Moose Knuckle / Worm / The Imposers / Witches Tears / Coffin Salesman
Maggy’s Lounge, Quincy, MA 5/26/18
“You do a pretty good impression of you.”
That’s from one of my favorite songs, from one of my favorite songwriters- Aria, better known now as Coffin Salesman. He has a lot of great songs but this line from “White Girl, Wasted,” hits particularly true with me as I was hiding behind a persona that wasn’t me for all my life until fairly recently.
He has new songs tonight as well. He describes one song as the “saddest song” of the set and when I think about it, probably all his songs are sad. But this one talks about being drunk and lost in Mission Hill with his jacket torn and his pants stained with piss. Each chorus ends with the line “And I’m proud of this,” but in the final chorus where the music slows down he admits, “And I’m not proud of this.”
He does a cover of “Mother” by Danzig and dedicates his last song to me. It’s a song I’m familiar with but I’m distracted saying “Hi” to people just arriving at the show and only after the set, I’m told it was the song “Ghosts” that I picked as song of the year a couple of years back.
I wished I had paid more attention, but as I tell Aria, and it’s true, at that time that song struck out starkly with his then punk/hardcore band The Radicals. That song was slow, moody and reflective. And that now describes all of his songs, so it blends in so well with his new style.
Great songs, great set and I look forward to his next release, this one featuring a full band.
Witches Tears a young, doom/sludge band play next. They are a trio with atmospheric, heavily treated guitar, big slabs of monolithic, trebly but still thunderous bass and steady, hard hitting drums, often punctuating the rhythm with a rat-a-tat, machine gun like roll.
My favorite song is called “Time To Die” (dedicated to me) and though sometimes, this style can get too ponderous, I found it was a totally enjoyable set. When you think of the term “Heavy Metal”- Well, is there any kind of metal that is heavier than this?
Talking to the guitarist, after the set, I was amazed that this was their first live show and I would love to see them again if I’m still alive.
The Imposers are a rockabilly band I saw last Saturday at the Midway for the first time. At that show they were a trio, now they’re a quartet. I suppose if I see them enough times they’ll eventually become a full symphony orchestra!
They mix originals with covers of classic fifties rock’n’roll and this is music I wouldn’t mind seeing every week.
And they play it quite well, special kudos to the drummer who knows exactly what to play in this style and executes it perfectly.
They do play some songs I didn’t hear last week like “Shakin’ All Over” and my favorite, Chuck Berry’s “Reelin’ And A Rockin’.”
I consider punk to be the extension of rock’n’roll and I hate to impose, but can these guys continue to be placed on punk gigs like this? Hopefully, I will continue to see them every weekend until I perish.
Worm has two members from one of my favorite bands we’ve covered, Bad Movies, and whose singer, Linnea Svedka, is one of my favorite people, and performed acoustically at my recent Birthday party. And she is one of the most talented people I know, as well.
I felt Worm’s style was a bit unfocused a few years back. One foot in punk, one foot in hardcore and one foot in alternative. But it’s hard to walk when you have three legs!
Now, I find them as a potent, angry hardcore band not influenced at all by the metal/New York style but by the eighties/Boston early hardcore scene.
Their music has the power and intensity of hardcore but is flavored with the energy and passion of punk rock.
To sum it up- one totally, awesome set and let’s see them try to worm out of this one!
When I was 18, I lived in Uphams Corner in Dorchester, this was in the mid seventies, and the young people I knew, hung around a corner just off Blue Hills Ave.
One of the guys was kind of weird and he was nicknamed “Worm.” He was an acid freak and seemed a bit damaged by it all.
I recall how he boasted about having a blow up sex doll and how much fun he had with his latex girlfriend.
Now, back to our previously scheduled program-
I’ve always loved Moose Knuckle. They are a band that always seems to be out of all fucks, no fucks given.
You can throw around styles to describe them as “Oi, hardcore, anarcho-punk?” But I’d go with their description- “Pissed off drunk punx.”
Their singer PJ is an amazing front man, can I say “electrifying” just to make him laugh. My favorite part of their set is when he wiggled, on his back, across the stage floor.
They have an awesome drummer who just pushes the beat, effectively, and wails away. The string men aren’t bad either, though the guitar player broke a string and had to throw his guitar away in the trash!
And “Trash” is one of their songs. Not the New York Dolls tune but one where PJ recreated his “barking seal with rabies” style.
My final conclusion is this was a tremendously, exciting set- no genre needed but- punk spirit set on overload. This is the best set and possibly, the best show I’ve seen all year! So shove that up your genre!
This was such a perfect, eclectic evening that I felt I had to go- my apologies to 16 Stiches, the band that played last.
Besides, I had to drop of Aria, the coffin salesman, off at the local T station. He promised he could get me a good deal for when I die.
In our ride he also proclaimed his love of the scene and how this was the best time for him. I agreed, as recently, this has been my favorite time of covering it.
He left my car and exited out towards the station. He walked a short way and then gave a cautious wave and smile.
Right then I saw a MBTA bus- collide with him, mowing him down like a blade of grass.
(Slimedog)
