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Kid Gulliver, Club Linehan A Go Go, Billy Connors Project, The Stigmatics Club Bohemia, Cambridge, MA March 9, 2018
Club Bohemia deserves more props than it gets. The cave in the basement of the Cantab is an unpretentious, low-light dive with a proudly old-school feel. The gal behind the bar is gracious. She pours a stiff drink, the price is right, and the water she keeps at the side of the bar tastes like it just broke off Antartica. Mickey Bliss is a jack of all trades. He juggles management of the often chaotic stage and the demands of four or five bands on the bare bones mixing board. He’s a snazzy dresser, plays cool jazz at the end of the night and keeps the stage open to a wide range of tunesters. True, your mom might not use the bathroom, but they are no longer toxic gas chambers.
Club Bohemia hosted a well-attended basement bash - with cake. Kid Gulliver opened the night with a tuneful mix of melodic pop built around Simone Berk’s agreeable vocals and Dave Armillotti’s concise, judiciously distorted guitar. Berk’s brings a heart on sleeve romantic bent to lyrics about love and lust in all of its states, liquid, solid and gas. Their recent EP, Spree, is catchy as H3N2 flu. It reminds you of why listening to a band’s music before a show pays off. I Like Your Hair, is a pop confection that gives the Tiramisu Cake a run for its money.
Club Linehan A Go Go gives The Q a chance to pull out his crazy mix of feral stray covers. Kenne Highland gyrates like Elvis in Vegas on "Burnin' Love". Syd Barrett’s solo slow blues, "Maisie", morphs into John Lee Hooker’s "I’m Bad Like Jesse James". The Pretty Things homage to teenage rockers on the prowl for nighttime kicks, "Midnight to Six", gets a call and response. The band slither through Peter Green’s "Rattlesnake Shake" and howl through "TV Eye". Finally, Ringo gets a nod on the jaunty car crash lament, "Don’t Pass Me Bye".
The Billy Connors Project is quintessential Boston rock. Fast or slow the experience shows. The tunes are as tight Ray Boy’s drums. The Q did double duty and laid down the big bottom end. Having both Connors and Adam Sherman switching off on songs and vocals gives BCP twice as much good shit as most bands have on their best night. Connors is a rough-edged local jewel. No weepie nostalgia in this room. The bloodline still runs bright red. The songs are so good that they pull the dancers to the front of the stage. "I Know My Place" and "Stranded" should be all over the underground garage. BCP keep the home fires burning.
The Stigmatics brought a hot new batch of their Stones on punk concoctions out for beta testing. They contrast the sharp BCP with a loose sound that caterwauls in the night but never gets lost in the dark. Leader Pete McCormack starts the roll with a caustic take on the newly minted "Drama Queen". "All Used Up" is anything but. It has tightened up over the year; the strut more pronounced, the chorus bigger and better. Bob Roos keeps his solos crisp and in your face. The Stigmatics lean into the better side of classic rock as they stretch out on "Highway", another new tune. They show their black leather stripes as they blitz through a cover of "Born to Lose". The tempo shows no mercy for new drummer Chris Fegela. He kicked up the click and fit right in.
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