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.
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.
New Faces
The Grinds! Hell, yeah! I’m so glad I finally saw this punk n’ roll outfit. So good. The Rumble also introduced me to the modern Americana of Bow Thayer And Perfect Trainwreck, the angular indie of Pray For Polanski and the heavy riffage of Sherman Burns and Never Got Caught.
The State Of Heavy
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.
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
TueThursday: 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…
