Usually for me, the opening bands at shows are a time for me to get annoyed-quickly. Yet somehow back in February when I saw The Darkness, there was just something about Foxy Shazam. Something about them that made me want to learn more. How long have I been missing out on this? Then, the band headlined there own tour and hit the places like Seattle, and Utah where I was able to read more about the Church of Mother F%#king Rock & Roll. Then, out of no where comes the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, who announce a Foxy show at the cost of, brace yourselves, $17. That my friends is a baptism fee I'm willing to pay. So let's kick back, and enjoy this little journey out to the Lower East Side, 6 Delancey St, for Foxy Shazam, Doors at 7, show is at 8. And hey, it just wouldn't feel special if it wasn't The 69th Edition of The Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series. Let's hope for a spot up on the balcony so I can tape.
Got to the venue at 6, and I'm no where near the first one here. Seems the high school crowd cut out of their afternoon classes and head to this 16+ event. Usually young girls like garbage, so I'm glad they're here to be baptized tonight. I grabbed my spot upstairs at a table and saw my two compadres from the line downstairs(who were kind enough to offer me some Mary Jane). So I shouted to them "hey, I got two seats up here", to which they came up. They bought me a jack and Coke for it. Sweet.
New York Rivals(who I thought were "Rival Schools" ) came on at promptly 8PM. I don't know how to put this, but I'll try. They seemed to be way heavier than they needed to. They were loud in a Weezer-esque sense, with the lead singers pants clinging to his legs like Yosemite Sam's jeans. Towards the beginning of the set they said they'd be playing Bamboozle. I shouted "who wants to see Bon Jovi?". This guy belted out wuss tunes over instrumentation that was almost good if it was alone. The one time this dude mentioned the name of the song they were gonna play he was strummed over by his bassist. They went off at 8:36.
Finally after waiting what felt like forever, the lights go down and ladies and gents, we have FOXY SHAZAM!
The band hit's the stage at about 9:20 maybe a little before to a resounding ovation as Eric Sean Nally grabs the mic and screams “ I FEEL LIKE A CHOCOLATE BAR!” as they opened up with “ Welcome to The Church of Rock and Roll” (while he pointed out some dude's Cincinnati Reds hat) and “Holy Touch”. Two things I notice at the same time: One, the whole set is getting taped. I got my arm resting on the railing and all that, and I've got a bird's eye view of the only event staffer in sight. Second thing was how hard is it to keep a camera on Eric. To the regular fan, everyone knows his on stage antics do not include standing still. My wrists got a work out with my lens dancing with him all night. He's like Iggy Pop minus the blood and Peanut Butter.
I was once told there was no such thing as a 'Happy Panda'. Well, take a look at the keyboardist Schuyler Vaughn White for a few minutes and tell me that's not one happy panda right there. The beard that's a grizzly Adams-ZZ Top hybrid brushing the heads of fans in the crowd repeatedly while smiling for pictures (even looked up at us once),
before and after he floated his
keyboard out on the audience from time to time. When I first saw them I thought it was one of those stupid hydrolic set ups but then I realized this dude is just bad ass and he lifts it every which way / direction that is imaginable. He stands on it, stomps, lays sideways on it. Then for the unimaginable, him and the keyboard set sail into the crowd. Crowd surfing playing keys. Are you kidding me right now?
Songs like “Oh Lord” and “Unstoppable”, and of course the epicness of were crowd pleasers mid-set. Eric at one point said “Nowadays music really sucks. It feels good to say that. You should say it as much as you can” I shouted “I try! I try!”. If we're gonna get into crowd pleasers than we have to address my personal highlight, and that's when they played "I Like It". I flipped out simply because, come on, when else does a white dude like me get to verbally express his enjoyment of big black asses? I got to shout “That's the biggest Black Ass I've ever seen and I like it! I like it!” out loud and not get punched.
