Boston’s own A Guy Named Guy will be heading out on tour this May! They’ve got some dates filled in but looks like they could use a hand. Do you know a band or venue in one of the towns below? If so, get on the horn and get back at AGNG.
Don’t know anyone in those towns and want to be supportive? Follow them tumblr, twitter, bandcamp, youtube, or facebook, and like/retweet/reblog/etc when they post.
It seems excessively late for a December 2012 recap from where we currently stand, forward facing the bitter cold of January’s last frame. In my defense, I went a bit overboard late last year, insisting on drinking and smoking through a cold that became a full-fledged plague by the last night of the Hometown Throw down. With a weekend of fun ska/punk shows coming up, it’s a good time to recap the madness.
12.14.12
Home For The Skalidays at The Audio Jungle
It started innocently enough in the middle of the month. A Guy Named Guy was headlining the Audio Jungle with a toys for tots benefit. I took a long lunch that day and secured my tot toy at Newberry comics. Come 6 ‘o clock, toy and camera gear in hand, I was headed to Allston. This was a fantastic show. Mr. Furious started the night off, and impressed the hell out of me. I finally got to see Short Handed Goal, a ska punk band based out of RI. Nice guys and a solid set. Fort! The band was up next and always destroys a basement with their ever-evolving gypsy ska-punk-slouch madness. I can’t get enough of Fort!, it’s never the same show twice, and the energy they bring to the table as a collective is impressive. Connecticut’s Llama Tsunami continue to be my nutmeg state ska crush, powering through a strong set of original material sprinkled with energetic covers. I took a setlist, from a basement show, that’s how much I respect this band. A Guy Named Guy, fresh off the release of their Terminals split with Puerto Rico’s D-Cent Jerks, brought the night to a close. If you only know this band from the incredibly popular, and polished, youtube video for “Ska’s Not Dead,” a song they quite possibly retired that night, you have no idea how hard these guys will thrash through a set.
Do you remember how cold it was Sunday night? It was freezing. But I was going to a show. Which meant I had to strategically layer up. Coat check at the House of Blues doesn’t come cheap and they don’t let you stack items on one hanger. It was also a Sunday night show with 6pm doors. I was pretty nervous it would be one of those shows that starts before everyone arrives and ends nice and early to get the club crowd in. So there I was standing in the freezing cold, not wearing quite enough winter gear, waiting in line to get into the venue at 5:45. By the time I got into the show, I was less than thrilled to be there.
Dan Potthast (Mu330, Dan P and the Bricks, The Stitch Up) was the perfect opener. It was just him on his guitar playing 1 to 2-minute ska/punk tunes. They were catchy, they were clever, and he had the audience. Which is to say he heckled the audience way better than they heckled him. I wish I caught video of that. Particularly he had a great tune I’m not super fluent in his material, but I clearly recognized KKK Highway.
He told the audience that he wrote a tune for each night of the tour. I was able to catch his Boston tune on my phone:
And like that, January is halfway over and I’ve been slacking! I’ve got a stack of stuff I’ve been meaning to blog about. Here’s the lite version:
Brunt of It plays at the Middle East Upstairs on February 22 with The Blue Bloods, Dead Friends, A Common Goal, and Penalty Kill. Tickets are 18 and the show is 18+. Brunt of It most recently released All Aboard the Cannabus this past December, available on Bandcamp. See more shows at the calendar.
Brunt of It was also recently added as support to the upcoming Fishbone show at the Sinclair on March 3.
Big D and the Kids Table will be joining Warped Tour 2013. They’ve also been dropping some not-so-subtle hints that they’re ready to record a new record and might have a Kickstarter for you to fund.
Pressure Cooker, one of Boston’s best current reggae/ska/rocksteady acts killed it at the middle east and some of that show was caught on tape!
While we’ve only been live for a couple of months, I want to thank everyone who’s read, commented, submitted a show, idea, or asked about getting involved
Seminal ska/punk act Fishbone visits Boston this March, performing at new-ish venue The Sinclair. The Sinclair opened a few months ago in Harvard square, fits 500 for shows and 100 for dinner, and is the latest in Bowery Presents owned venues. But it looks like Fishbone will be the first reason I have to visit this spot. It’s been a couple years but I’m stoked to see them again!
Saturday, March 3, 2013, 8pm
The Sinclair, 52 Church St, Cambridge, MA (Red Line to Harvard Square, I imagine)
$16, 18+, Tickets
Boston punk act Stray Bullets have re-released their 2004 album, “The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune” on their own bandcamp. Originally released on Fork in Hand records, it’s hard to come by online (Interpunk is sold out and Amazon has a few copies for $80). I’d only heard of the band having read the bio of the Have Nots, but I finally got to see them when they opened up Skalapalooza this past October. They sounded just about like a proto-have-nots act (so, for fans of Rancid and Suicide Machines) and that was just fine with me.
When it rains it pours.
I’m happy to think about January because I’m entirely too stressed about December. Reel Big Fish and Pilfers return to Boston on January 27 with support from Dan Potthast of Mu330. Anyone who was at Skalapalooza this past October knows that Pilfers is generally a show-stealer. Hopefully they’ll have a longer set this round and possibly play a new tune or two like they a did a few reunions ago… But I should mention Reel Big Fish continues to put on a totally fun show. I’ve seen them a few times (even in a post-Scott world). The new sax player is great and if anything gives them a more “Turn the Radio Off” era horn section and I’m a huge fan of the new record, “Candy-Coated Fury.” Naturally, we all expect some Reel Big Fish/Pilfers on-stage mash-up. (Actually, on the Skalapalooza tour, Nick from Pilfers played keys for Spring Heeled Jack. Maybe he could sit in on a few RBF tunes. HINT HINT.)
I’ve never seen Mu330, but I’ve seen The Stitch Up, Dan P’s pop/punk act and the song-writing is totally the same. The most recent thing he’s done is Dan P and the Bricks which has a new wave/early toasters thing going on. I’m curious to see what he brings to this show.