High Desert Hooligans, Trigger Itch and Piranhas BC @ the Red Room (6/7/13)

This night's Neurolux show had a definite buzz to it, no doubt owing to its headliner, the Grizzled Mighty, having played Treefort this year.  However, I'd already written about that concert's openers, the Blaqks and Parade of Bad Guys, a few times before.  This Red Room show, on the other hand, featured two acts I'd never seen.  That was enough to tip the scales in its favor.

I counted about fifteen people when I got down there.  There were about forty there when High Desert Hooligans played, but most of them chose to hang out on the patio during that set.  So it goes.  At least, judging from the crapload of people that I saw when I walked by earlier in the evening, the Neurolux show was well-attended.

Piranhas BC opened the show.  Boy, these guys sure do grow on you.  I've liked their catchy tunes and fluid, piercing solos from the first time that I heard them.  The more that I see this group, however, the more impressive that their tunes' consistency and their groove's sturdiness become.  The same goes for their smart arrangements and James Thomason's offhandedly deft vocals (a little mock-Phil Anselmo here, a little rapid-fire reciting there).  I dig Thomason's non-stop hopping, strutting and mugging as well (though he does make it difficult to take a picture of him without using a flash).  Winningly unpretentious.

Local group Trigger Itch played next.  Between their manic rhythm section, their metallic, rockabilly-ish riffs, their ferocious soloing and their rough, shouted vocals, these guys called to mind my favorite metal band, Motorhead.  They seemed to drag the beat a little on one song, but then I realized that it was a split-second tempo shift.  Most of the Red Room's patrons were outside when this set started, but it didn't take long for people to come back in and cheer the band on.

Redmond, OR rock band High Desert Hooligans closed out the night.  If you look up this group on Facebook, you'll find plenty of bands listed under "Influences": Dead Kennedys, the Runaways, the Ramones, AC/DC.  Respectable names, no doubt.  Influential, I'm sure.  Still, I smell what Harold Bloom might call an "evasion."  With their hard-driving rhythms, buzzsaw riffs, harshly catchy tunes and growled vocals, these guys and gals were damn near a dead-ringer for L7.  Nothing wrong with that, especially when you factor in the Hooligans' funny, bitchy lyrics and playful stage presence (sarcastically golly-gee mugging, some gentle nudging).  It really was a shame that most people drifted back out onto the patio during this set.  At least they got a chance to see the lead singer and bassist when they hopped down and ran out the door during a massive drum solo.  They didn't get to see Piranhas, Trigger Itch and others dancing and jumping around onstage with the Hooligans during the finale, though.  Smart, rowdy fun.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Wes Malvini and the Red Room.  If you like what you've read and would like to help keep it going, click the yellow "Give" button and donate whatever you can.  Even $5 would help.

The Vibrators, The Akabane Vulgars on Strong Bypass, Piranhas and Chris McFarland @ the Shredder (9/17/12)

I got very, very excited about this show.  The Vibrators are one of the great unknown UK punk pioneers: they formed in 1976, played the same spots that the Clash and the Sex Pistols did, opened for Iggy Pop and Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople).  I discovered their music back when I was in college, and for a while, I actually preferred their debut album Pure Mania to Never Mind the Bollocks.  I missed their show at the Shredder last year because, frankly, I didn't believe the flyers that I saw around town ("C'mon, it can't be THE Vibrators, right?  Gotta be somebody else...").  I wasn't gonna make the same mistake twice.

I can't really understand why attendance was so dismal for this show; from what I've heard, the Vibrators' last go-round was something to see/hear.  I just know that it was too bad that the audience didn't get over twenty-five.  This was something to see/hear too.

I missed Michael Dean Damron's set, but I did get down to the Shredder in time to catch the set by Brooklyn musician Chris McFarland.  It might've just been me, but I thought I heard a little Springsteen in this dude's sturdy tenor and mid-tempo, tunefully punkish songs.  In any case, his voice, songwriting, ringing twelve-string guitar and well-crafted backing tracks got over well enough.

Up next were the local punk group Piranhas, whose performance reinforced my good impression of them.  Solidly crafted tunes; friendly, high-energy frontman; sharp lead guitarist; unobtrusive rhythm section.  Not a New York steak, but a damn tasty hamburger.

After Piranhas came the Akabane Vulgars on Strong Bypass, an all-female trio from Japan.  As soon as you read that last part, I'm sure that some of you hipsters immediately thought "Shonen Knife."  A bit of advice: push that thought out of your mind right now before this group comes and rips your head off.  "Fierce" barely begins to describe this group's mix of bluesy, swaggering grooves, metallic riffs, shrieking solos, bone-crushing bass and drums and howled, bellowed vocals.  Their "House of the Rising Sun" cover made Eric Burdon sound like Anthony Hegarty.  Would've been worth the price of admission all by themselves.

