Uzuhi / NOTOX / Barroom Heroes / Honest John / Loser’s Circle
The Beach Comber, Quincy, MA 6/6/14
Well, here’s another show from The Beach Comber. Seems like summertime’s the time the punks hit the beach as “they’ve got their surfboards and they’re going to the disco-tech-a-go-go.” And here’s another great lineup with each band having a distinct style from each other.
I like to get their early so I can report on all the bands. But it seems there’s a kid karaoke party going on inside. So I hang in the parking lot getting bitten by fleas. I was tempted to go in and sing “You’re Pretty Face Is Going To Hell,” by Iggy & The Stooges but I refrained myself from doing so. When I did finally head inside the man at the door taking the money mistook me for a parent.
“Oh, you don’t have to pay if you’ve already been in.”
“Yes, sir. Just collecting the kids,” I said and sauntered in.
Loser’s Circle is the first band. This trio was three fifth’s of the great hardcore band Refuse Resist. This band instead plays post hardcore math rock.
I’m sorry- they don’t. You see, I saw some band recently describe their style that way and I’m still chuckling about it. First of all, if you’re “post” anything it means you don’t play it. When someone, one day says, “Oh, Slimedog? He’s post-life”; that means I died last week. And math rock is just the new term for prog rock and what that has, or should have, to do with hardcore is absurd. And I hate absurdity in any form or manner.
But I love Losers Circle who play pop/punk with grit and passion and occasionally let the gates open to sprint into pure hardcore, like on a favorite of theirs called “Passive Aggressive”. They finish a great set with another favorite “I Won’t Back Down.”
I haven’t seen these cats for awhile but Loser’s Circle certainly get the festivities happening nicely.
Honest John is next and they do a heavy style of hardcore that has nothing to do with the well known heavy New York style. But their hardcore is serious in sound and intent, has some dissonance and rhythmically goes from very fast to slow and doom-y. And they have a secret weapon now, Jay Genoa on second guitar. This band’s style is hardcore/ noise/ doom and they deliver something worthwhile each time I see them.
Now BarRoom Heroes is next, a trio with only one of them old enough to vote. But they’re old enough to bring the punk for if I closed my eyes I’d think it was some early English punk band playing (and right now they’re on the Warped Tour).
Their style is equally influenced by the Dropkicks/ Street Dogs Irish punk along with the Clash/Ramones early punk. But they’ve come along way since when we first saw them when half their set was covers. The high light for me tonight is when they do a medley of “Ginger Ale” and “Nate”, my two favorite songs by them.
It a shame to hear Jake, the guitarist/singer, report to me after the set that once they become of legal age- him and his brother Nick, bassist/singer, have plans to form a hippie jam band. That is once they escape the smothering, controlling clutches of their stage mom, Carrie Bell.
As for Davey the drummer, I asked what he might do when this happens?
“I don’t know, I’ll probably join a post-hardcore math rock band, I guess,” he replied to me.
No Tox is next featuring former members of Toxic Narcotic and if you haven’t seen them yet they play awesome, crushing hardcore/crust music to the max and take no prisoners. I’ve seen them enough now to know they annihilate everything in their quake which is, of course, what they do tonight.
Will, the guitarist, said to me that they thanked me on the liner notes of their great cd because I’m the only one who’s written about them. I think that will soon change as I predict these cats are heading for the big leagues.
Now, I’ve seen Uzuhi before, but if I hadn’t, it’s what I would expect if a fairly, ordinary hardcore band came on, but right before they did someone slipped a tab of LSD into my drink. And I imagine Uzuhi is what I’d be hallucinating.
They are an all Asian band from New York that sounds like if Queen and The Sex Pistols collaborated on an album (while taking LSD). Truth be told, this is more prog rock than punk but truth be told, this is one of the most fun bands you can imagine or ever see.
They have an amazing front man, who is one part stand-up comic, one part philosopher… lilting Oriental melodies float in from the female keyboardist while brutal hardcore rhythms bash their way in from the other side.
Uzuhi is the best, beyond all logic and reason and must be experienced live to be understood.
I was talking earlier with Jamie, the bassist of Loser’s Circle before their set. He was thanking me for what we do to help the scene.
And Jamie said, “The music and the bands are great but what really makes it for me is the community, this great group of people that comprise our scene.”
Then he went up on stage and played.
(Slimedog)
