Scurvy Dog Parking Lot Mega Fest

Providence, RI

May 26, 2019

The Scurvy Dog, like Ralph’s in Worcester, is a dive bar with a sense of style. Not much bigger than a shoe box doused in reds and blacks hung with freaky, vaguely southern border dioramas, a pool table, long bar, and a decent selection of tequila. It drips hard rock, metal, and big bikes. The party is in the parking lot. It is a perfect weather day. There’s a fenced off patio area for chillin’ on the outside. I heard they do a couple of these each summer. Loose and rocking. Kid and dog friendly. Keep your ears peeled for a date.

The bands complement the decor - fast, hard and heavy. Most are spinning a kicking mix of punk, metal and AC/DC. You can hear Death Pesos alchemy on behind the slide show. Throne of Saturn take a Sabbath dive minus the missing base player and still pull it off. Blasphemaddicts alternate singers. One cookie monster one high and hard. Good mix.

The big kids from Boston are well represented. MOTO, sans J.V., switch Sleaze over to bass, up the testosterone, and tear through a set of hits and obscurities. The Hi End tunes get more crisp and tight every sighting. They use their last three tunes to give the crowd a soon to be summertime blast through a taste of Alice, Iggy, and Bowie. Little Billy Lost flip between Jim Melanson and Fred Pineau tunes and vocals for some update old school Boston rock.

New Hell comes on as the sun goes down. They don’t seem to have much use for words but the yapping and howling hit the spot. The three gals in Towanda bring the balance to the punk side with a whirling dervish on post-punk guitar and vocals and a tight rhythm section laying down the bedrock. Add them to your list. Zero Hour closed it out with a frat punk groove. The kid could sing and the front row crowd was digging it.

Food truck by Mings.