Thursday, May 13: "Join Together with the Bands" @ Acoustic Cafe, Bridgeport
Whilst partying in Bridgeport this past weekend, we became real-life acquainted with our FB friend Julia (this happens almost every time we go out now - awesome!). She is a self-appointed independent cheerleader of the Bridgeport scene, and keeps us up to date on what's happening at great venues in BPort like Acoustic Cafe and Two Boots. Who knew? Friend her up if that's your hood. We hope she doesn't mind the public blog mention, but those 797 people can't possibly all be real-life friends, right?
So thanks, Julia, for letting us know that a nice local band we've been wanting to see, The Mercury Seed, will be playing at Acoustic Cafe's "Thursday Night Music Club," along with other area musicians - T-Bone, Mike Cusato Band, and some other peeps we haven't quite heard of but we're willing to learn.
Julia started out blogging like us, but then moved her game over to FB, which we must admit, is the quick and easy way to communicate and invite. We're gonna try and tough it out as bloggers with an FB component though. FB is quick and easy for sure, but all those invites and friendships and RSVPs seem so fickle and nebulous. As she explained to us on Saturday, she just wanted to make the best out of living in Bridgeport and let people know that they didn't need to leave town to find things to do. That's how we feel about CT in general (hence the blog). If you're complaining there's nothing to do, you're lying, lazy, not trying, or maybe you just don't have a really awesome partner - in crime, that is - to go out with and elevate trips to the Lot or the local bar to a criminally good time. The latter we can't help you with. We also can't help it that, yes, CT is like "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon," wherein "your ex" plays the role of Kevin Bacon and "everyone else you meet" plays the role of Hollywood. Sorry. LOL, Kevin Bacon just played here a few weeks ago. Maybe he did your ex while he was in town. Wouldn't that be ironic?
Whoa, digression much! Point being, we'd like to see the Mercury Seed, Thursday at Acoustic Cafe. Or anywhere else. Repeat listens to their newest CD, Remains, has revealed the strength of the lyrics, which seem to be the post-mortem for a relationship gone sour, where the guy is all sad because couldn't they just have communicated better? OMG, Volker Lemmer, please be our boyfriend?
Saturday night - date night again! We rounded up a couple young gentlemen friends (i.e. our beards) and set off on another adventure. Our first destination was Matt Mullarkey's much ballyhooed (by us) show of punk rock flier art. As per our own advice, we took the scenic route (Route 8) to get there. We've been raised on lore of BPort's epic poverty and scariness, and we're sure it has its moments but frankly, we found the neighborhood we ended up in downright quaint and certainly "not any worse looking than Hartford." Well, other than the "gallery" itself which was kind of an abandoned looking building surrounded by barbed wire (check out the FB gallery).
We've mentioned Matt numerous times on the blog - he's been a Connecticut punk scene fixture forever, with bands including The Injections, Elvis McMan, The Pink Slips, and currently The Midnightmares, as well as a flier artist extraordinaire. We've enjoyed both his music and fliers for years (something like half Jackie Scenic's life, and nearly half of Katie's, if you want to do that math...). So of course it was lovely to see the man, the band and the artwork. Jackie is pretty sure she attended this show in the late 90s:
We caught the tail end of The Midnightmares, and were once again taken in by their screamy, raucous charms. We also enjoyed part of the set by Shangk, who look like regular dudes, but rock out like nobody's business. We're going to see if anyone we know will book these bands in Hartford. We're sick of having to drive so far!
Well, either it was too fucking loud or we are too fucking old, but in any event, we had other business to attend to and didn't stay in Bridgeport long. Pretty soon it was on to Rudy's in New Haven. After a moment of panic over the fact that the bar was out of cider, we settled on some drinks (including a beer called WTF, which we've just now realized is, ugh, a Wilco reference) and sat down at one of those giant wooden tables. Between the tables, the poor lighting, the general rowdiness, and of course the ever-present cowled and scowling figures lurking in all the dark corners, the whole thing was very Prancing Pony.
The first band we saw was Skeletonbreath. They play that gypsy punk business, like Gogol Bordello or Kiss Kiss, or all those bands from the soundtrack for Everything is Illuminated. Only they do it strictly instrumental. They go completely spastic on every song, with the one dude sawing away on his violin, and the drummer attacking his kit like a rabid animal. We're convinced they referenced a GWAR riff in one song. We were transfixed. What with the absence of lyrical content and the intensity of their live energy, we suspect they may lost something in translation on CD, but we'd love to see them again. Maybe a field trip to Southpaw in Brooklyn June 4 is in order (we've totally been there).
We spoke with the bass player of 420 Blackbirds early in the night, and from her mellow demeanor and Temple Grandin-esque wardrobe, we expected something a little bit country. And, well, there were some of those basslines (you know the ones), but they were rowdy, heavy, seasoned punk/rock. We were told the personnel in this band have been CT scene fixtures for 20+ years, so maybe we've seen their previous work, we don't know... We do know the singer looks like one of our romantic interests, Vampire Bill from True Blood. We'd love to see him - er, them - again too.
By the time the Vultures (more New Haven music fixtures) came on, we were kind of all rocked out. Our toilet paper ear plugs were wearing thin (shame on Rudy's not selling ear protection, btw). Alas it was time to go. Our time in New Haven was, as usual, fraught with scenic envy. We admired their men, their women, their Belgian fries. This woman in particular:
We're already planning a return visit. We suggest you do the same. We're thinking burlesque next Sunday at Jokers Wild.
"Back in the day" Team Scenic used to be on a (snail) mailing list for Matt Mullarkey (of The Injections, Elvis McMan, The Pink Slips, The Midnightmares) and get all these great fliers in the mail about upcoming punk shows at venues you'll all remember like the Tune Inn and the Muni. Check out this pre-internets (no websites listed!) classic:
We were psyched about seeing shows, but we loved the fliers too! We weren't the only ones - the Gallery at Black Rock is putting on a show of Matt's "disposable art" at the Gallery at 51 Crescent Ave. in Bridgeport. The show opening will include a performance by Matt's current band, the Midnightmares, who we've seen before and thought were a ton of screamy, lady-fronted fun. There will also be beer and another band, Shangk.
And just for kicks, and to keep things personally nostalgic, here's a piece of Mullarkey art (from the Injections demo cover?) copied by Katie Scenic onto an absurd coat she imagined was acceptable scenewear in high school:
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