You Could Pack A Bag Full Of The Things I've Forgot

This night coulda been a disaster, since I almost went to Howe Street by mistake (what the fuck do I know, right?)... I didn't really feel like going to a show on this particular night, but I almost can't resist going to see bands in New Haven when I get the chance because it's one of my top three favorite cities, next to Boston and New York (but not Paris, which kinda looks like a shithole from the airport on south)... First, Tim and Matt (Dead Uncles) and Dennis (Iron Hand) started things off (cuz no one else wanted to play) and did a Neil Young cover, and then Spit-Take came out and kinda knocked me back on my heels for a bit. Spit-Take just recorded a demo at Dead Air which sounds pretty good, but no way does the demo approach how great they sound live, especially how heavy and thick Joe's guitar riffs are (fuck, I hope I'm getting their names right). Their demo's called "Coffee", and all of the song titles have something or other do with a pot of coffee -- "Coffee Filter", "Clean Water", "Heat", "The Grounds", "Fair Trade" -- even though none of the songs are actually about making coffee. "Coffee Filter" is sort of about waking up with no TP in the house and having to use a coffee filter instead, so that's kinda worth a chuckle I guess. I keep thinking of Get Bent and any number of Dead Broke/86'd type bands when I listen to them, not sure if that's an accurate comparison or not but there it is anyway. Bottom line is, after seeing them once now, Spit-Take have jumped up to the head of the class as far as I'm concerned-- I mean, I'd struggle to mention more than one or two similarly-minded bands from the Connecticut/Western Mass area who're better than them, and this is a band that's only played maybe three shows and just posted their first demo about a week ago.

Last night was one of the times when Peeple Watchin' were asked to play some Pantera, though I'm sure there have been others. Sadie came out with a total warlock-looking guitar and wearing a red vest with a cool "Replacements Stink" patch on it, but then she took the vest off before the first song. I was like, "hey, that's a cool patch" and she was like, "So?", and I was like "SO PUT THE VEST BACK ON, FUCKER!" which basically earned me one of those "who's this asshole?" type looks, which I'm used to. If you haven't checked out Peeple Watchin', they're kinda like Bent Outta Shape with extra hard-rock riffs, which sounds cool to most people, plus they tear shit up when they play live, it's like a Vinnie Vincent Invasion concert or something (just kidding). They have a great album out on Nervous Nelly and you should go buy it, probably.

Talking about "Renegade" by Styx played a big part in this night, for some reason, and then there was the part where Matt Rowe gave me a copy of the Dead Uncles LP, which had me all choked up because it was the first time ever that a Connecticut band gave me a free copy of their LP. Well, maybe Oiltanker did once, I don't really remember, but still, Dead Uncles.

(show review reprinted from Inc Dec #2, which actually hasn't even been started yet. that's a joke)