Hey look, it's our old friends, Bobbie Peru, or the new American edition of the band, which is ever-so-slightly less exotic now that they are based in CT instead of the UK, and yet much, much more accessible. It's all a give and take, isn't it? We've told you all about these guys before. Catch Bobbie Peru this Thursday at The Space, along with The Poison Control Center, Fan-Tan, and After Three Seconds.
Bobbie Peru will be hitting downtown Hartford next Friday, June 25 with a gig at Up or on The Rocks. You'd have to drag us kicking and screaming (or bound and gagged) to a club downtown, but we understand many people like that sort of thing. Whoa, that sentence could be interpreted a couple different ways. You decide.
We've mentioned a bit about Bobbie Peru's interesting history and frontman Bert Genovese's Connecticut connections when they came through last November. We checked them out at Sully's, where they played with their buddies Slim Francis (a Brooklyn band with CT roots) and Bloodshot Hooligans. Both bands return to the area Saturday for two shows - a 2 p.m. matinee at Brass City Records and a normal nighttime gig at Cafe Nine. Bobbie Peru will be debuting their new American lineup (last tour's rhythm section was Brit) which includes New Haven's Kurt D'Aniello on bass and George Matthews on drums. Both these bands are bad-ass. Well, Slim Francis is kind of low-key, so maybe bad-ass is not the word, but we like them a lot. Check out one of these gigs!
Saturday, Oct. 16: Kimono Draggin, Bobbie Peru, The Clearer @ Stella Blues, New Haven
Here's hoping you aren't already too overwhelmed by the volume of music posts this week. But if musicians are the only entertainers in the state that can be arsed with promoting themselves to us with a more substantial message and visuals than a fucking Facebook invite, well, we're just gonna be like a [much] less long-winded version of CT Indie around here (just joshin' yas, CT Indie, you do great work, and we get long in the wind too sometimes).
Attentive readers are already familiar with friends-of-the-blog Bobbie Peru; Kimono Draggin' are New Haven legends; The Clearer are new to us, but we like it so far.
Here's a vid by Bobbie Peru, not like we're playing favorites or anything, but they stay in touch really well and have great production value:
Hey, if any of our NYC area friends are reading: Bobbie Peru's next gig is Oct. 29 at VIP (Very Important Punk) bar, Otto's Shrunken Head (we've totally been there!).
Several years ago when I was journalisting professionally I had the pleasure of writing about a band called Adom, who I thought really had something. They were from Georgia, but their label had moved them to Manchester, England, which is very sexy on its own. Additionally, they had attracted the interest of my favorite proggy band, Porcupine Tree, who took them around on tour in Europe. Adom played an excellent show in 2004 at BAR in New Haven, and I was sure that the lead singer and I must be soulmates, since he was hot and worked in newspapers too.
Alas, it was not to be. The band was not to be at all. But their legacy survives, sort of, via Bobbie Peru, a band featuring Adom's bass player, who is also hot and works in newspapers, as frontman. Bobbie Peru is a lot more abrasive and punk, and has fucked up anatomy porn lyrics about getting eaten alive and shat out. They are touring with their good friends, Slim Francis, who sound nothing like them (they sound like agreeable classic American rock, or "indie" as we call it when it's new).
They are playing at Cousin Larry's in Danbury this week, and they'll be in Hartford Nov. 21 at Sully's.
Oft blogged-about-before friends-of-the-blog Bobbie Peru and their BFFs Kimono Draggin' are playing a gig in honor of their new split 7-inch release! Bobbie Peru play raucous, aggro alternative rock of some sort. Frontman Bert has a stunning wardrobe, maintains a website and always provides us with fresh visuals and clear, friendly email invites to his gigs, thus making him our favorite person ever. Come to this gig and find out whether he's lost the almost-English accent he acquired during his years overseas. Exotic!
