New Haven's roster of DIY spaces is in a bit of a transition right now, meaning new unfamiliar neighborhoods for me every time I go down to New Haven to see a show, which is kinda neat because it also means new parking challenges. I get way too involved about where I park my car, I guess; like how some people like to collect stupid movie shit, I like to find a good parking spot. Anyway, the venue at Daggett Street is in a pretty interesting place, partly because it's at the end of a long brick-walled alleyway behind an old factory building (long ago converted to 'artists spaces'), making it sorta like walking around the old Colt building in Hartford. Oh wait, I just noticed that I spelled Daggett wrong in the photo caption up there. Oh, well, who gives a fuck.
It's been a couple of years since I saw Night Birds at The Whitney House, and in the meantime they've switched guitar players, which doesn't mean that they still can't blow the doors off a place whenever they want to. Mike Hunchback was an awesome player and it was fun to watch him rolling around and stuff, but the 'new' guy is pretty good, too, and he still double-picks the riffs so that they sound like a Man or Astro-Man LP on 78. A bunch of little squirts were running around crashing into people while Night Birds were tearing it up, but one of the things I've noticed about New Haven which is kinda cool is that there's always someone around who steps in and straightens things out.
Temps were still a bit elevated afterwards, though, and maybe that's why Estrogen Highs (playing last) came out and did one of the more aggressive sets that I've seen them play lately-- although their new LP was out, too, so maybe they just wanted to throw down. The new record has some great tracks on it, like the opener "Tell It To Them"-- which, when they were playing it live over the past few shows, practically sounded like the Ramones compared to the rest of their set-- and "Seventh Sunday", which has a Blue Öyster Cult type riff or sounds like something off "Malcolm X Park" or "Series of Sneaks", or whatever. "Irrelevant Future", out now on Trouble In Mind, on mixed vinyl so yours might look different from mine.
One of Tommy Perkins' three or four new bands, Little Seizures, were one of the openers, and I was surprised as hell to see that Bill Florio was their bass player, since I used to read "Greedy Bastard" all the time. I've never met Bill in person before, so I went up to him and told him how much I used to dig his zine, but he didn't seem to want to hear it and sorta blew me off like "yeah, right, whatever". Little Seizures were definitely rock and roll on this night, and finished their set with a cover of "Civilization's Dying" (Zero Boys), which had everyone going nuts. Tommy's got another band, Mutant Genes, who are a bit more hardcore and are playing at Whitney House later this month; their demo's on Bandcamp, you should look it up. Supposedly both Little Seizures and Mutant Genes have 7"-ers coming out later this year, but I wouldn't know, nobody tells me anything.
"The Seventh Sunday of The Ordinary Times"
Night Birds -
"Midnight Movies"
Little Seizures -
