Orion Music + More Day 1 Recap (6/23/12)

Orion Music + More Festival (Day  1)- 06/23/12

Bader Field - Atlantic City, NJ

Words/Photos  by Jay Porks

Orion Music + More Festival Day One Recap 6/23/12 

Editor's Note: Jay Porks is so bad ass, he wrote this review during the festival. We hope you enjoy.  And welcome to the Jay Porks Day One Re-Cap of Orion Music + More Festival here in Atlantic City, NJ. For those who weren't aware, this is the festival curated by Metallica, containing a bunch of acts you raise eyebrows to when you take a look at the list. Not only that, but Metallica is closing both nights, playing Ride The Lightning tonight, and The Black Album tomorrow night. Both days look awesome, but my plate for today is full of acts that I've been dying to see for a while, like Arctic Monkeys and Modest Mouse. Also got some Cage The Elephant action in there, along with the obscure (in an awesome way) Fucked Up. Oh and two legendary performances, one being the aforementioned Metallica and the other being Roky Erickson. Roky is my highlight going into today until Metallica destroys me later on tonight. Any friend of the Meat Puppets is a friend of mine. Saturday is set to kick off for me with Baroness at 1PM. The 71st episode of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series won't feature more than one or two videos from each act, as battery is a factor along with memory (I'm packing 32gigs), and we want to get all the Metallica we can get, because after all, they're freaking Metallica. Anyway without further ado, let's call this cab and get my ass down to Bader Field and get this party started! I got out of a cab at like 12:20 and walked a few blocks to the entrance side by side with a sea of folks all done up in their Metallica gear ( with a few scattered Iron Maiden and Avenged Sevenfold tees- as I sported my Meat Puppets). It's hot, like really hot. This is my first "festival", I don't normally know the goings on of a four-stage event. This place is HUGE! Like, I can see for miles- and there's all types of side things going on. Rows and rows of concessions ( water was $3- that's a deal these days) . There's a Metallica museum, which I'll check out tomorrow because the Orion stage looks so far away from here for Baroness I don't want to mess around. There's 100's of old school custom cars in a car show tent type thing. Lots of people, lots of hot metal chicks wearing the appropriate attire for a 90+ degree day in the sun (life is so good). I was worried I couldn't get my camera in, then I saw the sign that said " no professional recording devices". Well, if there's one thing I'm not, it's professional. The band the Orion stage had blasting was what every heavy metal fan would dream of- The Cure.

Baroness

I didn't know Tyson Chandler joined a band! That lead singer does look like him tho- but all kidding aside if you're kicking off a festival headlined by Metallica, I don't see a more perfect band to do so then that in Baroness. My questions of "will you be able to hear other bands on other stages at the same time" was answered when these kicked off their set. I got almost all of that first song, only failed because they fooled me towards the end. The Orion stage has video screens on each side- giving it this "Hey, we're a real festival” kind of feel. Me, the guy who's not heavy on metal, found myself with a slight head nod and maybe a little strumming of my thigh as they past 1:30pm with "Take my Bones Away". Wow, they played the ONE song I actually knew the name of ! Good times, energetic set. They ended at 1:56pm http://youtu.be/AkLxcfQmXh4

Roky Erickson

I showed up to the "Frantic" stage early, mostly due to the fact that it's the only stage that's tented. Some relief from the sun for a few minutes as they set Roky up. And that's when I decided to take advantage of the free water re-fills they have on site here at the festival (warm water, but free water). With full band (keyboardist, back up singer , drummer , 2 other guitar players and a bassist) on hand, Roky and the crew came out at 245. How old is his guy? Hot chick on keys. The lead guitarist is like "damn, it's hotter here than it is in Texas". I'm like in opposite Baroness mode as I ride the rail, but still so loud. The band backing him was tight as hell, they helped carry him and everyone else into space for a little while. Played some of my favorites like 'Two Headed Dog', 'Night of the Vampire' and “You're Gonna Miss Me”. It looks like Roky honestly doesn't know what planet he's on. I wish I could be so lucky. They were done rocking at 3:20-3:30pm. http://youtu.be/OGMyGZ45cgM

