I’ve been going to see Teressa Wilcox since she was a teenage chick with a pick. And her voice’s timbre
has always taken a back seat to her gentle phrasing. But not tonight, Jack. Homegirl was on the Gibbs Street Stage just a-belting it
out. And her band ratcheted it up to help serve Wilcox’s deep dish rock ‘n’
roll to a large and enthusiastic crowd.
Violet Mary followed Wilcox and laid it down so hard
that the little kids flipping their little lids in front of the stage couldn’t
decide whether to play air guitar or air drums and just opted instead to
jumping up and down like rabid pogo sticks. The whole band was tighter than a
mosquito’s ass but I couldn’t take my eyes of Mike Muscarella’s
hands as he molested his Les Paul ferociously. Great tone too, by the way.
Next it was down to Bernunzio’s
where they hang fine furniture from the walls. Heroic Enthusiasts were rockin’ the joint when I came in, painting the air with
some deceptively simple 80’s type pop. It had an air of jangly sophistication
that was neither arrogant nor complicated. Cool, cool, cool.
Back to the Main stage for The Campbell Brothers preaching the loud, fast, slippery gospel. Finally something loud enough to
drown out the boisterous, bumbling bible beaters on the corner of Gibbs and Main.
Whaddaya know; the word of god trumped by the word of
god. I have seen the light.
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2014.
