Clearly there was no "Negative Thinking" by anyone in the crowd at the Death Set's concert Friday nightAn unbelievably solid from top to bottom rocking show hit Sonar on Friday evening as another one of Baltimore's (by way of Australia and the world) musical success stories, balls to the wall and hook friendly Death Set, along with punk rockin' LA chicks Mika Miko, the Atlanta based Coathangers, and the 60s flavored garage rocking of The Strange Boys put on quite the event that, if you closed your eyes and believed, if only for a second, that CBGB still existed, and that the music was still frsh, still vital, still exciting, and still able to inspire joy, fear, happiness, or even all three in the same refrain.
Atlanta's Coathangers are the type of vulgar girls that I'd love to date, but would have my eyes gauged out and be disemboweled for bringing home to mom. Lewd, crude and tattooed, with songs like the anthemic "Nestle in My Boobies," if you didn't get to ever see these female punk rockers live, you'd be absolutely positive that they bite the heads off of Ken dolls and punch lame dudes with no game in the teeth. But watch them live. Their image they cast is nothing AT ALL like them. Genteel high fives befire playing, and a stage show replete with balloons and confetti and keyboard licks to accompany really well honed and grooving guitars and one helluva great drummer (Stephanie Luke can play, and is the charismatic core of the band) create a band that for someone, like me, who has never seen them live before, every desire to see them live again. Sure, having a name that's an incredibly distasteful take on abortions may be off putting, but as soon as your off kilter, that's where they catch you, and bowl you down with bountiful heaps of screeching noise, girly silliness and overall solid music. Check myspace.com/fuckthecoathangers for more information.
The Dallas, Texas originating now in Austin, Texas Strange Boys followed, and hit the stage hard with a slightly dustier, less straight ahead take on the low-fi, 60s garage sound that has come to define what we now call good "rock" music, as The Strokes and now Kings of Leon have taken forth to the mainstream. The Strange Boys played a very good set, making ovious their new locale of Austin, as the sheer amount of good gigs and being surrounded with competing bands that are as solid or better than you, given the SXSW connection of the collegiate party town and alternative music hub has made them come far. Key to their set in my eyes though is the fact that they chose to cover both "Think" by James Brown and "Lodi" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, their rocking renditions sounding very similar to a mash of what British invasion bands and young white guys like Buddy Holly sounded like covering "race music" in the early sixties. That is seen as a sacreligious act in most music circles bringing up such occurrences as "good," but, in the development of fun party music than creates a swingin' good time for a live crowd, they succeeded. To get a sample of their material, as well as information on their very well crafted debut album The Strange Boys...and Girls Club check http://www.myspace.com/thestrangeboys, and do catch them live if they're anywhere near you.
Los Angeles punk rock quintet Mika Miko played an eagerly anticipated set next, as the all girl, one guy drummer punk band has created quite the ruckus on the underground as the best of the West, and certainly proved as much Friday evening, as their fun live show, marked by moody and evocative, heavy and jagged guitarwork and frank lyrics not heard since the days of The Slits, and a free flowing good time feel in their stage presentation. The band also notably wears name tags onstage, a sly nod at marketing, but likely something cute, tongue in cheek and nothing but fun. Jessie Clavin's work on the bass, as well as Jenna Clavin's lead vocals are astoundingly great, and really make the band quite the live act in ange where punk bands with fresh live acts are all the rage.
Closing the show, Ninjatune Records signed Baltimore favorites The Death Set hit the stage with typical Bmore club influenced, hip hop type braggadocio and more than anything old style punk rock intensity. Members of the incredibly vital and important to the new wave of punk crew the Newmore Switchblades (with Brooklynites hip punk group Ninjasonik and stoner drunken skater hard and fast punk rock conglomerate Cerebral Ballzy as well), The Death Set set a standard in current punk with their adherence to standards of having accessible and memorable hooks, a visually captivating stage show with no gimmicks, and being one of the hardest thrashing and deeply devoted to the audience bands in the world today. The band has had an incredible touring schedule over the last three years, and it shows in the quality and consistency of their recordings. However, we got a relaxed and renewed Death Set this evening, as the band has just come back from a two month break, but in this performance without drummer Jahphet Landis who is presently touring with Santigold as her live drummer in her band.
The core of the band lies in many ways in lead singer Johnny Siera, a punk lead singer's punk lead singer, diminutive, exuberant, charismatic, an unlikely heartthrob, but when you hear him sing "We go around the world and we do what must be done! It's a top secret mission and our enemies are wishin' that they had a bigger gun!" in "Around the World" from the critically acclaimed 2008 release Worldwide, you get it. He sings the hopes and dreams of people. He comes off like an underdog in a fight, he and his terrific band locked with you in a fight to do as little as be awesome and as much as change your life. There's something very true to the punk aesthetic about this, something that comes from litrally being around the world, or hell, like Friday night, even literally holding an intentionally broken hi hat in the air while standing on a drum kit.
For those, like me, who thought that, as Lenny Kravitz once sang that "Rock and Roll is Dead," Friday, even if for one night, proved us completely wrong. And that's alright by me.
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