Neighborhood Shit / Hobo Chili / Kind Crew / Jerry’s Got Jokes / Sick Minds
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA 10/27/18
I walk into the Midway and a band has just started to play, I think it’s Kind Crew I’m seeing but they don’t sound like the bandcamp I recently listened to.
I do notice they have members from Taxi Driver and Dots Rats and that their style is nineties type hardcore, much like Rage Against The Machine.
The rhythms are generally moderate with an underlying funk element with exhorted, hardcore vocals on top. Anyways, they have an excellent front man and rhythm section and are a nice start of the day.
Oh, and they’re called Sick Minds.
A ska/punk band called Jerry’s Got Joke is next with a lot of high energy ska/punk and a lot of grunge fuzz thrown in.
Actually, it’s a genius type of mix- happy, upbeat ska tempered with angst filled alternative. Shortly into the set they play my favorite tune by them “Asshole” which is a perfect example of this style.
And the songs are savory seasoned with terrific, trombone lines by Dennis Donahue- who’s birthday is being celebrated today. And after a few songs they ask Dennis to say a few words. Which, he shyly does, that is until his microphone slips and falls off the stand LOL!
This band is not a cookie-cutter type ska/punk band, more like a wild, rock’n’roll party band. You may find a band I write about that you’ll like better but I don’t think you’ll find a band that is more fun to see live.
And their great first release is reviewed by me, on-line when you read this.
I really liked the bandcamp of Kind! Crew who play next, in a way that is much like old-school hardcore, meaning, not so much influenced by the heavy New York style but more by the original hardcore bands.
I just typed “haircore” by mistake and I’m wondering- Could that be a new style? One that takes glam/metal and plays it at hardcore speed? I like hair metal, scoff if you must, but I think I would like it!
Kind Crew exudes tons of energy with the drummer flailing away and the guitarists jumping up and down and the singer engaging the moshers.
They play a set that is emotional and powerful but kind of went by me in a blur. But I would definitely, not kind of, like to see Kind Crew play soon again.
Hobo Chili is a band led by Josh, the bassist from the old, great skate punk band Red Line Rebels. They play a horn driven sound (two saxophones and a trumpet) in styles we don’t cover. But they do incorporate everything from ska, swing, sixties R&B, jazz and any other genre that pops its’ head up for a moment.
And today they seem exceptionally energetic and aggressive in their playing that makes them fit right in with the proceedings today.
I have failed to mention this is a benefit for Veterans Suicide Awareness, and was organized by Lindsey Loogie Warnot raising over six hundred dollars for that cause!
Josh gives a short talk between songs about how our country seems to forget our veterans. And how he is a veteran himself, and from the Midwest, not the liberal Northeast, makes it all more meaningful and relevant to me.
Anyways, Hobo Chili play an amazing set with impeccable musicianship, no musical wanking and the crowd seems to enjoy them as much as me.
Neighborhood Shit is up to take us out. And can I mention they’re also headlining TNB’s Annual Xmas Pizza Party here- Sunday December 23rd? Free pizza all show!
This band has everything from black metal, death metal, doom, grindcore, power violence in their music but are satisfied with calling themselves simply hardcore.
For me, they were the first local band that introduced me to music that led me towards power violence, D-beat and grindcore. As I mentioned to Alex, their bassist earlier- I think of them like a “gateway drug” or, at least, a gateway band that led me to others.
And Alex is made up much like the main character of that great movie “The Crow.” Though, I must give the best costume prize to the bassist from Kind! Crew who played in a leopard skin, loin cloth-bathing suit earlier.
I’m conditioned to Neighborhood Shit clobbering me over the head with some intense, hard hitting music, but today their set is really blistering. It borders more on grindcore mixed with thrash today, totally awesome, and I’d have to say this is the best I’ve ever heard them play.
It’s great seeing all the Wreck Center Crew here. Tony and Joe jump onstage to sing. (Alex was wearing a hoodie with a picture of Joe with his head bleeding earlier today, making Joe look like G.G.Allin!). There’s also Karl, Matty, Dan DMT, Tom, Kendra, Anne and Maia here also.
I say to Kendra how I enjoy all her little adventures of local places that she visits and posts on facebook every week. It’s a lot more interesting than seeing folks kids or dogs posted all the time, I tell her.
“I must say I love my life,” she laughs.
I know I’m at least twice her age but I tell her. “I feel a lot of people my age are happy and content with their lives but look back at their twenties or thirties as their best time. I really don’t. I did have some great times along the way but I can honestly say, this is the best time for me. Everyone makes a lot of mistakes, I did too. But somehow they get you to where you’re supposed to be.”
‘Cause here I am with great people like Dennis and Kendra- all the Wreck Center Crew, experiencing the local Boston hardcore punk scene. And maybe you could tell me where I should be, point me in the right direction, some place where I’d be more happier. But I really don’t think- you’d be right.
Words fail miserably to express the greatness of the bands and the people in this room today.
And words fail even more feebly to express the joy I feel- being here.
(Slimedog)
