The Zeros - The Shirks - Beasts of no Nation - Maybe Baby -- Velvet Lounge - Oct 31 2010

Maybe Baby - Whether it was the Zeros bringing people in tonight or four bands or Halloween or one less club to party in, I really don't know the reason for this sizable crowd. But they welcomed this guitar/drums duo clad in gauzy mummy wrap with cobwebbed drums. I liked this band before well enough but thought they were really hot tonight. Their highly energized hyper-fast pop-punk is very much in the manner of Jay Reatard and is a great start for tonight's series of bands. They have the garage sound down with super fast hooks. The guitarist sings in the manner of Darby Crash or perhaps Black Randy if memory serves. They did their songs almost non-stop which kept the energy going and the excitement building. 20 minutes was plenty to give a full set of loud fun music. Great job on this, their last show before heading out for a coast-to-coast tour.

Beasts of No Nation - This local two-guitar four-piece is pretty well encamped in the classic harDCore scene. Te vocals remind me of Minor Threat and the music is tough, gutsy classic DC early eighties styled hardcore. It was easy to digest with a good sound that a touch of Misfits-sludge in the rhythm as the melody kept ahead. A good energized set that the crowd dug, causing a few to bounce around a bit.

The Shirks - Another local four-piece with some records out on Dischord. Buzzsaw power-pop, but so much tougher than that label. I am hearing a touch of the Pagans even. They went over well with the large crowd tonight and are clearly a band to catch if you want to hear classic hook oriented punk rock played with relish at a hyper-pace (sounds like classic DC to me). But I can write whatever I want about them and they will never know as they don't participate in the world-wide web. Personally, I think the Amish philosophy makes more sense than that, but to each their own.

The Zeros - From Chula Vista, California, come a band I never thought I would get to see. Yes, that's been said far too often, but for this band with its few singles and belated album on Bomp! Records from the punk era to play in 2010 is quite a shock. It is very welcome as this band really had the great SoCal punk/power pop sound that Bomp! adored and went over well with garge/punk fans everywhere. I had a couple of their singles and could really see the nice place they occupied between the heavy punk rockers and the power poppers. But on to tonight, Javier Escovedo (Alejandro's brother) and his bandmates were in fine form. They have played some shows out west and in Spain in the last year and were in fine form. They opened with "Pipeline" and played many early songs including the singles I had - "Don't Push Me Around" and "They Say That". The Closer was "Wild Weekend" and they encored with a couple of songs including the NY Dolls classic "Chatterbox". Everything was delivered with the hooks up front, the vocals delivered well by three lead singers and plenty of pop. What a nice slice of history in 40 minutes of a band deserving of some late recognition for the great music they added to that important punk era. It was great to see an enthusiastic crowd of young and old who seemed to be aware of that.

More Verbage - I will be posting a link to my CD reviews coming out soon in Folkworld magazine for those of you that cannot get enough of my Proustian drivel. But in celebration of my two years here, I will begin listing my Top 100 ALbums of All-Time tonight. I will do it in sets of ten heading into the new year. Stay tuned and get ready to get annoyed with my oddball choices.