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| The
Negatives
Beerland, September 24, 2003
Though
the crowd was sparse, the energy filled the room. This classic
70's garage/punk band, The Negatives, is kinda Ramones meets
the Angry Samoans. "Gregative" beat the crap out
of the drums, never missing a beat and never slowing down.
Each song demonstrated different tempos, the change-ups maintaining
the focus of my attention. As Gregative put it, "It's
like riding a bike," after admitting he hadn't picked
up a pair of drumsticks in two years... until the night before
when they tried to remember the old Negatives set list.
Gregative
lives in California now where he is not playing music and
most certainly wasting his talent. Members of the Deadites,
Darin and Mike, contributed to the powerful and theatrical
performance, by swinging guitars and running out into the
crowd. Guitarist Darin belted out the tunes and plowed away
at the guitar as Mike thumped away rhythmically at the bass.
The show was great, and better than was expected. With only
a scattered few observing this performance, I left with the
feeling that Austin missed out on a good show. But then again...what's
new?
- Katy Corser |
| The
Dirty Sweets /The Little Killers
Beerland, October 2, 2003
It's
getting hard for me not to see the Dirty Sweets when I go
out these days. What can I say that I haven't said before,
Penny wasn't stabbin' drunk, but she killed anyway. The guys
played like they were pissed off, bolstered by a mini-tour
with the Tyrades in Illinois. And I don't know if you'd call
it an encore when the audience doesn't let your band get off
stage, but they played one more song than they at first wanted
to. They did GG Allin's rattlesnake baiter, "Bite It
You Scum". I expected to see more people out, but I imagine
some of you drank a weeks worth of beer at the Turbonegro
show on Monday.
New
York's Little Killers played before, amidst mucho hype about
the show they put on at last year's Blackout rock-fiesta in
Chicago. The threesome featured a Carrie-Anne Moss look alike
on bass named Sara who was a total tease. She kept her back
to the audience most of the time and only turned around to
do occasional backup vocals. But when she did, whew yeah...
I mean is it chilly in here or what? HELLO! She was pointing
those things right at me, I swear. But aside from my infantile
rocker girl fascination being satisfied, their debut release
on Crypt records (see review in this issue) made me expect
a bit more from them live.
They
played a tame set of catchy up-tempo rock songs and were completely
non-offensive. The group appeared to be caught between blowing
their New York cool and opening up to the crowd. They sheepishly
mumbled something about playing some bad shows lately but
that Austin rules (duh). Songs like "Mind Of It's Own"
and "Spider" got my fist in the air but they should've
played every song with the intensity that they did on the
closer, their records' opener, "Volume".
-Dave
Roybal
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| Rockland
Eagles
Beerland, September 20, 2003
“Cock rock rules where indie rock stood,” yowled
the Rockland Eagles over a wall of arena rock mayhem.
With the Pocket Fish’rmen a happy memory, the Rockland
Eagles have taken the mantle as Austin’s premiere tongue-in-cheek
rock band, paying homage to Evel Knievel, hot rods, the Six
Million Dollar Man and the very genre of music they have so
readily embraced. Between the twin leads of former Fish’rman
Chris Burns and Andy Thomas, the guest bass thumping of Chepo
Pena and the Lemmy distorted vocals, there was absolutely
no excuse not to shake it till it broke, which the small but
enthusiastic crowd did with abandon.
Borrowing from not only 70’s shlock rock, the Eagles
show their versatility in and knowledge of the rock realm
as a whole. I’m pretty sure I heard the guitar riff
from Wire’s Strange as well as several other splices
of 3-chord rock and roll greatness, illustrating the band’s
primarily punk rock upbringing in that tiny, one school town
called Rockland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, not real original you say. I’ve heard
it all before, you sniff with a superior air. Well, what part
of rock has been original in the last twenty years? Ain’t
the point, you soul-patched loser. Why don’t you take
your whiny, pretentious, jazz- and ambient-loving ass back
to the coffee shop that aborted you and get the fuck out of
my face? I’m here to ROCK!
And thanks to the smokin’ alumni of the Rockland High
School for the Mentally Challenged and Spastic, rock I did.
-Trevor Wallace
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