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Paula Kelly, Laurie Geltman, Mary Lou Lord, Thalia Zedek, Aaron Perrino, Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women, Mistle Thrush, The Charms, The So and So's, Last Stand, The Konks, The Raging Teens, The Kings of Nuthin', AND The Gravel Pit! I, for one, am All Rocked Out.
Tonight is T.T. the Bear's Place's 30th Anniversary Party! In celebration of this grand occasion, they've booked 14 bands to play short sets, waitresses circulate with trays of hors d'oeuvres, and for the first time ever there are TT's T-shirts. And Bonnie is SUCH a class act that, even though it's her night and her party, it's a benefit for Ethiopian widows and orphans. I arrive during Paula Kelly's last song. She has two keyboards, guitar, drummer, horn, and violin. The sound is well-crafted, and the violin is particularly good, but it's hard for me to get past her high, whiny singing voice. This is just a personal preference thing, and I'm happy to see the room more than half-full before 9:00.
Next is my discovery for the evening. All these years I've seen her band on bills that I didn't make it to, and I've never heard Laurie Geltman play. What I've been missing! In two songs she rocks the room, screaming, wailing, fucking her guitar on stage, and cursing during one song that she's not really an acoustic rocker, she plays with a band. I can't wait to see that.
Mary Lou Lord brings it back down a bit. She plays three pretty, quiet songs, one a fairly countrified number and one a paean to rockers who've died too young, which she says is mostly about Jimi Hendrix.
Next up is Thalia Zedek, whom I find deeply and enduringly cool and really want to like. I keep trying; unfortunately I find her recent material really boring. But she plays it well, and sings it well, with a rich, gravelly whiskey baritone, and she, too, has a great violin player.
Aaron Perrino plays a short solo set, accompanying himself on guitar. I actually think his songs work a little better in this setting than with a full band, since one doesn't necessarily expect him to rock out this way. And he shouts for a bit in one song, which always helps me enjoy him more.
Next is Ad Frank, the first of a cluster of acts I came to see. He's got his Fast, Easy Women with him, including Mike Quinn on keyboards. Ad is full of fire tonight, and the band sound great. The guitar leads are extra fine. Paula Kelly joins the band for one number, which gets my hopes up for the guilty-pleasure disco romp "The Ticket Was Non-Refundable," but instead they play "Future Imperfect".
I've been curious about Mistle Thrush, since drummer Todd Demma is out of town. The remaining three members simply play without him, with Valerie adding tambourine, and the sound is remarkably full. Valerie's voice is, of course, a work of art all by itself, and they open with "All Mirror Thing," Scott and Valerie's beautiful duet.
The Charms play short songs, so they have time for four. Their performance is all-out, as always, and while the vocals are mixed too low, the genius guitar leads come through loud and clear. (And loud.) The new drummer just keeps getting better, and Ellie wins Sexiest Bitch of the Night (and I mean that in the best possible way) with her soldier-fetish outfit.
The So and So's manage to fit only two songs into their ten minutes, but make them count. Meghan Toohey plays smoking leads and sings gorgeously and passionately. Both of the other string players sing backup, and the effect is wonderful. I want more, but it's that kind of night.
We're on to Last Stand, who play a goofy, melodic kind of punk. It's very fast--the drummer impresses me, as I don't think she lets up that punishing rush for the entire ten minutes. There's not a lot of depth here, but the surface is fun.
The Konks play a more screamy and tuneless kind of punk, which I find less fun. The guitarist isn't bad, but I'm afraid I don't find the whole effect very musical. This is the beneficial side of the ten-minutes-a-band format.
The Raging Teens have selected a genre, it seems, and they're sticking with it. They play absolutely straight-up surf guitar rock 'n' roll that would not have surprised anyone in 1962. They do it well, and it's actually pretty amusing for the three songs that we get from them, but I can't imagine wanting to hear an entire set of it, and it makes me wonder why one would choose to sound so thoroughly dated.
The Kings of Nuthin' are mining a very similar vein, only their chosen genre is swing. It's a manic and punky kind of swing, but still. (The big swing revival of the previous decade was, for me, one of the most annoying events ever in popular music. I wish those who loved it well of it, but I don't want to hear it.) They get the award for Most Personnel Schlepped Onstage For A Ten-Minute Set, with a vocalist, a drummer, a guitarist, THREE sax players, an upright bass, and an actual upright piano! At least they leave the piano onstage for our headliners to use.
Apparently, The Gravel Pit were the band that the folks at TT's wanted to have headline tonight. There is, as they say, a lot of love in the room. I was never a big fan, myself, but they put on a fine set. The guitar and piano are damn good, and if Jed Parish's growl takes some getting used to, he at least knows how to write for it. The songs are okay, but I think at this point I'm just All Rocked Out, and I leave during the encore.
