Fleshtones and Lyres and Prime Movers YIKEES

The Fleshtones - Lyres - The Prime Movers

Harpers Ferry 3/7/2008

Every one has their story of the fabulous Fleshtones concert they have seen. Miss Lyn has her gig at the Streets. Blowfish has the first gig in Boston at Cantones as the classic gig. This gig had some encouraging indications. The Fleshtones have been in a productive period with two excellent albums and reports of energized shows and the release of their biography SWEAT which was a rewarding read. That same book tells how the Fleshtones were fans of Pokemono Jeff and Lyres from the earliest days so the addition of Lyres on the bill was perfect. The Prime Movers on the bill also seemed genius. These long time players who never seem to have a bad show held their own on this bill of legendary show bands.

The crowd seemed to appreciate the strong bill and basically was there on time to see all three bands. The Prime Movers didn't take much time to prove themselves. They seemed very comfortable on this large raised stage. The sound was very good and remained so for the entire evening. I love this club. There was lots of action from Cam Ackland of course. They do a good measure of covers and they do a version Shake Some Action that is devastating. I've heard them do this a few times and it never fails to kill. This alone would be worth the night.
The Movers had what all the bands had this night: a solid rhythm section. All night you could feel the drums and bass of all three groups locked together and atlernatley propelling or providing the solid ground for the other players. The glory goes to the singer/guitarists but these rhythm sections get MVP awards always.

Cam Ackland Prime Movers	Jeff Sugarman Prime Movers	Cam tries to figure out that whole mike stand thing.
Dan McCormack Lyres	Pokemono Jeff Lyres	Ric Coraccio Lyres
Bar band on the bar. Fleshtones	Ken Fox Fleshtones	Dennis McCarthy takes the stage during the Fleshtones
Keith Streng in air	Pyramid of Fleshtones	Peter Zaremba Fleshtones

As we've been saying here and will say again, Lyres are in top form. They have been that way for a long while. You know at the BGN we get a lot of the "it will never be as good as the old days" rhetoric and to those people we say shut up and get out there and listen and maybe start with a Lyres gig. Some nights with these guys are hard to believe. This night was up there. Pokemono Jeff looked fantastic, trim and in full form. Rick and Paul the dependable duo were also solid. Lyres have had many guitarists but none have been as assured as Danny and I think that is one of the reasons for their current successful run.

All photos by Blowfish

Prime Movers	Polemono Jeff Lyres
Push up contest Fleshtones	Tim Kelly of WMBR intros the Tones

So there we were with two great sets. Now the bar is up for the Fleshtones. Not to worry of course. The Fleshtones rocked up the night. The stage antics were tons of fun. The posing, the jumping, and the fun with instruments were all there. See the pictures for further illumination. They jumped in the audience a few times and got up on the bar and played their way out of the club at the end and hey, it was raining hard out there.

It was reassuring to see them live and still in action although if you listen to their last two CD's you can hear that they still are in a creative groove. They along with a lot of us in the audience have been around and seen a lot of rock and roll since 1976 or so and it looks like we like it too much to stop. Everyone that night will tell you how great it was, it's your job to be there the next time.