Goolagoon / Bandit / Crystal Methodist / Kingpin
Cambridge Elks, Cambridge, MA 2/17/18
So, I’m here too early, bands are just moving in equipment. And as the only older adult here, it’s assumed I must be the manager. Happens quite frequently at the Midway.
“Excuse me, where’s the bathroom?”
Straight ahead to the left, I say.
I start directing band members where the electrical sockets are and how the lights are controlled at the back of the room. It’s my job, after all.
Before the show, Jake, from the BarRoom Heroes recognizes me. I’ve known him and his brother, playing in that band, since they were 14 and 12, him being the older one.
He’s with a young, petite redhead named Kate.
I say to her, “Now, Jake here has terrible taste in music. I mean, he likes punk rock. But I can see that his taste in women is exquisite!”
“OMG,” Kate says, “I think I’m gonna cry.”
It is true I favor short redheads.
“Have you met his mother?” I ask Kate. And she replies, “No.”
“She’s a petite, redhead,” I say, “You remember when I used to flirt with your Mom?” I ask Jake.
“Yeah, we thought you were weird.”
Well, Jake- you thought right.
And I believe I’m right in saying that Kingpin starts the night out with a great set.
I’m told they’re from Haverhill, MA and it’s only their second show!
They’re so new, I’m unable to locate them on facebook. They have thundering bass lines- hard hitting, almost funk rhythms- a la’ Rage Against The Machine and intense, emotional hardcore vocals that show to me a band with a lot of promise. And the crowd seems to reflect my opinion, as well.
Crystal Methodist is the next band to play. I’m eagerly anticipating this band to play, I’m wringing my hands together, drool is forming at the sides of my mouth, as my eyes glare menacingly at different areas, up into the air at imagined dragons.
The reason I’m reduced to such a pitiful state is, though this band produced one of my favorite albums of 2016, they had seemed to drop off the face of the world. Which actually, sounds pretty great- but their vocalist, Jeremy, informed me that their drummer had a serious accident and was in a wheelchair for six months so they took a bit of a hiatus.
At first we didn’t recognize each other. Jeremy: “You didn’t use to wear glasses, right?” Me: “Yes, and you used to have hair.”
And the reason I like these guys so much had little to do with Jeremy’s hairstyle but how I had seen this band turn from a pretty, good hardcore band into a great band with a style that I eventually knew as grindcore and power violence. And that intensity and that variety of mixing elements of punk and hardcore with metal was excellent, was awesome.
Much like tonight’s set which contains the speed and force of hardcore with the power and intensity of metal and matches and exceeds my high expectations that I came with tonight.
Bandit is next and they’re from Philadelphia. But they also mention Wilmington, Delaware. A friend and I had a joke about Delaware, how news items so rarely came from that state that we thought it didn’t exist, was imaginary. Much like now, a Republican Senator with a conscious.
Anyways, this band has really, short hardcore songs that end abruptly and usually revolve around the singer barreling through the crowd, frequently losing audio connection. (And causing me to scramble away on my old, timid legs.)
On their facebook they seem obsessed with the band Mr. Bungle, describe themselves as “family therapy disguised as bad music.” And turn in, maybe not the best set of the night but certainly, the most wildest and one that was, definitely a lot of fun.
Goolagoon is the next band and I’m even more excited about seeing them for the first time but state regulations prohibit me from describing, more in detail, what is taking place in my ecosystem.
This is the band that first introduced me to the term “power violence.” That still causes me to gnash my teeth at night and, occcasionally, wet my bed.
But seriously, as Jake, the guitarist, described their style more eloquently and succinctly than I- “Taking the aesthetics of punk and applying them to metal.” And that description and their music both sound pretty great to me.
Short, hard, abrasive, energetic songs that cut all the fat trimmings off of traditional metal and instead, replace it with music that is hard, brutal and real.
There’s everything from doom metal to fastcore in their set. And their female singer, Lily, sings in an amazing, guttural, death/hardcore voice much like the female singers of D-Sagawa and Distressor and she does this incredibly well.
Again my expectations are met and exceeded. When this review is on-line, so will be review of Goolagoon’s split with ACxDC.
It’s nearly as great as this set.
At some point I introduce Jake from the BarRoom Heroes to Jake from Goolagoon. They both played as young teens at the Midway, though Jake, who had a different band then, is a few years older, and they had never met. It’s cool when I can be involved in stuff like this, though I’m quite aware, I’m not cool at all.
There’s one more band but they don’t seem to fit the bill, so I guess I’ll step outside.
It’s starting to snow and the roads may get slippery. I’d hate for someone to slip off the road and crash into a mind like mine.
Drive safely, I do and also, recommend. But artistically, I’d suggest- try to veer off the side of the road.
You might crash into something wondrous.
(Slimedog)
