Toadies LIVE at Gramercy Theater 9/15/10

The Toadies-Who knew they were that cool? What goes on, and welcome yourselves to the 33rd edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending concert Series as we begin our "Three Nights of Weirdness" tour at the Gramercy Theater to see the Toadies. Billed as the "Three Nights of Weirdness" because it covers three completely different ends of the music spectrum in three consecutive nights with Cake tomorrow night at Central Park and Ween Friday also in Central Park. This is going to be a blast, lets dance shall we?

I got out front and waited for Pam (Fellow Jay Porks Experiencer) to arrive.. Not much of a line out front as doors open at 7. I did my best to try and get wasted before I got in there- did not want to subject myself to $10 Bud Light. When I got in I went to the will call/information booth thing to check on my allegded photo pass- the girl working that area said that " There was only one person on the list", and that person was obviously not me. She then told me that I shouldn't have a problem considering I don't have one of those thousand dollar cameras with a removable lense. So we made our way to the main floor- the main flood which I came to realize is slightly slanted so it's as of you're walking downhill towards the stage. I can get on board with this... We leaned up against the right side railing ( to paint the picture, for the Local H show May 18th-reviewed right here on this website- I was on the far left, the opposite of tonight)


The first opener was a band called  ‘The Clox’ (I originally had listed “Clocks” as there name and said they were from London.. Through email from the band, I got the correct spelling of the name and their actual hometown, Brooklyn. Apologies to “The Clox” for that little typo…). They hit the stage shortly after 8pm, working with the 3 piece standard bass, guitar, drums. The drummer looked like the dude from the presidents of the united states of America, bald with a white shirt and tie. They did what they could-to all 20 of us. Won the crowd over by the end of the set, I didn't know the name of the band until I caught the drummer outside. He was making hand signals to me, didn't know what he was doing til everyone else starting pointing at my cigarette-I had it hanging out of my mouth backwards. So I flipped it over, and found out the name of the band, I thought he said the Clucks until I looked it up-must be the accent(The drummer is originally from Kazakhstan) .

Didn't know there was a second opener, but the dude to my left had said they were selling merchandise for three bands downstairs, this band being “Gringo Star”, went on around 8:40.. They had one more guy than the previous band, opting to go with Two guitars, a drummer with a bassist and the second guitarist doubles on keyboard.. They got heavy at times, played a song called “Transmission” towards the end. I got one of their first songs on video, and didn't plan on uploading it but it's such a jangly tune. I usually denounce bands with a keyboard but they worked it in. They have a MySpace page and are/have been opening for the Toadies this whole tour.... They went off about 9:15 maybe a little after having entertained most of the room, which is now substantially larger than it was last time I turned around.

Who would've thought? The freaking Toadies.. Going into this set with the knowledge only stretching as far Possom Kingdom, you could understand my skepticism.. But I was way more than impressed a few songs in.. Where have they been? I mean, they were in Texas I know where they were-but where have they been this decade? Their sound folds in so nicely with the rest of my musical taste..

Kicked off the set with 'Backslider' a few minutes before 10, which I was getting some killer video of until event staff jerk-off tapped me on the shoulder and told me to please stop taking video. All of us concert-goers know this feeling you get when that happens. Don't you just want to punch that dude in the face? I know the rules of venues and all that and I know I'm breaking them, but I'm just about fed up with this shit- how am I suppose to upload video to YouTube and share my experience if event staff douche bag who has no idea what a freaking guitar is keeps tapping me on the shoulder- not to be a whistle blower, but there are clouds of pot smoke about three heads over from me- why don't you go do something about that, it's a fucking fire hazard. Doubt the band cares that much about me taping Backslider- not like it hasn't been released!

Okay so off my soap box, but that really had me fuming. So seemingly relegated to still frame photos the rest of the night; which isn't so bad considering the Toadies are up there kicking ass. All their songs so well weaved into one another.. And everyone was into it- like I said before, who knew? Who knew the Toadies kick ass like that? I sure as hell didn't and I'm suppose to be Mr Music Critic over here..

Possom Kingdom, did they really think I wasn't going to risk my night by getting that song on tape? I got that, an awesome version as a matter of fact. Except for the fact that there was one douche in front of me putting his head in my video by jumping up and down like a pansy. Oh, did I forget to mention that this person is the recipient of the “one photo pass” that was issued for tonight's show. I saw him in front of the barricade five minutes ago-dude what are you doing in front of me right now in the crowd? Being a douche. Still, great times. They got into “Dollskin” after that, an amazing song that I'm glad I came upon during tonight's set, as Pam tells me they didn't play it when she saw them at Irving Plaza recently.. I noticed at 10:46 a lit cigarette gets chucked at Clark Vogeler (guitar), and he just keeps whaling out sonnets of feedback without skipping a beat or going Axel Rose on somebody.. He was a beast tonight, we were right in front of him and he was killing it.. the funny thing about this band is that their personality doesn't reflect their music at all.. Like, in between songs when the band would hear requests being screamed out and cracking jokes-it was a fun atmosphere-when the music played it was gear twisting, heavy, distorted hardcore awesome guitar rock. Then after the song everyone's in smiles.

A short while after that they tried to go off at 10:57.. They came back like two minutes later and, in a striking turn of events, Todd Lewis says “Okay we're gonna play a cover song now for you... by a band called the Beatles”.. What! This I have to see. And we did, it was “Don't let me down”, and it did not let any of us down one bit. This band is so cool! And luckily, that is the 3^rd and last full song I got on tape. After that they went into “Got a heart” Awesome song. They ended the show with “I come from the water”, which was a good way to end based on everyone's enthusiasm. It was rocking in there most of the night-from what I understand not as much as the aforementioned previous Irving show, but Gramercy only hold 600 give or take so take that into consideration. They said their goodnight at about 11:15.. Awesome show-Definitely didn't let me down one bit..

Amazing show, glad I got to see them.. This was part one of the Jay Porks “Three Nights of Weirdness” tour. Quick turn around, as the 2^nd night of this brings us to Central Park tomorrow to see a band called 'Cake'.. There's a Jay Porks backstory to making attempts at seeing this band that we'll get into tomorrow, for now.. Thanks for putting up with my non sense for a little while-Late.