Fucked Up

So when I arrived at the "Fuel" stage for Fucked Up, I noticed some dude in an "OFF!" tee shirt. Must've seen a show on that Dinosaur Jr/Fucked Up/OFF tour I caught last year. First song into their set this dude is leaning on the rail screaming lyrics at the crowd- ripped his shirt off and the epic back sweater was in full force. Only took til the second song to get him completely in the crowd. Such a fun time, this band is too obscure and unique for me to call them punk, but they are some sub genre from that. A few songs they played were “David”, “I Hate Summer”, “The Other Shoe” (which I thought was called Dying On The Inside, because that's the audience sing-along part) and “Turn The Season. Damien(the lead singer with the back sweater), says he would've stayed the whole weekend, but him and his wife are expecting their 2^nd child tomorrow. I ducked out about 4:40, I was hoping to be able to walk to some other stages to see what's happening, I know these dudes (and bass playing chick) are awesome, let me see if I can discover something. http://youtu.be/T1LuNbylbkU  

Jim Breuer

Caught the end of Jim Breuer's "Heavy Metal Comedy Tour" set back at the "Frantic" stage. He was explaining how he started doing voices by prank calling his fellow Sears co-workers with Kaddafi bomb threats. Heard some dude say “I'm not into that whole 'pot head comedy' thing he does”. I don't really get that statement, I don't think Half Baked 2 is due out anytime soon. It was a fun few minutes over there

Gaslight Anthem

With time to kill til Cage the Elephant, and the"Fuel" stage is already getting packed by the front. So I decided to go listen in on a few Gaslight Anthem songs, Since it looks like the entire state of New Jersey has made their way over to see the hometown boys. I don't mean to steal anyone's line but fuck these guys. No seriously, fuck these guys. I came in right at that "American Slang" song, and heard a few after that. Why are people into this band? Even the jokes they make between songs are lame: "Here's a slow song, so it's your chance to talk to that girl with the tattoos next to you, because you know they don't hang out where we hang out". Where "We" hang out?? You guys are in a rock band that a bunch of sheep worship- you guys hang out where people like Jay-Z hang out. You are not us- we paid to get in. Oh yea, did I mention your band fucking sucks?

Cage The Elephant

Like the lead singer said after the 1st song "we're weird people". Weird in a good way, I like the kinda half rap thing they do on some songs, and the music is funky as fuck! No wonder Kirk Hammet introduced them. I was at this same stage for Fucked Up and was like 3 rows deep- now for Cage( who played House of Blues last night) I'm at least a football field away. Not only that, but just as I'm getting into this I see people already heading towards the Orion stage for Modest Mouse. Do I leave this set and scout a spot that's maybe only 90 yards away for MM, or do I stay? I'll hang out till they play that song of their's that I used to hear on the radio all the time.  

Modest Mouse

 There are SO many people here! I guess lots of folks skipped the early day activities and are arriving late , but I'm deep behind easily 1000 people standing. But I'm so far back, I can see over the heads. Awesome. Guys came out blazing, opened with "The Whale Song".  Modest Mouse has like a million albums, so even being handed a set of not-so-familiars  didn't piss me off like it would with some other bands. "Float On" was a pleasant surprise at about 7:35ish. "Shit Luck" was mixed in there too.  People are already at this stag setting themselves up for good Metallica spots while I'm still peaking across the way to see how bad (in terms of me not being up front) things were getting for Arctic Monkeys.

 Arctic Monkeys 

And the trek back to the Fuel stage for Arctic Monkeys. Jeez am I getting a work out today or what? They were introduced by Lars (who introduced Baroness earlier), and they proceeded to prove their coolness. Lots of dancing going on during this set.  And not just during that song with dance floor in the name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU8EJkyz4js&feature=youtu.be They played "Fluorescent Adolescent" ( my personal fav) 2nd to last, after he introduced a song called "Brick by Brick", in which the drummer handled some of the vocal duties.  Ended it with "Are you Mine" 9:06

Metallica

At this point and time it's past 9 o clock, and you look down at the Orion stage and see blue lights on stage, now everybody is facing that way, and you couldn't get close if you tried. Didn't need to, when Metallica came out and played "Ride The Lightning" in it's entirety it did a couple of things for me.  One, Metallica will kick your balls in live. That is a serious professional band.  Seeing the guys have sort of a sense of humor up there and with putting on this festival and all almost makes up for that whole Napster thing. They said they "flipped it up" on us a bit-they played some stuff not on the record first like "Master Of Puppets," "Sad But True," "The Four Horsemen," after kicking it off with "Hit The Lights." I didn't have the battery life on my phone to Google the album's track list so I marked down the highlights with times next to them in my notes here.

