From my balcony perch at Sticky Lips Juke Joint during The
Empty Hearts’ positively packed show Tuesday night, it was as if I was staring
into a boiling, balding caldron of Scorgie’s remnants
and black-clad bon vivants. All the kids were there. We’re
getting older, but still love our rock ‘n’ roll. And this was a fantastic show;
a memorable show; the band’s maiden voyage on stage anywhere. As this quartet
continues to grow and time goes by, the amount of people that were at that show
will grow like all the people — “I was there, man” — who claim to have been at
Woodstock.
This was an event to be remembered and filed under “tough
shit” if you missed it. The sound was big and beautiful and loud, and the band
rocked boldly between sniper precision and a swaggering stroll. Yes, The Empty
Hearts has staggering rock star pedigree and collectively a pile of instantly
recognizable hits that, when wedged into the band’s mostly original set, made
the influence of The Cars, Blondie, and The Romantics a little more apparent. The
Chesterfield Kings weren’t represented sadly, but I did what I could, kids, and
screamed “Richard Speck” half a dozen times.
The Kings’ Andy Babiuk held the
bottom end admirably while bounding around proudly; Blondie’s Clem Burke swung
mightily at the drums with a thundering blue collar ethic; The Cars’ Elliot
Easton was the master of classic big tone and lumbering cool; and The
Romantics’ Wally Palmer wailed and crooned while leading the charge. I love The
Empty Hearts’ CD and loved the show even more. If you had just strolled in off
the street you would have thought “Hey, what a happenin’
scene. Rochester is pretty cool.” And I was there, man.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2014.