Saturday night was a momentous occasion - the reunion of estranged-ish blog partners Jackie and Katie Scenic, who journeyed to New Haven for datenight - dinner and a show! Right away our plans went awry. We intended to eat dinner at Miya's Sushi (we have a crush on one of the servers), but we were thwarted by a ridiculously packed house and hour long estimated wait time. Screw that. Scenics have no such patience. Every where you turn in New Haven there's some tempting "ethnic" food establishment, but we opted for a sure thing - a revisit to the York Street Noodle House where we shared a vegetarian dim sum sampler and ordered identical bowls of coconut curry soup. Or almost identical. Different noodle choices. Choices! What bliss. We've already told you how great this Noodle House is in a previous post.
After gorging ourselves at the Noodle House it was a little early for hitting the bars, and Jackie is off the sauce for the moment, so we took a little walk ("to burn off a calorie") down the street and stopped for hot chocolate at the Blue State Coffee, where Jackie enjoyed a straight edge hardcore hot chocolate.
We also "enjoyed" a little anxiety about being surrounded by Yalies (we assume everyone in New Haven goes to Yale), but comforted ourselves with the knowledge that before they were Ivy Leaguers they were just asskissing high school students. Insufferable!
Once the clock had struck an appropriate hour we headed to Stella Blues, where friends-of-the-blog Bobbie Peru and Kimono Draggin' were playing. We'd never been to this joint before. It's pretty vanilla for New Haven (bear in mind, our New Haven experiences are usually limited to Cafe Nine and Rudy's/Elm Bar gigs - we don't exactly visit their Black Bear). We had a laugh at their cheesy wall posters. Who's idea of rock n roll decor is this - Lindsay Weir?
LOL. The patrons were pretty straight too. This may have been a not-quite-right venue choice for such freaky bands (who each cleared the room a little more - what's up with women and hating bands, eh?). We've seen Bobbie Peru before and enjoyed mainman Bert's always excellent fasion choices and the band's aggressive alternative noise all over again. The band was celebrating the release of their new split 7-inch with their music BFFs Kimono Draggin' - isn't that quaint?
Kimono Draggin' have been around for years, but somehow we've missed them! Our loss, because they are basically our newest Favorite Band (which doesn't mean they've displaced anyone else in our hearts - they've entered the Favorite Band class). It's a bit of a cop-out to say, but this band really must be experienced live to believe, understand, know, love, etc. It just isn't going to translate on your computer screen. This may be why we hadn't seen them yet! But we know better now.
These guys are kind of like Mister Bungle, if Mister Bungle was actually fun (for us) to listen to. By which we mean they are amazing technical musicians playing silly, schizoid music that pretty much makes a raucous mockery of overblown rock and metal as well as overly earnest alternative styles via genre hopping, shredding, goofy lyrics, outrageous falsettos, and unexpected references. They also made adorable small penis jokes about their half (3 1/2") of the 7-inch. You know this means their actual cocks are HUGE.
After the set we told them how wonderful they are (though it's clear from their playing that they fully realize their own wonderfulness) and how we regret that we'll never see them in Hartford, since Hartford pretty much has a raging semi for vanilla (the word of the night) shitrock cover bands and innocuous jammy puke bands like the McLovins (OMG they're soooo young!). If Thomas Kinkade were a band, he'd win the Hartford Advocate's Band Slam for sure. It's like the complacency capitol of the world or something.
Pardon the lack of posts in recent weeks. I was busy adjusting to a new temporary job and working on a 30 day Bikram yoga challenge (daily sessions!). Tonight will be day 33 if I make it. And why shouldn't I, what else is there to do on a Monday night? Or any night? Drink? Sleep? Ponder the depressing reality, as I do more and more often and in increasingly vivid terms, that my last "real" job and "non-imaginary" romantic involvement were so far in the past that I can't actually remember what either is like? Haha, just kidding - life is so wonderful and there is plenty to do in CT, all the time!