At 10:05Pm, they played "Escape." Am I a lucky bastard or what? My first ever time seeing this band, and I get the song they haven't played-EVER.  Of course my camera's battery is dead for this, (as it's been since Master Of Puppets) they didn't like mess it up or anything. Sounded good.

10:25PM "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was insane. People raising fists (it is Jersey after all)-this one guy came in from of my camera and screamed the lyrics into my phone while I was trying to snap that last picture before the battery died. Thanks asshole.

Encores: To me, an encore means "songs played when you were about to walk towards the exit". This happened at least 5 times on Saturday, where the boys said goodnight and you really thought they were going off and they came back on. First of all, they saved their cool pyrotechnics til the end. Pictures of those fireworks and the flames rising would've been pretty wicked. So encore goes as follows "Nothing Else Matters", "Enter Sandman"(this is where shit started blowing up. Note to self to save some battery life today). Then they ducked off stage for a minute and I started walking towards the exit. Then they came back out to play "Battery" and "One" then ducked off again. I started walking again, because surely it's over. Nope. Came back out to play one more, "Seek And Destroy." They went way past 11.

To read all about Orion Music + More Day Two - Click Here

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Scott Lucas And The Married Men @ Mercury Lounge 06/14/12

Scott Lucas And The Married Men- 05/16/2012

Mercury Lounge -New York City

Words/Photos By Jay Porks

          Back in April when I was at the Mercury Lounge checking out Local H I said to myself “How the hell are they gonna fit 37 other people on stage when Scott comes back with the Married Men?”. Anyway what the hell goes on people? Long time no speak it seems as we roll into the 70th Edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series, bringing us back to the aforementioned Mercury Lounge (217 E Houston Street NYC) to see the almighty Scott Lucas and The Married Men hit the stage. I joke around of course about the 37 people on stage, as the band's 6 other members-Jason Batchko(Organ & Piano),Aaron Duggins (Accordion), Rebecca Brooke M. (Violin) ,Pete Muschong (Guitars & Vocals),Randy Payne (Drums) & Tom Szidon (Bass & Vocals) really keep things interesting with Scott on guitar(as oppose to the bass pick-ups set up) and lead vocals. If you came to see a band resembling Local H tonight, then you were mislead. Although equal in awesomeness, this is not that. This is, as printed somewhere I can't recall at the time “Country-ish, Alternative Rock for people who like Metal ”. Interrupt that as you will. Anyway, doors open at 9:30PM. Yea, 9:30PM, this is the “Late Show” at Mercury Lounge tonight, as they have an earlier show with some other bands happening that's set to end at 9-9:15PM I'd assume. Ticket says Doors 9:30, Show 9:30. So my guess is it won't be long after I walk through those doors before opening act Shelter Belt is on stage. This is gonna be awesome!  So at about 8:20, I had made it to the venue, and what's usually a line of at least a few outside waiting to get in,  was almost vacant sidewalk. Two dudes talking, one of them is in the Married Men, and another dude who was in some band( probably one of the openers from the early show). Tried to eavesdrop as much as I could without being a creep- no juicy information to report. Saw Scott Lucas walking around outside. The difference between this and Local H:  his cool ass hat. The openers were setting up by the time we (I) was let in at 9:32..

         My only problem with Mercury Lounge is their lack of good lighting. I mean, I have a flashlight on my lighter but am I really looking for Scott to punch me tonight?

        At 10 on the dot here comes Shelter Belt on stage. Now there's exactly 7 of us in the crowd. Hey at least I'm not alone. This band seemed to be riffin' something fierce during sound check...  well, that was all the fierce they'd get. They were like southern (even though I thought they mentioned being from Boston),their bass player looked a tad like Cris Kirkwood, and we hee-hawed our way through their 44 minute set. They had 2 false starts on their 2nd to last song. They also performed a cover that I taped. At least I got to sit down for it.