During the duration of the set, I had a cigarette placed on the table in front of me ready to throw on queue. One of the dudes I was up there with kept telling me "throw it!". I kept putting it off, I didn't want to interrupt any of the funny speeches. Then finally, before the last song, he ends his soliloquy with "and the man asked: does anyone have a cigarette ?". Hell yeah I do! I tossed it down on stage left handed and it landed behind him. He already had a full pack of Newport in his hand, but he's looking around on stage and grabbing all he sees, including mine! We were screaming, probably hear us in the video(don't leave me comments about it). Then he lit what had to be 5 or 6 at once in his mouth and puffed before turning them around and sticking them down his throat. Eric ate my cigarette! Unreal.
By nights end, Eric was asking if we liked his jacket (which I made a mental note of how cool it was when they first came out), then informed us: “I know Rock & Roll is dead.. But that doesn't mean we can't dance with it's fucking ghost!” and that's when it was time for “The Only Way To My Heart”-basically the song that got me hooked on Foxy the first time, is now serving as a merely the cherry atop of some of the best cake I've ever had.
So for those keeping score, end of the show was “The Only Way To My Heart”, then “Temple”, then the “drunken guy” soliloquy in the middle of Temple, followed by eating cigarettes while dragging out the end of Temple. With the keyboardist on the floor of the stage collapsed with his rig laying on top of him, the band made their way off stage as Eirc grabbed the mic to leave us with one final message: “If I was able to get into people's minds and make them decide things it would be easy to be the biggest band in the world” as he slams the mic down and the house music hits.
My name is Jay Porks, and I went to attend sermon at the Church of Rock & Roll and have been baptized.
Late.
Tonight is going to be a treat to say the least. “Tonight 'Three Rooms Press' presents: May Day 2: Mike Watt + Friends w/ Mike Watt + J Mascis + Murph , Appomattox , Dead Trend and the NYC Launch of Mike Watt: On and Off Bass + very special guests”. How could I not go to this?? Especially since I got the Flu (which I'm still laboring from) at the Melvins/Unsane gig and with no medical insurance took the safe route and made the sacrilegious decision to leave the show midway through-Didn't even see the Melvins. So All Apologies on my end, that's something that will not happen again. That's what made me get these tickets, because I felt I needed to make up for missing the Melvins. What better way then Watt From Pedro? And Le Poisson Rouge no less? At 158 Bleecker Street this is where I saw The Meat Puppets back in November tear the roof off this place. Small venue, and I arrived first on line as usual, about 6 with Doors at 7, Show at 8. Spotted J Mascis outside around 6:30. This night could get interesting..So let's kick off the 68th Episode of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series, I promise you this is a good one!
Once I nabbed my spot up front I was ready to rock and roll. Last time I was here there was a “Dance Party” scheduled for after the show. I'm not sure what the case is tonight, but they moved quick in setting up and being ready to roll by 8PM. Three Rooms Press put this gig together so there is this woman introducing the bands and hyping up the aforementioned publisher. She thanks us for coming repeated, etc. Anyway, she introduces a band called Dead Tread and 8PM. I would their sound as “kinda punky” if you times what's in quotations by 11. I saw a 12 song set list and I was pissed. I thought we were in for some 40 minute set. Get this, these dudes may not have even had a song that clocked in at over a minute. The took their shirts off, this dude screamed at us. Songs called “Lunch lady” if my vision serves me right. They played from 8 to 8:17. Twelve songs in 17 minutes then the guitar player who has already broken two strings takes his guitar and slams it on stage. Freaking awesome! Someone screamed “You guys suck!” after the set, and the drummer said “Tell us something we don't know”.
At 830, Brooklyn's own, Appomattox hit the stage. Introduced as "Mike Watt's favorite band from Brooklyn".. They were a lot more towards the side of traditional rock and roll and weren't punky at all as Dead Trend was. Their songs had hooks and stuff, and the lead singer was switching off between keyboards and guitar. They played about 25 minutes and the last song they played, "Radiator", is available to listen to on the web( so they say) they went off at 8:55..
