Thrash N Bang’s Annual Punk Pizza Poetry Xmas Party
Neighborhood Shit / Revilers / The Hangovers / Coffin Salesman / Jake Tringali
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA 12/23/18
This is the last live review for Thrash N Bang.
So I’m gonna change it up a bit.
But first I’ll tell you about the bands.
Coffin Salsa Man, I mean, Coffin Salesman- led by Aria of the late, great band The Radicals, has turned into one of the best songwriters I know and certainly, the best lyricist. His music may be moving away from what we cover but for now I’ll just greatly enjoy what I would describe as acoustic Celtic punk mixed with thrash metal.
The Hangovers- (which is Bob McGunk’s side project) has country, rockabilly licks sprinkled over thrash/hardcore rhythms. Think of Reverend Horton Heat as if he had a brain aneurysm. But really, I just write that to be funny- this is some pretty great, pretty unique stuff. I don’t think we cover a band that resembles this band even a bit. And they play a killer cover of a Sex Pistols tune “Bodies,” during their set.
Revilers- old school punk from Cape Cod featuring Nick from Fast Times, now with the Nervous Eaters. My favorite set of the show, mainly because they fit into my particular taste and also, because they play that style- oh, so very well.
Neighborhood Shit- metal, punk, hardcore, black metal, death metal, grind, doom, power violence- you get all that here, folks, all served up, most importantly, at the highest level imaginable. As intense and as exciting as all hell.
And while I’m at it, can I thank Sam, the pizza man/event photographer for his excellent work? And Lindsey and Kendra (my punk daughters), Linn, Kim, Jo, Sparrow Cat, Margaret Jane, Rachael, Maia, Lauramom, Tony, Dennis and Joe for attending.
I don’t have a photographic memory but when somebody says something that I want to remember, it’s easy for me to recall and often remember it forever.
Like when I was sitting with Jaime from Loser’s Circle at The Beachcomber in Quincy, some sunny afternoon, several years ago. And he told me, “I really do like the music, but my favorite part of it all is the feeling, the sense of community, the friendships that it brings to me.”
I had already sensed what a tight-knit, supportive and accepting scene it was, but at that moment I realized, really how much that was a part of the scene.
During the last set by Neighborhood Shit, Alex their bass player, gathered the attention of the crowd and said, “We’re all family here, this is our real family celebration, so cheers!”
Then the band broke into their doom/death metal version of the wedding favorite/disco song “We Are Family” by Sister Sludge, I mean, Sister Sledge.
Sadly, that didn’t really happen.
But what did happen during the show was that Jake Tringali the punk poet, besides reading his great poems between sets, read a not so great poem that I wrote! A very personal one, about my coming out about my sexuality. One, that I felt I would become too emotional if I had read it myself.
He did an amazing job, I couldn’t have been happier how it came out, and people really listened and reacted, too. And like a line from my poem says, “It meant and means so much to me.”
But the punk community was and still is, about acceptance. And I know because I was there when the original Boston punk scene started.
We were the first to accept openly gay musicians and singers- Human Sexual Response and Lou Miami & The Kozmetics were two of our very best and popular bands. And we were the first to accept women as musicians, not just as singers, and of that I’m most proud of the early punk scene, even more so than the music they created, to this day.
One of my favorite things to say to folks is, “I think music is subjective. I don’t think punk music is any better than any other music. But I’ve worked or known so many musicians and fans in other genres in Boston. From fifties music, wedding bands, blues, avant-garde jazz and most original rock styles and I know- that the current hardcore/punk scene has the nicest, the best people I’ve ever known. And that’s not up for discussion with me.
I asked Neighborhood Shit and the Revilers to play today because they’re really great bands. But more importantly to me, I knew they would bring the crew of people that I most wanted to see. The Cape Cod crew and what I think of as, The South Boston crew- and I’m so glad they were represented.
But come to think of it, there’s no place I would rather be than here today.
And I hope you know I’m being sincere when I say- I wouldn’t trade places with anyone.
Life is an long, odd trip with many strange stops along the way. I guess The Greatful Dead sang something like that. God, I really hate their music.
But to be here with the punk community. Well, there’s no other place I’d rather be.
(Slimedog)