          Suddenly a bunch of dudes in suits start setting stuff up on stage. Those would be the Married Men, and it was at about 11 o'clock when everyone was on stage ready to go, and kick off the set with "Cotton Fields". I'm in my same spot I usually snag at Mercury Lounge, up front to the right. It being my usual spot is the 1st reason I grabbed it, 2nd reason is that the chick who plays violin stands on this side-and she's the only guaranteed female in attendance tonight.

        Wish this review was filled with phrases like "the crowd went nuts" or "to a resounding applause"- but I kept turning around and I counted no more than 35 people by nights end. So many people missing this great band. "Lovers Lullaby" was 2nd, and it's here the perfect example of what this band can do with it's loud/quiet dynamic-from extreme folky to extreme feedback . I never thought a band with a violinist and accordion player could get THAT loud and rock THIS hard. And with no one in front of me I'm free to sway left and right as I please. Lovers Lullaby went into "Extra Special Bitter", and then "Blood Half Moons"-the title track from their latest record, you may have read about it on Antiquiet.

         You can file this in the "here's something you don't see everyday" section: Before they played "Heavy Little Love", Scott asks "Does anyone have a phone?". Then , realizing how dumb the question was sarcastically continues "yeah, does anyone in New York City have a phone? Well we're gonna make a video for this next song so shoot it and send it to us". Really? That's pretty sweet. Hope when I tweet the video at Scott repeatedly he  eventually replies. 

        
         This band's not together that long, so I'm always on YouTube looking for live footage of them. And I always wondered why Hey Rita and l Got A Feeling always show up in the same clips. Like it's always Hey Rita/I Got A Feeling. That bothered me, and I was careful tonight when they jumped into "Hey Rita"- kept telling myself "pay attention to when the song ends you idiot". Well, guess who's currently uploading a video titled "Hey Rita/I Got A Feeling"? This guy.

    To close out the evening was a cover(the cover they seem to be doing on this tour) of Johnny Cash's "Ain't No Grave(Can Hold My Body Down) ". I got a taste of this when I was here in April to see Local H and Scott opened with some Married Men tunes, but the full band version was un-freaking-believable. The band just explodes into the chorus part-got the accordion guy all over the place on stage, chick with the violin is spazzing out as she ferociously hits every lick on that thing-it was f#%king epic man. It was so intense, it was so awesome, it was so....over. Damn.

     

         After the set, I waited for the band to come off stage as I told them how awesome they were.  When Scott passed by I casually said "Amazing, as usual" and he was like "Thanks man" and shook my hand. This Scott Lucas who plays with the Married Men seems to be a much more laid back Scott Lucas. No fans called out during the show or anything. I grabbed the set list while saying to the drummer "As I fan-boy, can I grab this??"

        Then I'm walking out and the accordion player is at the doorway and he's like "Got a light?". So while outside for this 2 minutes or so I noticed Scott is at the merch table selling stuff-and since I don't feel like doing laundry for another day I gotta grab myself a tee shirt! Scott was nice as always at the table, I got my Blood Half Moons tee shirt for 17 bucks. I don't remember buying a concert tee at a better price before.  So I asked him to sign my ticket stub (you know, cause I only have 2 already) and I said that they better come back as I made my way out the door into the New York City streets a few minutes after Midnight to try and hail down a cab.

      

        Fun times. Have no complaints besides Mercury Lounge barely having any freaking lights. It's dark as hell in there! But besides that, awesome night, awesome tunes. Hope I kept you entertained for the time being, and next time you'll be reading me is when I'm at Orion Music + More Festival in Atlantic City, NJ. Til next time

LATE..

Foxy Shazam @ Bowery Ballroom 05/16/12

 

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.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Watt & Friends 05/02/12 - Le Poisson Rouge, NYC

Mike Watt & Friends 05/02/2012

Le Poisson Rouge -New York City

Words/Photos By Jay Porks

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 68^th 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.