There was an interview with Mike Watt before he went on "with friends"..I filmed it, so I figure why write about it when I can show you. There's some hilarious stuff in this. It's worth the check out.
Right after the interview, Watt headed towards his bass to start setting up. JM and Murph come on stage and set up quickly. It seems J has found a new bag in which to keep his effects pedals because he usually packs a hefty looking case where this was able to fold up easily when they went off later. Maybe it's the “Non-Dinosaur Jr” pedal board, he probably has tons. There's a few things I've been wondering since I bought this ticket yesterday: Whose catalog are they going to be dipping into? Would it be more Minutemen stuff, or will they mess around and do some Dino stuff too? Who is singing? Few minutes before 9:30, and those questions were about to be answered.
When the lights dimmed and the show got started, the dude who's gonna kick off the night on vocals was unknown to me, but thanks to comments left by awesome people reading, I now know that was Don Fleming (of Gumball). The riff was familiar, but I couldn't hear any lyrics because, I've AGAIN made the mistake of place myself an arms distance from JM and his amps, giving my eardrums a beating. This is the kind of pain I enjoy, as I realize it was “Real Cool Time”, a Stooges song! I was floored when they played “TV Eye” next (John Petrovic from Cobra Verse sang that), because now I get it. We are gonna jam out to Stooges songs all night with Watty's mean bass plucks and JM basically turning his 6 string into a blow torch that blew the minds of us close enough to be completely taken in by it. I love the original versions, but hearing JM's take on it was like something you can only imagine. You don't get these types of shows at the big venues.
Just when I thought things couldn't get better, here comes out on to the stage none other than Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth)! Thurston! Seriously!?! Is this “fill the venue with my favorite musicians” night or what? They played “Loose”, another Stooges cover as it was confirmed that this is Stooges tunes all night, and I'm freaking creaming my pants over here third song in.
Steve Shelley, also from Sonic Youth came on stage to drum on “Dirt” next. The vocalist was an unknown to any of us, only reference Mike Watt made to her was “J's friend”. Come to find out that was Sharon Von Etten In a night of uncertainty at first, rocking out throughout the evening over everything, was the man who was on Bass, and that's Watt From Pedro (his twitter is @wattfrompedro ). The bass lines were prevalent everywhere. Every time JM took his foot off a pedal you hear that funky bass riff bouncing all over the place.
When it was time to play “Down on the Street”, Thurston Moore made another appearance. After that, I see this kid come up on stage with lyrics in his hand. It's Kurt Vile. I've heard of him, but never heard his stuff. He held his own on “No Fun”, even though is that really the song you need the lyrics for? That's barely a critique, just an observation. Did I mention I was rolling film throughout the duration of the evening? Yea, I got the whole set minus about a minute from the encore because my 16 gig Memory Card was apparently full. The encore was Thurston returning to the stage to do an epic version of “Funhouse” , and I saw myself with the rest of the crowd moving towards the exits at 10:26PM.
Set List(Mike Watt was kind enough to Tweet this over):
Real Cool Time with Don Fleming
TV Eye with John Petkovic, John Maloney on Drums
Loose with Thurston Moore, John Maloney on Drums
Dirt with Sharon Van Etten and Steve Shelley
Not Right (watt on vocals) John Maloney on Drums
Down on The Street with Thurston Moore, Murph on Drums
No Fun with Kurt Vile, Murph on Drums
1970 with Noel (former soundman from the Continental on vocals) Steve Shelley
Little Doll (Watt on vocals), Steve Shelley
Fun House with Thurston Moore and John Petkovic on Clarinet
LA Blues - with Byron Coley and John Petkovic w/ Murph & John Maloney on Drums
Jeez, that was so awesome. Like, I wish I could put it to you in a intellectual sort of way but I can't. Mike Watt, J Mascis, Murph, Thurston Moore, Steve Shelly, Kurt Vile came into Le Poisson Rouge and jammed on Stooges songs on a Wednesday night in New York City. What more could you ask for?
