I’ve been so caught up with all this new record releasing
business that I sometimes forget I utilize this site for reviews and whatnot
from time to time. So lets rewind
way back to late May when I took a trip down to NYC to catch 108 bust out two
sets in one day.
I got into town a day early so I could do some NYC
stuff. Typically when I visit I
tend to just find whatever new vegan restaurant has opened up before catching a
show and then crashing somewhere in Brooklyn, which I’ve done a lot. So I thought I’d go back to things I
haven’t done since I was a little kid and my dad brought me down to the city
several times to do tourist stuff, as well as go to museums and see art.
I hadn’t been to Central Park intentionally since I was
probably about 13. I decided that was as good of a place to start. I walked from 70th through
the park probably up to about 90th and halfway around the
reservoir. It was a pretty good,
long walk. My intention was to walk back in time to get to the Natural History
Museum before it closed, but I was too late. Got some food at a nearby place and then trekked it all the
way out to Kew Gardens, Queens where I stayed with some friends who had just
bought a condo. It’s weird to stay
in an area of town where people had lawns. Within a couple blocks of getting off the subway one could
easily confuse this section of NYC with a suburb of Syracuse. It was strange. But it was nice to stay in a place with
space. I’ll never understand how
any of my other friends in this city subject themselves to living in those
tiny-ass railroad apartments. It
makes no sense. Here I had my own
room and a book about the history of Def Jam Records to lull me to sleep.
OK, so what about the shows. Oh yeah, that happened too. So, as I arrived at St. Vitus Sweet Jesus was just getting
started. These Providence/Boston
dudes have been in a million bands and are continually active people doing a
plethora of different-sounding, but all quite vital, bands. Their singer, Pat Flynn talks a lot
between songs. It’s always good to
have a frontman who has something to say, but I think he may have gone on a bit
too long. The point has been made,
no need to drill it in further. I
made that mistake early on when fronting bands, not to go on for too long
unnecessarily. I figure a dude
with a lengthy track record such as his would pick up on that as well. But at least almost every between-song
rant ended with some nod to how if you liked Sweet Jesus you should just go
listen to Swiz, or pick up a Jason Farrell record instead. It was pretty funny and lent a good
vibe to the already awesome live delivery they had. If you never heard the group think late 80’s/early 90’s
Dischord hardcore. Or for a more
recent example think Give.
Blacklisted have never done it for me. I’ve seen them multiple times in their
various forms and none of it has ever resonated with me. I could never get into the dudes voice,
or his lyrics. Some of the music
is good, but it sounded muddled here and I can’t make out shit. I’ve tried Blacklisted, I really
have. I just can’t hang. It’s not you, it’s me.
So 108 does set number one. It’s all stuff from “Holyname” and “Songs Of
Separation”. It never occurred to
me until just now how much the song “Holyname” has a total Cro-Mags vibe to
it. It sure is a hell of a ripper
to begin a set with. From there on
out basically every song that one would want to hear from those two records was
played… except “I Am Not”, which
is not only one of my favorite songs, but I’m also pretty sure that in all my
times of seeing 108 they have never played it.
For the last four songs they brought out Kate-0-8 to play
second guitar with the band. She
may look like a full-on soccer mom these days but she was raging pretty hard
and singing along with all of the pile-ons. Not too fucking shabby. Additionally, I may add, “Deathbed” will never not bring me
to the verge of tears when they play it.
As an aside, I managed to run into a lot of unexpected
people here as well. There barely
any NYC people I knew present, but plenty of random, unexpected folks from all
over the place showed up to enjoy the show(s). Friends from NJ, Philly, Albany, and even Norfolk, VA were
in attendance and it’s pretty wonderful that this music in a small venue can
drag people from distant locales to all sing along and have fun. So between the two shows I made it my
business to get some eats with some of these fine folks before heading back for
set #2.
I again start things off by catching a portion of Sweet
Jesus set. They deliver more jokes
about Jason Farrell worship, more excessive banter that is half ‘right on!’ and
half ‘OK, I got it two minutes ago’, and more awesome songs.
Blacklisted sounds a bit better this time around, but I’m
still not feeling it.
108 set number two is all “Threefold Misery” and later (more
recent) material and I’m totally OK with that. Unpopular opinion- I think “Threefold Misery” is my overall
favorite record of theirs. But my
feeling on that is that the first time I ever saw 108 “Songs Of Separation” had
already been out for a little bit and I was so impressed with seeing them that
day that I went out and got the record right after. But “Threefold misery” was the first record of theirs to
come out where I was already into the band and saw them play stuff off that
release when they toured on it, so it has a bit more personal relevance to
me. Plus, the bass tone on that
record is so ridiculously awesome and heavy.
So anyway, they played the entire record. The whole thing. They also tossed in a couple songs from
“Curse Of Instinct”, a few from “New Beat…” and “18:61”, which I feel are all
excellent records. 108 is a rare
example of a band that does reunion records that hold up just as well with all
their classic stuff. The band
pulls a little cheat move at the end and plays “Solitary” again with Norm
Brannon playing second guitar for them, as he was a member of the band for a
short time. The whole ting was
extremely well done and extremely exhausting as well. They must have played about 30 songs total between both
sets.
From here it’s the long trek home. I catch up with my friend from Norfolk as we’re both leaving
from the Port Authority at approximately the same time. So we take the subway back and catch up
on old shit while waiting for our respective buses. My stupid bus doesn’t take off until well after midnight,
after some screwed up plans on Greyhound’s end that results in my bus being
packed, not allowing me any space to sleep. I rolled back to town at 5AM, took a nap, and went to dumb
work. Somehow I was still
energized from the incredible shows and plowed through my day with relative
ease.
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