Local H at Mercury Lounge 4/15/12

I have no idea why people don't support/know of this band. In my seeing the Zion duo and it's no secret that New York City hasn't gotten the full Local H platter the last 3 visits to town. First it was way back when they opened for the dreadful Electric Six at Webster Hall, then the next time they played, Livenation bumped them out of the building early due to a Midnight Showcase the Stone Temple Pilots had scheduled at the same venue a week prior to the Local H gig. . Finally there was around this time last year, where Local H came to the Mercury Lounge and rocked out yet another “early show” . That's not the case tonight as we head back to the Mercury Lounge(the SOLD OUT Mercury Lounge), and we have Local H here with no time limits, no 'Early show', no album themes (even tho I did think that was cool). Tonight is Local H untamed, and you bet I'm freaking psyched for it. Adding to excitement, the opening act besides “The Apple Bros.” is, none other then Scott Lucas, who is said to be performing solo acoustic 'Scott Lucas and the Married Men' material. A Scott Lucas double dip, it feels like my freaking birthday. Ticket says doors are at 7:30, but I'm getting there as early as possible and snag a spot up front as usual in the latest episode(67) of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series.

So I got to the venue at 5:30. Yes, 5:30, two hours prior to doors opening. I have this extra ticket that I hope I could give away, so what's the harm in being 1st. Wasn't 1st anymore after a walk around the block as there are two dudes who are about to become my friends(one wearing an Elephant skull cap, you may want to take note of that hat) standing on the line wondering about Will Call and what the story is there. Again, doors not open for another 2 hours.

Sign you're on line with people that know music: my Meat Puppets shirt was immediately recognized. Then my buddy who I met at the Lemonheads show arrived. He was here last April when Local H played, but we didn't know each other then. So the 4 of us kicking it before the show, we're all sick of seeing epic video from epic Local H shows at the Double Door, or whatever other places in Illinois they play, and not getting a chance to have one of those memorable experiences in NYC. We gotta move to Zion. They opened up the doors at 7:30, and within seconds we were in the spot we'd be spending the next 4 hours or so.

Scott came on at 8 o clock with his acoustic guitar and a chair(the chair which was used to place his drink and phone on, not for sitting) and I'm just so damn excited that this is going down I almost forgot to mention the biggest adventure of my night-my new camera! Now I can get video in this venue that you can actually see (or so I thought"Extra Special Bitter" was second, and that's my favorite Married Men tune. A couple songs later he played a song called "Blood Half Moon", (the single off the new Scott Lucas and the Married Men record) where towards the end of the song, a slow rhythmic clap begins with a couple of people in the crowd. Scott during a pause says "No" to the assistance as we all laughed. Song ends and Scott looks at whoever started that and says "Thanks Dolche Gabana asshole for fucking up my pretty song. Is that what the DG stands for, Dick Gump?" Finished that set off with "Hey Rita" and Johnny Cash's "Ain't No Grave" .He played from 8pm to 8:35pm. Total of 7 songs, and notes that he'll be back at this very venue in June with the Married Men. I have a feeling all of you will be reading about that experience right here, at Concert Confessions (and JayPorks.Com!!!)



The second opener (or the only opener not a member of thr headlining band) The Apple Bros came on at 8:44. First thing I notice is their front man has a lefty guitar that he's turned upside-down and re-strung.. To that i say, don't they have tons of right handed guitars for sale already?I found myself throughout the set trying to find reasons to make fun of these guys, (like I did in one sentence ago) But whatever these guys are playing, it's not terrible. I've seen way worse opening acts then this. There were 10 songs listed on the set list paper in front of the bassist(none or which I could read the name of!). They had to have played more-they came on 15 mins earlier than scheduled, and when off at 9:26

Shortly, like within minutes after Apple Bros. went off , the post-grungers scrambled to get their gear set up on stage. Then at 10 o' clock folks it was time for the headliners: St. Clair and Lucas, LOCAL H!

They started played lots of new stuff tonight. Last year they played us 2 new ones, and this year they started the show in full effect with it.. 'Cold Manor' came second, and being such a fan of this band obsessing with YouTube watching my own taping of this song last year, I'm already singing along to this song and it hasn't even come out yet. And last year was on a crap camera, this thing I'm wielding is real deal, . Then drummer extraordinaire Brian starts poking at the lights. Remind you folks this is a bar with a room in that back that just happens to have a stage-it's about the twice the size my living room. It's not like, a “light show” more then it's just generic lights hanging maybe the band gets to pick the color who knows. Anyway, Scott asked them to dim these lights and now after the 2^nd song in I'm back to basically the same lighting if not worse, then last year. That was a serious “FML” moment right there.

