Tag: Ashley Willard

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The Shakes & Pony Show @ Moe’s Lounge 1.6.2012

Rodrigo Van Stoli and Jason Baldock were tasked with opening Moe’s Lounge* with a bang. The duo cooked up a residency where they would pick a different theme for each night** and assemble a ragtag group of local rockers to help them pull it off. Night one was Mixtape-Mixtape night, where the gang*** performed selections from the various nights of the MixTape series they’ve been involved with. What you ended up with was a mishmash of covers spanning decades. A couple of highlights were some great interplay between Rodrigo Van Stoli and Rona Mattocks on “Beast Of Burden” and a snappy cover of Robert Plant’s “Tall Cool One”. The night ended with a “Daydream Believer” singalong.

Welcome to The Shakes & Pony Show…

* Moe’s Lounge is downstairs at Radio. Seeing a show there is like hanging out in your friend’s basement. Good times.

** To find out what’s in store for the rest of the residency, check out this amazing poster by the wonderful and talented Nicole Anguish of Daykamp Creative.

*** Which at various times included 2/3 of Brownboot, 2/5 of Sidewalk Driver, 1/5 of The Future Everybody, 1/6 of Fit To Be Tied, all of Tad & Kate and 4/5 of Bright Lights, Big Rod.

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Bright Lights, Big Rod @ Radio 12.10.2011

Bright Lights, Big Rod. Let that sink in for a minute.

MixTape 1988 brought us a super duper supergroup. A superdupergroup. Bright Lights, Big Rod featured some of the fine folks that brought you Brownboot, Sidewalk Driver, Boston Band Crush, Parlour Bells, Noble Rot*, Low Static Romance, Bang Camaro, Bikini Whale, Waste Management, Boston.com and who knows what else. They joined forces to dust off some of the hippest songs of 1988. Like “In Your Room” by The Bangles. Seriously, how great a song is that?!?!

As much fun as the whole night was, MixTape 1988 will be defined by one thing for me: Bright Lights, Big Rod’s “Robert P Medley”. It was a seamless blend of Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible” and Robert Plant’s “Tall Cool One”. How could that not be awesome? It couldn’t not be awesome.

* Which I just mistyped as Noble Rod. I rule.

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Bikini Whale as The B-52s @ Radio 10.28.2011

Holy mackerel! Bikini Whale were AMAZING!

I’m not going to pretend to be some diehard B-52s fan. I like some of their stuff, but I don’t think about or listen to them often. That may change. Bikini Whale were that good. So much fun.

With any luck, these guys and gals will reconsider the one-off nature of this gig. I’d love to change all of those “were”s to “are”s.

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John Powhida International Airport @ Radio 10.7.2011

John Powhida International Airport closed out opening night at Radio. J-Po brought along an entirely different flight crew since the last time I saw him.* One thing remains constant**; you can’t swing a funny bunny on stage at a JPX show without hitting a talented musician.

Also worth noting: Radio is awesome! Congrats to everyone who helped get the place off the ground (including owners Aimee McGrath and Josh Banville and booking agent Ashley Willard).

* Come to think of it, both Rudds shows I’ve seen this year had entirely different line-ups.

** You know, besides Mr. Powhida himself. So I guess two things. Oh, and the songs. Three things. Everything else changed, though. I think. I’m not so sure anymore.

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Sidewalk Driver @ Radio 10.7.2011

[INTERIOR – SIDEWALK DRIVER PRACTICE SPACE]

KATE: I’ve got this awesome new song I want to teach you guys.

JARED: Remember that time I used Richard Bouchard’s face as a slide? How great was that?!?! And I jumped off of A.J.’s kick drum.

KATE: Speaking of A.J., where is he?

JOHN: He’s going to be a little late. The Rolex folks needed him to swing by the factory so they could set their watches to him.

TAD: Has anyone seen the Sparkle Fairies? I can’t seem to find them.

KATE, JARED, JOHN: Not again!

[LAUGH TRACK]

KATE: Really guys, I’ve got this new song to show-

JOHN [INTERRUPTING]: In the last seven days we’ve opened for the B-52s, rocked the big Township gig at Brighton Music Hall and blown the roof off of Radio on opening night. Not bad.

JARED: And I used Bouchard’s face as a slide!

[TAD RETURNS COVERED IN GLITTER AND CONFETTI]

TAD: I found the Sparkle Fairies, but now the Confetti Monster has gotten loose!

KATE, JARED, JOHN: Oh, Tad!

[LAUGH TRACK]

KATE: You guys aren’t going to learn this song tonight, are you…

JOHN: No. I’m busy learning “Big Bottom”.

JARED: I’m practicing slides on Bouchard’s face.

TAD [OFF SCREEN]: I could use a little help in here!

KATE: Argh! Let’s just watch Maru videos and look at these photos from the Radio gig up on Daykamp Music…

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The Bedss @ The Middle East Downstairs 9.24.2011

File this one under: But wait, there’s more!

Just when you thought One Night Band 3 had come to an end, Ashley Willard* came out to inform us there was one more act. Get ready for “Cum On Feel The Noize”** as performed by The Bedss, One Night Band class of 2010. Well, most of The Bedss. And some other folks. A whole stage full of One Night Banders. Some of them may have been drinking.

* VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Ashley Willard, Richard Bouchard and the whole crew at Boston Band Crush did an amazing job putting this thing together and raising $2,700 for Zumix. If I was wearing Richard Bouchard’s hat I would tip it to them all.

** I think. This is open to interpretation.

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Makeitso @ The Middle East Downstairs 9.24.2011

Makeitso was the final (new) band of One Night Band 3. Brendan Haley, Andrew Doherty, Dave Mirabella, Ken Marcou and Jim Gerdermen certainly rose to occasion. Three cool originals and a spot on rendition of Loverboy’s “Workin’ For The Weekend”, you know, except for the tight red pants.

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Wagon Battle @ The Middle East Downstairs 9.24.2011

Wagon Battle. One Night Band. Pioneercore.

We saw John Brookhouse, Chrissy Vaccaro, Danny McNair, T.J.Horn and Mary Flatley circling the wagons. They were tight. They were aggressive. They covered The Misfits (sort of). They took no prisoners. To top it all off, John Brookhouse let loose with an absolutely jaw dropping solo on their final song. No one was left standing. Wagon Battle killed.

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Mötörböat @ The Middle East Downstairs 9.24.2011

Mötörböat. I took one look at this lineup (Dave Jarvis, Leesa Coyne, Rodrigo Van Stoli, Meff and Wayne Whittaker) and I knew what was going to happen. A lot of One Night Bands go for a theme. I imagine this would make the day’s daunting task ever so slightly more manageable. Near as I can tell, Mötörböat’s theme was rocking the hell out…

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Golden Owl @ The Middle East Downstairs 9.24.2011

Golden Owl (Aaron Rosenthal, Even Shore, John Sheeran, Lou Paniccia and Ryan Schmidt) was another band I got to photograph for their official One Night Band posters. The band had a loose Star Trek theme for their set. Shatner tie-in or not, “Name Your Own Price” is now one of my favorite songs.  I don’t even mean “favorite songs by guys that had only formed a band a few hours earlier”.  I mean “favorite songs to sing around the house because I just can’t help myself”.

I won’t pay full price for your love…