tBS: Brownies

[Stephen Swann]

Albert T Bouchard writes:
>
> We had a super night of rock and roll at Brownies last night. The music was
> great. The audience was great. And the vibe was great. Musical highlights
> of the night for me were: Jack Rigg's vocals on "Midnight Nick," David
> Roter bizarre rendition of JCHRFtG, hearing Helen Wheels sing "Break the
> Chains" again after all these years, the X Brothers rocking version of
> HRtH, the very funny moments in my drum solo in IPTD and all the monster
> jam songs at the end; CoFwRaR, Astronomy, TV and BtBW. It was also great to
> see many old friends and supporters, Steve Swann, Richie Stotts, Andy
> Schernoff, Michael Alago, Ed, Tim, Mark and Mark, Mike, Gary, a whole bunch
> of Hilfigers I hadn't met before... and, well, actually too many people to
> mention. I've probably went on too much already. Suffice to say I had a
> terrific time and I'm pretty sure a whole bunch of others did too.

So, maybe I was just born luckier than most.  I actually got to catch
a lot of the Cellsum Records extravaganza.  Got to talk to Al and Deb
briefly before the show, and picked up some CDs (which I mostly
haven't had a chance to listen to - reviews will follow, as time
allows).

Anyway, this *was* a great night of rock-n-roll.  Sadly for me, the
friend that I took to the concert has weak lungs, and she got very ill
from the tobacco (and other) smoke that filled the room by midnight.
Thusly, I got to miss what I'm sure was the high point of the evening,
namely the second half of the X-Brothers set, and all of tBS.  I was
disappointed, but the bands that I did get to see were great, so the
evening wasn't a total loss.

First up was Jack Rigg, who played a strangely subdued, almost folky
set.  Just him and a quietly amped guitar, singing jangly tunes about
life in the city.  I was suprised, since I kind of expected Jack Rigg
to really cut loose with the guitar.  It was decent stuff, not really
my cup o' tea, but a nice, mellow, almost hypnotic start to the
evening.

The David Roter Method (which, whatever it is, I suspect involves lots
of lubrication) was up next.  David Roter is an absurdly tasteless
individual: he's almost hysterically funny (with a seemingly endless
parade of off-color stories and self-deprecating jokes) and his music
is a bizarre and eclectic mishmash of styles and attitudes.

I believe that his "band" was actually an ad hoc group, put together
for the show.  They were a little loose on the delivery, and it seemed
like the first time they'd performed a lot of this material together.
It didn't matter - the man himself was enough entertainment for 6
shows, and the performance had such a humorous flair to it that nobody
minded the technical deficiencies.  He opened with an outrageously
funny rock/funk song called "Run, Motherfucker, Run", that almost had
me falling off my barstool.  He followed it up with his own (deeply
twisted) rendition of "Unknown Tongue" and "Joan Crawford".  I think
he played one or two other songs as well, but I didn't take notes.  It
was a great performance for sheer entertainment value.  I would
recommend seeing this man any chance you get.

Helen Wheels was up next.  Her band is your basic rock-n-roll setup:
bass, drums and guitar, with Helen on vocals.  What sets Helen's band
apart from the average rock band is the songwriting - she writes the
most absolutely bitchin' heavy, propulsively rythmic rock tunes
(rather like a certain subset of Al's songwriting - think "Name Your
Monster" or "St. Vitus Dance").  I wasn't as keen on her rather
cliched lyrics, or her somewhat disinterested delivery (she seems to
have a bit more of the "rock star" attitude then I normally associate
with Cellsum's band roster) but the band was tight and well-rehearsed,
and the music really grabbed me by the throat.  I would highly
recommend checking out her CD (I definitely plan to - in fact I
*would* have picked it up, if I'd bought my CDs from Deb after the
show instead of beforehand).

The last band that I got to see, and the one that I was most
anticipating (sorry tBS, but I've seen you perform live before) ;-)
was Joe Bouchard's X-Brothers.  The band lineup was Joe on guitar,
Billy Hilfiger on guitar, another (younger) Hilfiger scion on bass,
and a drummer that I couldn't immediately identify, although given
that every 3rd person in the room appeared to be a Hilfiger, I almost
started to suspect him of being one, too.  ;-)

Since I know you're all wondering, yes, the X-Brothers do indeed kick
some serious ass.  You all know the kind of songs Joe Bouchard wrote
for BOC, and that's what he's delivered with the X-Brothers.  Strong,
clear melodies, hard driving rythms, and heavy all over.  Maybe it's
not fair to draw comparisons, but the X-Brothers are less eclectic and
more straightforward in their presentation than the Brain Surgeons.
You probably won't (although I admit that I haven't yet given their CD
the close listen that it deserves) find the sort of inspired
quirkiness or dark, dense material that you're used to hearing from
the Surgeons, but you will find hard-edged, unadulterated rock-n-roll
that'll knock your socks off.  I recommend checking out their CD,
and I definitely recommend catching them live if you get the chance.

Any questions?  ;-)

Steve