It's my favorite line and you'll see me write it every time I see this band. 'The man I despise but the song I adore': “Eddie Vedder” kicked off the first back to back of old school tunes of the night when it was followed by “Everyone Alive” before we busted into another newbie: “Paddy Considine” then the ever so epic “Hands on The Bible” before another new one that Scott said was “about Fox News”. Not sure if that's the name of the song. But during Hands on the Bible, oddly, when the lyric “A pretty baby never born”, the New Yorkers let out a light cheer. Hooray abortion? Anyway, there's two kinds of people at Local H shows: Intelligent folk who grab their spots up front quickly. That's my little outside clique from earlier and the rest of the people along the first row. Then behind that you have these people who behave like psychopaths-the people who think Local H is like a heavy metal band or something and they're here to slam dance and mosh. They f%&ked stuff up, including lifting two of the tables used to support amps onto the stage, and it wasn't a direct hit, but a drink was tossed in my area. Turned to the hot chick next to me and mouthed to her “what the f%&k?” as she was also bewildered. One drunk dude got on stage and wanted to stage dive(the entire 2 and ½ feet up on stage) and Scott literally just pushed him off stage. It was awesome.





“Another February”, which is another one off the new record was next up. Usually bands piss me off when they play a bunch of new stuff at a show, but the new Local H material is freaking incredible and I cannot wait for that to come out. But next they played “Fritz's Corner”, “All The Kids Are Right” and “High Fiving MF” back to back to back next and by the time we got to High Fivin' that place was back to being exactly what that song is about. The lyric “Highjack the pit you shit!” while these assholes go bananas is life imitating art. That had to be the biggest hit of the night with them. With me, the biggest hit is also this song, because right before Scott starts singing (about 55 seconds in on my video), he leans towards my camera and taps it with his guitar-he knighted my camera. Wonder if he remembers me from last year.

“California Songs” was another heavy hitter right towards the end when they went into “Bound For The Floor”, and in the middle of the song the gave us a little shot of the Stooges “T.V. Eye”. (Hopefully a Local H's Awesome Mixtape Part Two coming soon?). Oh and remember that elephant hat I mentioned earlier that one of my new found buddies was wearing? Yea, that's Scott wearing it, at the end of the Bound for the Floor video Lucas mentions how cool the hat is. It was a great night, I just really wish it wasn't so damn dark!

So long story short, Local H comes to town and Scotty Lucas gives us a double dip. I'm still trippin' on that "Ain't no Grave" he busted out during the acoustic set. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'll see these guys every time they come to town. There's a band that gives their all every time.

I've already passed out on my keyboard several times writing this, so internet trolls please feel free to point out punctuation I may have missed. So next time you'll be reading me is two weeks from today, when we hit the Melvins at Webster Hall..

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Kasabian @ Terminal 5 NYC 3/22/12

They've have finally returned to America! That's where Episode 66 of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series kicks off, bringing us to Terminal 5 in New York City to see the one and onlyKasabian. This is a special night for all of us fans out there who've waited for this band to return to the United States. Facebook groups have been started, Twitter accounts have been created, all in efforts to get this band back to U.S. Soil for the first time in 5 years. So when a tour was announce a few months ago, there was no question that I was on my way here tonight. I kinda feel bad for my man Reverend Justito, because he turned me on to this band and I'm getting to check them out live before him on this tour. It's alright, he get's them at Coachella and an LA date that week-PLUS, he and the rest of the world get to watch this concert stream live online. YouTube in conjunction with the Bowery Presents have made it possible for tonight's proceedings inside the epic Terminal 5 to be broadcast around the world. The event is sold out so without tickets I hope you all are getting ready to do it up Couch Tour style, as I try to coax my coworker to let me leave work early, so I can get that sweet spot on the 3rd floor left of the stage I love so much. Doors are at 7, show at 8. I want to be on that line at 5:30. This night is too important to have some hipster from Williamsburg standing in my favorite spot. Maybe I'm over playing this, maybe I'm not. Only one way to find out......

