging in deep before visiting the very last frets on the neck. And
though A copped a squat in front of a Marshall combo, the amp had no speakers; he was pre-amped and sent directly into Montage’s new beefed-up mains.
When you see a guitar-centric band ordinarily you expect to get your head split
in half. Johnny A’s sound was just plain big and beautiful.
And speaking of big
and beautiful — or big, anyway — man, you should’ve seen the mob at The Isotopes, UV Rays, Moustacheshow at the Montage on Saturday night.
There had to have been 300 people in the joint. The Rays, though clearly a band
of instigators, were fairly diplomatic when handling onstage visits by several
drunken idiots (actually, they made the show even better). The band hit on The
Dolls and Black Flag to stir things up further. The UV Rays rock.
Split for the Bug Jar
to catch The Ponys. The Ponys play that Chicago style of noisy indie-rock, except
they play the notes in an order that makes sense. Also, they don’t whine. The
songs were articulate, punchy and fun.
Guys were still
raving about show-openers NYC’s The
Assault. These gals rock amazingly with only the guitar player’s
pulchritude threatening to supersede their sound. I dunno,
put a hot chick with a guitar in front of us, and we get stupid.
— Frank De Blase
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2006.
