Bert And The Manual Transmissions @ The Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts 10.24.2015

If Wonder Woman and Captain America got married, you might imagine there’d be some pretty interesting guest at the reception. You’d be right. So when Bert from Sesame Street, Super Chicken, Barry Gibb, Vincent Vega, Buddy the elf, the milkman, a flapper, Mr. Moxie, Matthew Crawley, The Penguin and Brendan Haley J Mascis a wizard guy get up and play some Stones, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty and ‘Mats covers you shouldn’t be surprised. No, instead you should be thankful you have a pocket camera and snap a couple of pictures.

Oh, and you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Bert sing “Here Comes A Regular.”

Crazy Alice @ The Middle East Downstairs 10.4.2014

When the Pipeline! at 25 shows were announced, I kinda freaked out over some of the reunions that were scheduled. Orangutang? Quintaine Americana? Kudgel? Must see. Oh, they’re all on the same night? Mind blown. Right near the tippy-top of my Bands-I-Will-Not-Miss list was Night #9 opener Crazy Alice. Their brand of off-the-rails Superchunk meets The Replacements meets Hüsker Dü nonsense is right up my alley. I’ve loved these guys from the first time I saw them shortly before they disbanded. Thanks to Bob Dubrow and his crazy idea to get every band in Boston to reunite, I got another chance to see one of my favorites.

They were the best damn chickens in the fair.

The Decals @ Radio 10.11.2012

The Decals played their first show in 10 years at Bands For Babs. I was right up front watching my favorite Boston band of all time playing some of the best you-done-me-wrong punk tunes this city has ever seen. Just as I was thinking that I must be the happiest person in the room, I looked over and saw Barbara “Babs” Walsh herself standing up, singing along to every song.

OK, Babs, you win this time.

Full Disclosure: I’m married to a member of The Decals. I still think it’s safe to say that their set was awesome.*

* Because it was.

AM Stereo @ Radio 10.5.2012

I love AM Stereo. How much do I love them? I just saw them twice in a week and if they played again tonight I’d be there. This set of disaster rock* was to celebrate the release of Nicole Tammaro’s new rock photography book. I’ll have pics from Bands For Babs coming up soon.

* Boston’s finest since 1998!

AM Stereo @ Great Scott 6.2.2012

AM Stereo brought their disaster rock to the Great Scott stage Friday night. They played a bunch of old favorites and some tunes off of their fantastic new record, When You Wish Upon A Bar.*

* When You Wish Upon A Bar features design by the lovely and talented Nicole Anguish at Daykamp Creative and photography by yours truly.

The Dirty Truckers @ Radio 5.4.2012

The Dirty Truckers were back in action Friday night. The band was celebrating the release of their new Tiger Stripes EP and the 7″ single for the song “Human Contact.” It had been a while since the last time I saw these Boston wranglers. I was starting to get the shakes. Their set at Radio was just what I needed. The Dirty Truckers blasted out one of the best sets I’ve ever seen them play. They played the new stuff. They played the old stuff.* They rocked the in-between stuff like nobody’s business. “Sea Pines” and “3 Weeks To Go” blew the doors off the joint.** They threw in a couple of covers to keep themselves honest. In the end, the ‘Truckers reminded everyone that they’re one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands around, not that we’d forgotten.

* Including “Backpack” from their first record.

** Both off of 2008’s fantastic Loose In The Joints

AM Stereo @ Radio 10.8.2011

*AM Stereo are criminally underrated. Their sound is cut from the same cloth as The Replacements, but ends up coming off more like Superdrag meets Superchunk. Superdrunk, if you will. Just listen to the songs. “Drink Club”, “Money Store”, “The Company Line”… damn, there are so many great ones. They’ve got meaning and still manage to knock you silly. I love these guys.

Oh, they also played their song “Southern Rock Radio”, making them the third act in Radio’s young history to play a song with the club’s name in the title. Remember this when we talk about Watts’ set from this night…

* Purveyors of Boston’s finest disaster rock since 1998.