Thing and I were
commiserating outside the Bug Jar last Tuesday night trying to make sense out
of the racket within. He copped to the Captain.
“It’s
music from the other side of the fence,” he said. “Opaque
melodies that bug most people.”
The Blood And Bone Orchestra was on stage playing music on the fringe of the fringe of
the fringe that has little bits of fringe on it; in other words, out there,
dad. Talk about free jazz, this music knew no boundaries whatsoever, much less
restraint (speaking of which, check out that new Bettie Page flick). The lyrics
(or rather, the spoken parts) were strictly in the
now, on the spot, off the cuff.
Pengo followed with complete WTF wall of noise that lasted eight minutes. It’s easy
to dismiss this group, but you really can’t if you’re truly a music fan and
understand their contrarian-instigator-agitator stance. It’s far better to
clear a room with this music than to fill it up with pop, you know?
Scotland’s The Country
Teasers headlined with a set of oddball lo-fi
country. The band played herky-jerky and somewhat spastic, like Devo at the rodeo. I first got hipped to the band after
hearing them at a party in Nashville
where the singer was going on about waking up black in the tune “Black Change.”
Well, it wasn’t black, but the change from the two openers’ opaque weirdness to
The Teasers’ Euro-hillbilly wackiness was subtle in spirit yet mammoth to the
ears. Great night.
It was a trip back in
time to Stooges Saturday to catch Ballbreaker. Known mostly as an AC/DC tribute, this band has
original material that, frankly, is even better. But the kids, they wanna hear the hits. And I gotta
say the band sounds just like AC/DC.
Singer Ed Spock shifts from Scott to Johnson as the songs dictate. The band was
as tight as the stonewashed jeans that a good number of the crowd had stuffed
their asses into. Everyone loved the band loudly and seemed to be dressed like
they did back in high school. Come to think of it, so did I.
— Frank De Blase
This article appears in May 24-30, 2006.
