Poetry tonight and music review

Oooops. It is tonight. The poetry is on March 4 at Mangia. Tonight. My bad.

I went down to South Grand and no luck, but I was planning on going to CBGBs to see some music. I did see a southside Stein creation, Catholic Guilt, and Noman from Detroit. I watched much of the show out in the freezing fresh clean oxygen of the outdoors. You can stand outside and look at the band thought the window like they are in a fish tank, instead of looking at peoples backs inside the hazy warm interior. You can hear just fine from the front.

Catholic Guilt was actually fairly interesting. Open jam noise by definition, something I usually don't go for, but it wasn't as noise as the stuff that I don't get and the jam was not hippy at all- more metal/punk. It sounded like an open clash of rock guitar/drums, but with some degree of cohesion. A little cohesion goes a long way.

The headline band, Noman was fun. Punkish youthful Detroit rock and roll with that alluring old motor city edge. Noman even had a healthy streak of soul and a dose of anthem pop in the core of the punchy rock and roll exterior. Gotta love that.

halo...tightens...screws loose

The Akita filled in today on the Underworld on KDHX and played an array of music from 1981 to 2007 with a heavy local bent. Downright historic. The man is an archivist of Saint Louis music history for the last 30 years.  You can listen to the show online by listening here. He should have done a Great American Music piece.

And on such weekend of reunions this brings back a flood of memories.

Listening earlier today I heard the Urge, Sinister Dane, Fragile Porcelain Mice, Three Merry Widows, The Eyes, I think the Ded Bugs and more. I love Sinister Dane, Fragile, MU330, Tuff Nutz, Small Ball Paul, the Unconscious, the Nukes and such. Some of the tunes were not my favorite, but I absolutely loved hearing the tunes today. Oh, there was such a rivalry between the genres of local music back then. The punk rockers vs the "country drunkards in the basement." And back in the day I used to slam dance quite regularly. I was a roughneck.

Speaking of slam dancing, doing my research I found this very funny clip that is now posted youtube from a Sinister Dane show back 1994 at Mississippi Nights. About 40 seconds into the video you can see my flat topped, 21 year old fat ass stage diving with a green NYC logo T-shirt that I picked up at CMJ and a pair of combat boots I picked up on the military surplus store Belmont west of Clark. I am sure that I was likely launching Dwight Carter up in the pit at that Sinister Dane show. Roughneck!!

And in this season of past memories, it was a total flood at last night's Fishbone concert at City Museum. It was an interesting crowd- mostly 30 something. I would say I was probably right in the middle on the age, maybe a bit young. Most of the people there were a few years ahead of me, but I was usually the youngest in the room back then. The house was all rock and rollers. There were a few early 20s, but very few. I don't think the kids know who Fishbone is anymore. Either way, it was a super cool crowd with faces that I remember from mosh pits, waiting in line outside of shows, as patrons at the Side Door, in bands, doorguys, bartenders and parties. The crowd was mostly the scene of 1227, Kennedy's, Mississippi Nights and some Hi Pointe. That was so much fun. I was such a punk kid.

I had only seen Fishbone maybe five times back in the day, but STL was a second home to the band for they played here about every three months or so in the late 80s and early 90s. The show was good, a bit noisy, but the room was not made for a band. But what a beautiful room it is and smoke free!

Tonight Fragile is playing at Westport Plaza and on the 29th of December MU330 is playing at Off Broadway. And listen to the Underworld from Nov 22!

Happy Thanksgiving. Gobble Gobble!