Archive For
Matt Fraza Band at Whaler’s Brewing Company
Fundraiser for Welcome House of South County
Whaler’s Brewing Company
Peace Dale
Sick Pills at The Pour Farm
with Really Bad Religion
The Pour Farm
Purchase Street
New Bedford, MA
9pm
Bill Keough ‘The Slow Get Up’ review at The Noise
Drone-y and kinda minimal post-punk with an almost Krautrocky tidiness to the beat. It’s pretty audacious to open up with a song as repetitive as “I Know Where You’ve Been,” but Keough actually cracks the mold halfway through for a ripping guitar solo and some snotty, corrosive vox. And that’s the trick, here. You think it’s one thing, and then it’s something else entirely. “Self Doubt” has the ’80s indie-roar of Husker Du, “3:32 AM” is pure Pixies, “Back to Punk Rock” has the ragged beat and space-acid guitar of Chrome, etc. Something new around every corner, anchored by Keough’s mopey, Black Planet sensibility. “Deliver the Goods” is the killer of the bunch, though. It sounds like somebody hit Marc Bolan in the head with a frying pan seconds before T Rex hit the stage but he played the gig anyway, blood dripping through his corkscrew hair. I didn’t expect much, given the cover – it’s a dude’s hand, that’s it – but I got plenty. This dude knows what’s up.
Chris Evil & the Taints ‘Blackout’ review in The Noise
New Bedford’s Chris Evil & the Taints play a variety of hardcore punk that would have fit snuggly among the mid-’80s Taang! Records roster. They would not have been out of place on a bill with The F.U.s, The Freeze, and The Lemonheads. This reboot is a refreshing change of pace. While the Boston rock underground has been in the midst of a garage/psych revival and the alternative rock scene has been rediscovering the ’90s, this version of straight-ahead punked-up rock has been sadly neglected. Chris Evil & the Taints aim to fill that void. Though the range on these 11 tracks is fairly narrow, they hit on a whole variety of key touchstones. “Muscle of Love” brings to mind early Angry Samoans with a smidge less snottiness. “Baby Please Come Home” is pulled straight from Social Distortion’s Prison Bound-era catalog, with a dose of Alice Cooper mixed in for good measure.