Boston Rock Photos And Stuff
The Artful Dodgers (Josh Buckley, Jim Healey, Amy Griffin, Luke Sullivan and Carolyn Castellano) made it look easy. It may have been One Night Band. They may have only had a few hours to write some songs. They may have never played together before, but they remembered one thing. It’s only rock n’ roll. I like it.
This is One Night Band, right? Because there’s no way this band formed a mere few hours ago. Had I not been there earlier in the day I’d have thought they were ringers.
More than any other band that participated in this year’s event, Flying Blue Squirrels (Eric Baird, Mary Bichner, Randy Creasi, Jessica Sun Lee and Cathy Capozzi) all seemed to draw inspiration from the same well. The song they chose for their cover, Radiohead’s “Creep”, should give you and idea of their general sound. Powerful, angular and melodic with just a hint of noise. Outstanding.
Let’s start with the band name. Walk Of Shame. Has there ever been a more fitting name for a One Night Band?
I got to take the band’s official promo photo. I had high hopes for this group. Al Polk, A.J. Locke, Ben Morse, Mike Connolly and Rick Taylor were so relaxed and excited to be taking part in the event. I was not disappointed. Walk of Shame had a solid performance with just the right amount of crazy.
I don’t know if I should stay or go.
You’re gone now, Walk Of Shame, but feel free to come back and visit any time.
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.
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…
BatmanHalen. The first act of One Night Band 3, the annual musician melting pot event put on by Boston Band Crush. The first band to make me truly wonder what may have been going on between Batman and Robin.
I had the honor of taking the band’s official press photo earlier in the day. Seeing John Colvert, Davina Yannetty, LoWreck, Jesse Sherman and Sarah Rabdau return that evening with three brand new songs (and a cover, of course) was pretty cool…
There’s this movie called I Get Off. It stars a white 1974 Pontiac Trans AM driven by Sheila, played by an otherwise unknown actress who now makes her meager living charging people $20 a pop to have their picture taken with her and a replica of said car at comic conventions. In this cinematic masterpiece there are bar fights, mustaches, a Columbo knock-off police detective, bricks and bricks of an unspecified narcotic and a guy in a banana suit.
In the climactic scene, the Trans Am races head-on toward a tanker truck in the desert. The windows are down. Sheila’s hair is blowing in the wind. She lifts her sunglasses. Her eyes are focused. There’s a shotgun on the passenger seat. Her hand reaches down to turn up the radio.
Mellow Bravo blares from the speakers as a sly smile comes across Sheila’s face.
Then it gets messy.
It’s becoming old (tiny) hat for me to heap praise upon Sidewalk Driver. Lest you think I’m blowing smoke up their asses, lets get straight to the facts:
So there you have it.
* Video by the tireless Sophia Cacciola for Sophia’s Rock Beat.
** No video. Sorry.
*** Fact.
Walter Sickert And The Army Of Broken Toys describe their music SteamCrunk. This is what that looks like…
Well, this certainly got my attention.
After falling hard for their song “Everyone Is Syncopated” earlier in the week, I was prepared for good things from Streight Angular at the big Boston Band Crush summer blowout. What I was not ready for was the party bomb the band set off in the Middle East. Crazy good.
