The FU’S / Working Poor USA / The Straight Eights / Worm
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA 6/3/18
I’m Samm Gunn. I’m a private eye.
I take cases that involve such serious situations as blackmail, corruption or murder.
And then sometimes I review punk shows.
Hey, my hourly rate stays the same. And when some lascivious louts like Trash N Bile want to put me on the clock. Well, their dollar buys the same as any respectable, ordinary citizen does. And I don’t want to infer that these two derelicts are anything like that.
So, if you ask me why I am here, don’t expect me to get all “existential” on you. I’m just here to make a report, state the facts.
I know that Scumdog, who I assume is in detox now, recently reviewed Worm at what he called the best show of the year.
I’m familiar with this band, too. And though he’s right about fairly nothing, this band is at its’ peak, its’ prime now.
Worm plays angry, old-school hardcore and they have more in common with say, early hardcore like G.G. Allin than the heavier, New York style like The Cro-Mags.
Before one song, the leader Mikke Worm announces- “Fuck your god. Fuck the government. And fuck the police state,”- before rolling into a number.
They end their powerful set with a Boston hardcore anthem- “This Is Boston Not L.A.” and they did it all with a substitute drummer!
Mikke, who books many great punk shows, grew up in Hyde Park just like Scuzzdog and Andy Bang. Thank God, he didn’t turn out anything like them!
And thanks for putting on so many great shows.
The Straight Eights are next and this is a straight ahead punk’n’roll band that has elements of punk, metal and hardcore in their music. (Where have I heard that before?) But they land in a space reserved for classic Boston punk.
Slimehog thinks highly of this band but I don’t let that prejudice me against them. I think they’re pretty great, too.
I know they only had one guitar the last time I saw them, but now they have two. I believe I’m right unless, I need to cut down on the Jameson’s. They play some great tunes like “Circling The Drain” and “Take A Look In The Mirror” but the set really takes off when the song “Burden” kicks in and the set just increases in energy and intensity and kicks ass from then on, mightily.
They end their great set with a cover of Twisted Sisters’ “Shoot Them Down,” that makes me think of how the great, but now gone, hardcore band Refuse Resist would sometimes cover “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”
I’d say The Straight Eights are a gritty, gutsy take on classic Boston punk rock. And I’m sticking with that.
Working Poor USA grew out of the great, Cape Cod band Antibodies. They were considered the best hardcore band out of Cape Cod by TNB, when they first started, and I am in agreement with that. Even those knuckleheads think straight once in a while.
When I first saw them, a few years back, they had a pretty weak drummer. Now they have an excellent one. I had to compliment him on his t-shirt, the last time I saw him. On the back is said, “Welcome To Baltimore…Duck, Motherfucker.” Never been there but I’ve heard stories, stories that he- Anthony- confirmed.
And this band is flying on all cylinders today. Led by Tony with his barking, gruff vocals- they seem determined to leave no survivors.
Starting out with their excellent tune, “Freedom Ain’t Free,” they continue to play a set that is Oi in spirit and lyrics but supercharged hardcore in execution.
At one point, lead vocalist, John Sox, of The FU’s saunters up to me and says, “This band is better than the Antibodies.”
A few years back I’d have thought he was whack, but now I think I’d be crazy not to believe it.
This will be the best set of the day, I predict. You can take that to the bank.
Some folks think The FU’s mean “Festering Undergarments.” But that is far from the truth, as far as you can imagine.
What the name does come from is a Wendy O. Williams interview (R.I.P) of The Plasmatics. A great band, kind of like if Alice Cooper had arrived a bit later as a punk band.
She said in an interview, “We really wanted to call ourselves The Fuck You’s but realized no record label would sign us.”
This band is where the original punk meets the original hardcore and slams straight into metal at a high rate of volume and velocity.
And I know they will be great today as they have three original members playing- vocals, drums and one of the guitars. And they do not disappoint.
During their rendition of “Young, Fast Iranians,” I’m even compelled to jump out of my seat and applaud vociferously.
This was a pretty great, pretty diverse show. One that Mikke seems to strive for and thrive on.
Me, I’m just a private eye. A paid observer.
But for me the passion and the power laid out today could hardly be explained using a typewriter.
I almost feel sorry for those Trash N Barf guys, Slimehog and Andy. Though they are the dregs of society, the worst imaginable people with disgraceful moral character, they seek to accomplish the unattainable. Which is…
To describe the fury and intensity, the love and the emotion, the wild fun of so many great bands and fans, to succinctly describe shows like this.
Eh, fuck ’em.
(Samm Gunn)