After the Akabane Vulgars came the Vibrators.  To their credit (considering their history), they didn't seem to let the meager crowd faze them very much.  Even more to their credit (considering their age), the intensity level of their performance didn't pale in comparison to that of their Japanese opener.  The Vibrator's set was comprised predominantly of songs from their first two albums, Pure Mania and V2.  That was to be expected, I suppose, but certainly not unwelcome.  In fact, the V2 material sounded a lot better than I remembered (I've never been a big fan of that album, but I might need to dust it off now).  And thanks to the rapid-fire drumming, zooming bass, rip-roaring guitar and winningly rough vocals, the newer material rawked just as hard.  My only real complaint was that they didn't play my favorite Pure Mania song, "Into the Future" ("Gonna be a new world./ I'm lookin' for a cheap thrill.").  It's okay, though: I consoled myself with their renditions of "I Need a Slave" and "London Girls," which kicked as much ass as the album versions if not more.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.

The Hungry Hearts Tour @ the Red Room (7/21/12)

Sometimes, size does matter: this show might have attracted my attention just for its quantity of acts (six in all).  Of course, it did help that those acts included Piranhas, a local punk band I'd heard good things about but never seen, and The Acrotomoans, whom I like both as musicians and as people.

Though it improved as the night wore on, attendance was surprisingly meager for a Saturday show.  I sat at the bar before it began, read the Boise Weekly and wondered how big the crowd would be for karaoke at Neurolux this night.

Local punk band Piranhas opened the night's music.  These guys have been around the scene for a while: their lead singer talked about playing a show with his "godawful death metal band" back when the Red Room was J.D. & Friends, and someone I spoke with said that their lead guitarist has been in bands since before I was born.  I don't know about that last one, but in any case, all that time paying dues seems to have paid off.  They plowed through their catchy, mid-tempo tunes like a well-oiled machine, and all the while, their lead guitarist peeled off badass solos like they were nothing.  They weren't stunningly brilliant, but such unpretentious, consistent craftsmanship is hard enough to come by.

After Piranhas came Greenlander, a solo hip-hop act from Ohio.  He didn't rap so much as chant, but that didn't make much difference one way or the other.   The real attraction and point of his set were his relentless, robotically funky, industrial-tinged techno-beats.  They reminded me of the days when the Red Room was Terrapin Station and they had Nocturnum (goth/industrial night) every Sunday.

Up after Greenlander was JE double F, an MC from New Jersey.  While his movie clip intros and smooth yet disquieting beats reminded me a little of the Samurai Champloo soundtrack (yeah, I'm an anime nerd--what about it?) and the Wu-Tang Clan, his smart, funny, fierce lyrics reminded me of the Clash.  My hand would've probably cramped up and been useless for the rest of the night if I'd tried to transcribe all of his great class-conscious, anti-war, anti-corporate, anti-consumerist rhymes.  He had much better flow than Joe Strummer too--probably closer to Ghostface Killah or Raekwon.

After JE double F finished up, Ohio-based rapper MC Homeless took the stage.  Hismindbogglinglyfastflowmadeitalittlehardtounderstandwhathewassayingsometimes, but thankfully, he varied it now and again, which gave me the chance to savor both his sharp wit and his verbal dexterity.  And then for something completely different, he dropped in a couple of uproarious hardcore rants about Twin Peaks ("DADDY LOVES YOU!").

The Acrotomoans played next and delivered a focused, high-energy set.  Perhaps recording and releasing their first album recently gave them an extra boost in confidence.  In any case, their driving basslines, buzzsaw guitar riffs, machine-gun drumming and roaring vocals hit like a souped-up V-8 hearse.  My heart melted when Luke Gushwa dedicated their punked-up version of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love" to his girlfriend, and I grinned when they stayed onstage a couple of minutes past their cut-off time to play a raucous cover of "Blitzkrieg Bop."  And I didn't mind at all when they dedicated "Left to Rot" to MC Homeless instead of me.

I dashed down to 10th St. Station after the Acrotomoans wrapped up to wish a friend Happy Birthday, buy him a drink and give him his present (a copy of Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt--great stuff).  Unfortunately, I didn't make it back in time to catch San Diego-based punk band Break the Cycle's set.  Sorry, fellas.

I ended my night chatting with some friends at Neurolux, which didn't quite have five times as many people as the Red Room did.  Oh well.  I suppose that the populist in me can support karaoke in theory, and it's cool that Neurolux undoubtedly made some good coin that night.  Still... Sigh.  Oh well.  "Doh-on't stop...belee-e-vin'..."

You can find info about all of these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.