Well, it's a little late for tonight - you're probably tired at the start of the work week anyway, because you have a job, so let's just cruise straight to Tuesday. You could go to Trivia Night with great background music at the Half Door in Hartford, or attend Real Board Games at RAW, where scrabble is probably a drinking game.
CT's awesome music booking, Hartford neglecting Manic Productions has been presenting free indie rock at BAR, one of our favorite New Haven venues, on Wednesday evenings, and this Wednesday our favorite guys, Sidewalk Dave, will be playing along with Motel Motel (who we assume are like Duran Duran, only cheaper and with suspicious stains on the comforter) and Dinosaur Feathers, who are archaeologically sound. I haven't been to BAR in ages, but remember it fondly for fanciful bathrooms, pizza, pool and own-brewed beer.
This being "first week" you can hit up the Wadsworth Atheneum's monthly party on Thursday evening. This month has a French theme, and as always there will be participatory art, live entertainment and a film, in addition to the great museum. Give your sweatpants the night off!
First week also means a Friday open house at Hooker Brewery. Maybe some assholes had a domestic dispute at your house and you need a new pint glass. (You get a pint glass.)
I've mentioned before that some of my peeps and I used to be Jesse Malin regulars. Well, the story-rocking grown-up punker is back in the area again Friday, this time at Cafe Nine, appearing with locals we've totally heard of, The Black Noise Scam, and Christian Marrone, a guy we are Facebook friends with. Sounds like the Jesse is doing the full band thing this time around, which is promising.
Friday is also the live debut of friends-of-the-blog, The Ninas, who will be at the Bank Street Cafe in New London. CT peeps may remember some of the bandmembers from their previous bands like the McStatics and Legs Akimbo, if we've got our facts straight. More and better detail on these guys later!
Saturday our pals Bobbie Peru will be performing at Snapper Magees in Torrington. We've already told you Snapper's is great and Torrington rules. We recommend you make a day of it, including shopping at Brazen Betties and eating from the Rocket Fine Street Food truck. We're actually dumping Bobbie Peru in favor of their best friend Kimono Draggin' cuz we're total friend fuckers from back in the day, but don't that stop you from seeing them!
Oh, one more first week thingie - "womens party" at Tisane Sunday night. Maybe we'll start with brunch and just stay right on through.
Well, there's most of the week for you, in case I'm too busy sticking my head up my ass (IT'S A BIKRAM POSTURE OK!) to post again soon.
The other night at the Bobbie Peru/Kimono Draggin' gig we saw this hipster looking guy (beard, tattoos, Magic Hat No. 9), so obviously we had to chat him up, which went kind of like this:
CT Scenic: Is that your girlfriend?
Guy: No, I just met her.
CT Scenic: Is she on drugs? I'll have what she's having.
Guy: No, she went to mime school.
CT Scenic: No shit? Haha, like that Bobcat Goldthwait clown movie. Robin Williams is teaching mime school. It's a classic. Anyway, she should probably ask for a refund. I am not buying her glass box routine.
Friday, February 11: Damn Broads (and much, much more) @ El n Gee, New London
Saturday, February 12: Valentine's Day Punk Rock Show @ Anna Liffey's, New Haven
We've mentioned our little crushipoo we have on the Damn Broads here before... Well those chicks are bringing the noise in New London and New Haven this weekend. And what do you know? A club called the El n Gee still exists. We spent important parts of our formative years there. Wonder what it's like now! We haven't heard of any of those other bands, but they're punk so, you know.
Saturday's show is a veritable friends-of-the-blog-fest, featuring the aforementioned Broads, the oft-mentioned Bobbie Peru, and the maybe once mentioned, stylish and handsome Main Street Suits (we totally know them - er, one of them!). And The McGunks, who we totally don't know, but they seem like a good time, if you enjoy being yelled at.
Ooh, all this New London posting. Maybe we'll give them their own tag!
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