Late.
New York Rivals(who I thought were "Rival Schools" ) came on at promptly 8PM. I don't know how to put this, but I'll try. They seemed to be way heavier than they needed to. They were loud in a Weezer-esque sense, with the lead singers pants clinging to his legs like Yosemite Sam's jeans. Towards the beginning of the set they said they'd be playing Bamboozle. I shouted "who wants to see Bon Jovi?". This guy belted out wuss tunes over instrumentation that was almost good if it was alone. The one time this dude mentioned the name of the song they were gonna play he was strummed over by his bassist. They went off at 8:36.
Finally after waiting what felt like forever, the lights go down and ladies and gents, we have FOXY SHAZAM!
The band hit's the stage at about 9:20 maybe a little before to a resounding ovation as Eric Sean Nally grabs the mic and screams “ I FEEL LIKE A CHOCOLATE BAR!” as they opened up with “ Welcome to The Church of Rock and Roll” (while he pointed out some dude's Cincinnati Reds hat) and “Holy Touch”. Two things I notice at the same time: One, the whole set is getting taped. I got my arm resting on the railing and all that, and I've got a bird's eye view of the only event staffer in sight. Second thing was how hard is it to keep a camera on Eric. To the regular fan, everyone knows his on stage antics do not include standing still. My wrists got a work out with my lens dancing with him all night. He's like Iggy Pop minus the blood and Peanut Butter.
I was once told there was no such thing as a 'Happy Panda'. Well, take a look at the keyboardist Schuyler Vaughn White for a few minutes and tell me that's not one happy panda right there. The beard that's a grizzly Adams-ZZ Top hybrid brushing the heads of fans in the crowd repeatedly while smiling for pictures (even looked up at us once),
before and after he floated his
keyboard out on the audience from time to time. When I first saw them I thought it was one of those stupid hydrolic set ups but then I realized this dude is just bad ass and he lifts it every which way / direction that is imaginable. He stands on it, stomps, lays sideways on it. Then for the unimaginable, him and the keyboard set sail into the crowd. Crowd surfing playing keys. Are you kidding me right now?
During the duration of the set, I had a cigarette placed on the table in front of me ready to throw on queue. One of the dudes I was up there with kept telling me "throw it!". I kept putting it off, I didn't want to interrupt any of the funny speeches. Then finally, before the last song, he ends his soliloquy with "and the man asked: does anyone have a cigarette ?". Hell yeah I do! I tossed it down on stage left handed and it landed behind him. He already had a full pack of Newport in his hand, but he's looking around on stage and grabbing all he sees, including mine! We were screaming, probably hear us in the video(don't leave me comments about it). Then he lit what had to be 5 or 6 at once in his mouth and puffed before turning them around and sticking them down his throat. Eric ate my cigarette! Unreal.
By nights end, Eric was asking if we liked his jacket (which I made a mental note of how cool it was when they first came out), then informed us: “I know Rock & Roll is dead.. But that doesn't mean we can't dance with it's fucking ghost!” and that's when it was time for “The Only Way To My Heart”-basically the song that got me hooked on Foxy the first time, is now serving as a merely the cherry atop of some of the best cake I've ever had.
So for those keeping score, end of the show was “The Only Way To My Heart”, then “Temple”, then the “drunken guy” soliloquy in the middle of Temple, followed by eating cigarettes while dragging out the end of Temple. With the keyboardist on the floor of the stage collapsed with his rig laying on top of him, the band made their way off stage as Eirc grabbed the mic to leave us with one final message: “If I was able to get into people's minds and make them decide things it would be easy to be the biggest band in the world” as he slams the mic down and the house music hits.
My name is Jay Porks, and I went to attend sermon at the Church of Rock & Roll and have been baptized.
Late.
