In an attempt to see
Methanol’s extension project, The
Atomic Swamis, I
stumbled upon Buffalo bar-room heavyweights The
Heavenly Chillbillies instead. I landed at Sticky Lips Juke Joint on Friday as the band was plowing
through Dave Alvin’s tribute to Hank I in “Long White Cadillac.” So naturally I
warmed to these guys in a hurry as I slammed back a couple of chocolate milks.
The band hit heavy on the blues without overdoing it, and stuck close to
blues-heavy rock with a spicy dash of the South like a punch in the mouth.

Next I hustled over
to Lovin’ Cup to catch This Life wind down its set, which was reminiscent of
neon-free alternative bands like The Modern Lovers. Bogs Visionary Orchestra came out next and played like a four-man
carnival full of ironic lyrical and musical quirks. The bearded Bogs led the
parade on guitar and slide banjo (you heard me, slide banjo) in a suit that
featured as many colors as his musical palette. He copped the stance of Zappa
(or was it Beefheart?) playing the part of a barker pitching the ballyhoo on
the midway. It was Tin Pan Alley on Easter Sunday. It was country-ish twang on
account of the rhythmic 2/4, it was klezmer-esque on account of its accelerated
percussion and groove, and it was just straight-up out of sight. I hung out and
hung on every word.

GZA couldn’t be
bothered to show up for his Water Street show Saturday night, and the rumor is
he played a whopping 10 minutes the night before. But there was zero pretense
on the club side as The Meat Puppets played a fat and sonically soaring set that
frequently detoured into monstrous guitar melees, especially on the excellent
and extended free-fall free-for-all on “Lake of Fire” and the set-closing
“Backwater.”

Making the Water
Street scene a little late caused me to miss the mellow indie shot-in-the-arm
from The World Takes, a cool new band from Philadelphia that
features DJ Bonebrake of the seminal L.A. punk band, and one of my all-time
faves, X. Bonebrake was floating about and stopped to chat as I made a serious
effort to not sound like a squealing bobby soxer. What a great night, what a
cool dude.

This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2013.