Bad Lieutenants / Damn Broads! / Mung / The McGunks / Spectre Hawk
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA 4/27/13
It’s only been a few weeks since the bombings at the marathon. Are nerves still on edge? I don’t know; is Boston still what I took for granted once and now, feel is a part of my heart and soul, regardless. Well, yes- I guess it is.
Spectre Hawk is a band I’ve seen before. A good lead off band and tonight they get the festivities set right. More of a garage rock band than a punk band but still fun to hear. Last time they did a cover of Generation X’s “Ready, Steady, Go,” and tonight it’s The Dictators “Science Gone Too Far.” I ask the Damn Broads if they know this tune, and they don’t, but it was recorded long before any of them were born. A sax player comes up to play a song or two and it’s all very good.
The McGunks are next, New England’s finest punk’n’roll band. Yes, that’s how they roll. “We’re gonna play a few songs about drinkin’ and playin’ and getting old,” lead singer Bob McGunk relays- but he forgets to add that they’re gonna kick our ass as well, which they always do. I like how they fuck up their cover of “Pretty Fucked Up” but recover to end with a devastating cover of “Ace Of Spades.”
If you don’t know who that’s by then I’m greatly disappointed in you.
The mighty Mung are next and they’re a Boston band that reaches back to the eighties, I’d guess. I do know that Walter Gustafson is their drummer and that Andy and I agree that he is our favorite local drummer of all time. We knew him first from when he was the drummer for The Outlets, early eighties, (where Dropkick Murphy’s originator Rick Barton is also from) and later with Ganggreen one of Boston’s best hardcore units.
But this band is pretty great and as they approach the stage attired in wrestling masks we anticipate we’re in for a good time. Good time is had with blistering punk, one step short of pure hardcore, with all of the drums rolls happening, but still, high energy punk in full force. A cover of Mission Of Burma’s “That’s How I Escape My Certain Fate,” is played and I’m certain that I’m witnessing one of the best sets, so early, of the year.
It’s time for the Damn Broads. Tough act to follow and tough that this is their first appearance as a three piece, having recently lost their singer. The dames are nervous and I’m worried for them, too but I’m pleased and relieved with their performance. Though it’s a bit raw it’s still great and it’s still true to the punk spirit. This is one of the few bands on our site, I think, that totally get the essence of punk in their music and I feel I can judge as one being there at the start of it. The crowd seems to be in agreement with me, too- getting their serious, socially conscious lyrics and hardcore driven songs. I’m just glad they’re still a band and they’re still number one with me.
Bad Lieutenants are next to finish up. As Brian McCaffrey, who is the head of Teenage Heart records says, “It’s not like we’re headlining. We’re just happy to take it out.” And I’m very happy he is referring to the night and not something else.
And this they do in an exemplary fashion. They’re a band that has members living in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. They’re a band that has roots in hardcore, metal and punk. They’re a band that epitomizes what Thrash N Bang, what our whole community, is about. Forget about the bombers, they’re an awful, but insignificant blip on the screen- we are real, we are good. We are the East Coast punk, hardcore, metal community. We are, as always- tough, pure, strong and true.
As were the Bad Lieutenants tonight, the last song they play is “Fuckers.”
I been livin’ with the fuckers of the world/ I been lovin’ with the fuckers of the world/ Now I’m leavin’ with the fuckers of the world/ And they love me/ A whole fuckin’ lot, man.
(Slimedog)
