Big D and the Kids Table

Tonight, for the first time ever my band is playing with Big D and the Kids Table!? And surprisingly I have extremely mixed emotions. If I asked myself when I started this band what I would do if i were to play with Big D, I probably would've flipped a shit because back in the day they were a huge part of my life. Back in high school I used to listen to the Gypsy Hill EP front to back daily singing all of the words in my car on the way to and from school. Those guys were my local heroes, I really associated with what they were singing about because they totally felt for my teenage angst. There was even a point where I posted the lyrics to "Those Kids Suck" on the bathroom walls in hopes that the "white hat" kids who made my time at NHS a living hell would see them and feel like douche bags. After a two period effort of re-posting them after they would get torn down, I realized that THE MAN was gonna keep me down so long as i was in that school building. I saw them for the first time with my new friend Rory Nolan at BU Central my junior year in high school soon after we formed Interrobang!?. I felt so cool, we were on the guest list because Rory's sister Chloe was dating the Keyboard player for the opening band The Flamingos. Little did I know that these people would in time become close friends of mine. I think this was the first ska/punk show that I ever went to and I had a great time. BU Central was very cool place to see Big D for the first time seeing that there were probably somewhere around 30-40 other people there. I remember the moment I saw them walking in and I started to shake a little bit, I was just so excited I couldn't stand it. They came on and I had a spot right in front of trombonist Paul E. Cutler. Their set was awesome, raw, inspiring and totally on! I think that to this day that was the best performance I have ever seen from them. After the show I got myself a Big D T-shirt and a broken drumstick and Rory and I chatted with Dave for a good while. He seemed like a real honest and sincere guy, we even had an inside joke with him for the next time that we saw him. Where do the dogs go? To the pound [insert fist bump]. This was back when he had just started using the melodica and I had just ordered one online, so we talked about that and I was super pumped! This was such a  great night, I was in ecstasy the whole way home. It was strange seeing them the next time because they were headlining the Avalon, it really made me appreciate where I saw them for the first time and I still do to this day. This was also the downfall in my eye of Mr. David McWane. When we talked to him here, he seemed like he had better things to do and this was pretty uncool. Although he did give a shout out to his "melodica friends" when he pulled it out to play a track from their new Salem Girls EP. This show was very surreal for me because I was witnessing this band for everything that they were at the time, about to achieve great success and start traveling the country as a successful national touring band.

TO BE CONTINUED 

3.1 Maps & Atlases

After playing a Dance Party show for a bunch of sorority girls I grabbed Tom Chalupa and we headed off to the Middle East for a show that I was looking forward to going with him to for a while now. It had been a while since i'd gone to a show at the Middle East that I wasn't playing and this was quite the show to see. The only band I had heard before the show was Maps & Atlases but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed all of the bands!

So Many Dynamos opened the show with a blaze of technical guitars mixed with a good blend of synthesizer and just the right amount of dance beats. Something you've heard before right? Wrong! The one thing that I can say about both opening bands was that they were both very hard to describe, which is something that I find myself usually enjoying because that means that it is origional! The guitars bordered on noisy rock with some definite Johnny Greenwood flair to them. The synths were tight and lots of awesome vocals. They most certainly had me dancing from the moment I stepped into the club.

Pattern Is Movement was next, two bearded men playing drums and rhodes piano. Vocals bordered on operatic and they had a good sense of humor but there was nothing funny about this performance. It was marvelous how the intensity of the drums blended with the vocals and keyboards so perfectly. I found myself in a trance during some point during this set and it was a beautiful feeling. One thing that they really worked well into their set was dynamics and that was something that really set them out from the other bands. Nick bought the vinyl and we listened to it right after the show as i shaved my beard into a mustache, anyways awesome band!

Maps & Atlases were next, playing all the songs that I wanted to hear and then some new ones which were very awesome and I very much look forward to hearing the studio versions. I was glad to hear a couple new ones seeing that they only played one last time I saw them. It was especially awesome rocking out with Tom at this show because he is one of the only people that knows this music in and out like I do. I found myself in an amazing groove during this show  and it was awesome to just dance and sing along at one of their shows because i've seen them a couple times now and I can actually pick my jaw up off of the floor for once. Afterwards after I build the courage, I went to the guitarists and talked to them for a few minutes and they were very very cool people. I gave them one of my CDs telling them that we are nothing like you guys but we are playing with Laura Stevenson and love the RX Bandits and they thought that that was awesome. They were incredibly humble guys and were very appreciative that I was such a big support of their band. Afterwards I ran around outside in the snow for a while giggling to myself because I was so happy that they were cool guys and they appreciated me giving them a CD. What a great start to March!

2.27.09 O Pioneers!!! and !?

This was a very strange weekend to say the least...

The friday before this show we played at One Fifteen Franklin Street with Brave Little Abacus, O Pioneers, Fort! the Band and Wood Spider. It was really strange to play this place for people that weren't necessarily the ska punk crowd that is usually there. Brave Little Abacus had an awesome set and they played for a lot of new people which I was very happy about but unfortunately Adam's speakers blew and the last few minutes of El Capitano were cut. Wood Spider were a pretty decent band and a lot of their friends were getting into it, reminded me a little too much of Tom Waits meets Golgol Bordello. Next was Fort! The Band, I have decided that I am going to write an essay to this band which I will post here because I was really confused and offended by their set, I won't go any further from there. An hour and a half later, after a bunch of our friends had to late due to the length of Fort! The Bands set, we played. Interesting thing was that we played with no P.A. system but a lot of people were still really into it! It was cool to have people singing along to our songs even when they couldn't hear the words, it really put the whole sense of community at our shows into perspective. My new friend Lindsay Sanderson got lots of amusing pictures from this show. Even though it was unfortunate that there were technical difficulties it seemed that nearly everyone in these pictures had a wide smile on their face which made me very happy. O Pioneers!!! went on at somewhere near one in the morning and they were nothing less than I expected, in fact they exceeded my expectations. I bought their newest release "Neon Creeps" on vinyl and have listened to it a bunch of times, I really dig it. I had a good chat with their guitarist Eric who was a very awesome person and we got to chat about the new punk scene that is coming up. I really really want to be a part of this movement, I feel like everyone is so positive and just wants to see new places and make new friends which is everything i've ever wanted. It rides above this whole myspace out to make a buck and there is is so much more dedication and loyalty in the people that go out to the shows. He also encouraged me to ask Jeff Rosenstock to put our our next release, I have no idea what he is going to say but I am going to ask him when we play their CD release show on Saturday.