If you’re going to throw a big birthday bash for your club with 14 bands over 12 hours, you better make sure whoever plays last can bring it. Richard Bouchard, who did an amazing job putting together One Year Of Radio*, wisely tapped Brownboot for the task of closing out the night. Their killer rhythm section and a double dose of guitar and vocal pyrotechnics made them a natural choice to close out a night that celebrated all that Aimee McGrath and the whole crew over at Radio have done for this community.
* Richard also happens to run the supermegafantastic Boston Band Crush, which was recently nominated for a Boston Music Award. Go vote for Boston Band Crush and then come back and look at these pictures.
The 2012 Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble Semifinals start tonight! Here’s the schedule. I posted some random rumble thoughts on the Rumble day of rest. I thought I’d do the same for the second half of Preliminaries.
Parlour Bells glammed up and rocked out.
Old Favorites
The 2012 Rumble saw a few of my favorite bands play the sets of their lives. Parlour Bells got all glammed up to rock out on Thursday night. One set later The Fagettes threw a big old rock n’ roll party on the TT’s stage that blew out a bass amp and the womb of a giant cardboard robot. In a testament to the strength of the Boston music scene, those sets didn’t even take the night! Cask Mouse got the nod from the opening slot for a shaking and stomping good time. The next night had Brownboot leading the crowd into hard rock excess like six-stringed pied pipers. The Bynars had synth-heavy power pop down to a science. Saturday night had back-to-back sets by Motherboar and neon post-punks Streight Angular that made me question the structural integrity of the club. I sure am glad I didn’t have to clean up after that show.
Speaking of heavy, the two heaviest bands of this year’s Rumble both advance to the Semifinals. Motherboar was just plain devastating. It’s amazing how colossal they sounded after just having witnessed the how-the-hell-are-they-doing-this flying hair and riffs attack of Sherman Burns. I can’t wait to see how this plays out in the next round.
Cask Mouse had the only fiddle and upright bass of The Rumble.
Fun With Numbers
Do the math: I’m not sure of the exact number, but a bunch of songs got retired during these Rumble Prelim shows. Brownboot put “I Can’t Wait (To Get Away)” on the shelf.* Pray For Polanski put the band on the shelf.
Two for Tue Thursday: There were exactly 2 Explorer shaped guitars in The Rumble. Both were wielded by Motherboar.
One is the loneliest number: The Rumble prelims had exactly one electric banjo (Bow Thayer And Perfect Trainwreck), one upright bass (Cask Mouse), one fiddle (also Cask Mouse), one giant cardboard robot (The Fagettes), one blown bass amp (also The Fagettes) and one Al Polk (Streight Angluar).
Play Me Out
Here are some Rumble tunes that I haven’t been able to shake. It’s quite the varied collection. We’ve got suave pop from Parlour Bells and brutal metal from Motherboar. We’ve got indie rock both manic (Streight Angular) and unsettling (Pray For Polanksi). Top it all of with the searing hard rock of Brownboot and you’ll be humming these tunes for days. Now get thee to TT’s!
* Unless you pay them lots of cash, but you’d have to be a D-Bag to do that…
Brownboot slayed. The band’s Rumble set had the feeling of a huge rock n’ roll band playing a secret show in a small club as a treat to their die hard fans. The guitars were loud, the songs brought the house down and everyone got sweaty. Talk about a band rising to the occasion. This was Brownboot’s finest moment. That was one hell of a show.
Well, it’s that time of the year again. The Rumble is upon us. Sunday night will kick off the 2012 edition of this rock n’ roll institution. I called the 2011 version “a crash course in Boston awesomeness”. I have no reason to think this year won’t be the same. Having been to many a Rumble show (and participated in a couple) I can tell you these are always a lot of fun.
For the past few years The Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble has been curated by Anngelle Wood. She’s done a fine job, hasn’t she? This year will be no exception. I’ve managed to document exactly half of this year’s participants in the wild. I look forward to checking out the other half. Below is the complete schedule with some links to the bands’ shows I’ve caught in the past. If all goes according to plan, you’ll be seeing lots of Rumble pics up on Daykamp Music over the next few weeks. Check back often. More importantly, go see some of the shows!
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE
Sunday, April 1
7:30-8:30pm Boston Band Crush sponsored Opening Night Welcoming Party
It’s night #2 of the Shakes & Pony Show residency at Moe’s Lounge. There’s a band on stage*. I think Shakes is the drummer and Pony is the Nikki Sixx-looking fella playing Gene Dante’s guitar. This night was also billed as Rod, Jason & Friends doing the songs of Brownboot. It sure sounds like Brownboot.** Maybe Rod and Jason’s friends should start a Brownboot tribute band.
Oh, hey! It is Brownboot! There are a couple of new players here, but the songs remain the same. Elena Siegman (vocals) and Randy Knight (bass) join Rod Van Stoli, Jason Baldock, Matt Sullivan and Joe Kowalski in their ’70s rock n’ soul crusade. Someone has to fight the good fight.
* …and floor…
** …or some kind of foot stompin’ acoustic variation there of…
This is my first time seeing Brownboot. When I wrote about their record back in June, I mentioned that their sound reminds me Humble Pie. Well, here I am at night number two of Radio’s existence and Brownboot is covering “30 Days In The Hole”.
BrownBoot reminds me of Humble Pie. I don’t think I’ve ever said that about a local band before. I guess there’s a first time for everything. It’s not that BrownBoot sounds exactly like Steve Marriott and gang. The common traits are found in songs like “Shame” and “Iron & Ledson”: a love of soul, big guitars and powerful vocals. In BrownBoot’s case the vocals come in male and female varieties courtesy of Rodrigo Van Stoli and Jordan Valentine. I can think of other bands that BrownBoot calls to mind. They are all from the early ’70s. You get the picture.
“I Can’t Wait (To Get Away)” is insanely catchy. Much like Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”, it’s the kind of song you’re glad someone wrote about somebody, but you hope never gets written about you. The big difference is that BrownBoot’s song is a scorcher lyrically and musically. “Mae Stay” pulls in the reigns a bit to good effect.
BrownBoot closes things out with “Spacepipe”. It has a killer groove, a nice heavy organ riff and Jordan Valentine stealing the show with her wailing vocals.
