New Madrid - Go Cozy - Witch Coast -- DC9 - Feb 18 2015

Witch Coast - Echoey guitar, steady bass, standing drums sans cymbals, and distorted voice... generally a decent psychedelic formula, but in this case it did not work as well as I had hoped. The basic riffs were decent and they churned out some fine rock, but it really did not assemble itself into anything gripping. The vocals were so distorted to a point that a synthesizer would have been more effective. It was also a really late start tonight, so they only played 17 minutes, although without more effective songwriting, I am not sure a longer set would have mattered. So nothing terribly wrong, more of a case I was hoping for better from this local trio. It could happen and I hope to report back within a year. There's a good chance, this could develop into a strong act.

Go Cozy - This area band combines lush sounds with jagged guitar thrusts into something that ultimately comes together quite well. It depends on the song, as a few had me drifting away from them. But when they clicked, they nailed a great sound and had a hearty melody to latch on to. They did a great psyche-jam toward the end of the set that was impressive. The combination of female and male vocals gave a nice variety to the set as well. Good job and a fun band to have on a number of bills.

New Madrid - I never would have thought that I would look to Georgia for a plethora of my favorite bands working in the 2010s, but with Kylesa, Mastodon, Baroness, Black Lips, Coathangers, etc. I was not sure if this Athens band would move high on that impressive list as the noise they were making before and after their first song was more interesting than the song itself. But from song two onward, these guys blasted out some wild and wonderful psychedelic rock reminiscent of Wooden Shjips, Hawkwind, and even Comets on Fire. They just had a couple of guitars and a rhythm section, but they cooked up all kinds of interesting noise and fascinating patterns that worked off of each other. A good crowd had braved the cold and late start and looked quite thrilled to be a part of this tonight. If you like it heavy, wild, and unpredictable (yet with songs you can latch on to), look into this band. You may be wearing a smile as wide as mine after 40 minutes.

Photo grab of the night:  My friend Don Habil is posting some great music photos he took in years. back. He has got punk rock well documented in the 1970s and here's a couple shots from 1979. This is what punk rock looked like in Dayton, Ohio with the great Toxic Reasons. I'm in the crowd with my friend Jeff, along with Victoria, long time Toxic roadie Bob Kramer, and the late Gyn Cameron hiding down low. This was our music.