So I arrived at the line at 5:23.. That's right I said line- I guess 2 and a half hours was not early enough to land me 1st on line. At 6 they opened the doors and shuffled all of us upstairs to the rooftop smoke deck-stairs leading to a 2nd deck actually.. Benches, bathrooms, a bar. Hell there's even a video screen if people wanna watch the show from up here. Anyway, they roped off the rest of the place, and now everyone formed a line up here in hopes of snagging their favorite spot up front. 3 different people asked me whats the best spot in this place-I gave them 3 different answers.

So at 7 when all of us were let in, the mad dash began. People must not read enough of my reviews: if you're going to a show a Terminal 5 I don't understand why you wouldn't head upstairs to get a nice railing spot on the 2nd or 3rd floor.. I mean I'm looking directly down at the stage, unless you're one of those 1st 20 or so people who gets a front railing spot the 1st floor is pointless. Anyway, I'm overlooking the stage from the 3rd floor. Not only a perfect view but a chair ALONG with an ottoman. So with my feet up in total relax-mode, time to wait for Hacienda, the opening act listed to go on at 8PM..


Promptly, Hacienda came on at 8. 4 man piece, with a keyboardist, they hail from San Antonio and have been on this entire U.S. tour supporting Kasabian. They bassist and guitar player switched off vocal duties-it was almost like 2 different bands depending on who was singing which song. They weren't bad, the guitar player had some filthy licks when the song called for it. The 45 minutes flew by. They were off by 8:45..

You can feel the anticipation building as the stage was set up, all the camera were checked, more tweets hashtagged Terminal 5 were being tweeted. At 9:10 I'm thinking to myself "Wow this is gonna be freaking CRAZY!"



At about 9:20, out came the main event: KASABIAN. And they came out with a thunderous "Days are Forgotten" followed by "Shoot The Runner". I was mesmerized. For once in my life I can say I was around when New York City decided to get into good bands- the building was literally shaking. A crowd that was frozen still during Hacienda's opening set was jumping around, slamming into each other. Everyone in unison just making the most of every single second they had in the building with this band. It was awesome.

Now all good comes with bad, right? You would think so-but that was surely not case here at Terminal 5. After "Underdog" was the 4th song in, I pretty much thought I was done with the songs I liked. I knew they had "Re-Wired" on previous set lists, so I waited. But as I did they played more amazing songs that I found myself to really be enjoying while taping, I mean more so than I would have. "Thick as Thieves" was the only jam tonight to have the acoustic guitar involved, and that's the point where you look around and think to yourself-this is way better than advertised!


Then I remember we're being live streamed on YouTube- the whole world is inside Terminal 5 tonight. Did you see us rocking that place out? Hell, even my hidden spot on the 3rd floor got packed with people standing on chairs trying to see over us along the railing. So I guess that "showing up late to avoid the opener" plan backfired. Sucks to be you-but if you Bump me again, and my elbow meets your chest.

"Re-Wired" eventually came, but before that it was "Club Foot" (isn't that song in a commercial? I'm too familiar with it for it not to be). I want to say this about every song, but the house was seriously about to come down during Club Foot. It just seemed to get louder and louder in there as the night went on. "Man of Simple Pleasures" and "LSF" were played towards the end of their set before the encore. The place got increasingly louder with screams while we waited for the band to come back out.

“Switchblade Smiles” was absolutely insane when they kicked off the encore with it. The colors-their light show is really cool the way it bounces off the walls of the tight, yet roomy Terminal 5. This was the perfect venue to have them perform, and they put on a flawless set that left everyone in the place trying to regather themselves outside; trying to comprehend the epicness they have just witnessed. I don't think there's anybody in the world who thought this show would be so... so... well 'Perfect' is the only word that comes to mind. . Ended their flawless evening of tearing down Terminal 5 with a 7+ minute version of “Fire”. Incredible.

I've seen some shows, but this is like top 5 in “Live up to the hype”. I mean I've heard the band on record and I enjoy them. But live, it's a whole different experience. So much energy, so much ferociousness, and most importantly, having so much damn fun on stage. In five years when they come back to America(Let's hope it's not that long!), you can already book it that it'll be on the Jay Porks Concert Calender..

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