Josie Cotton Band

The Middle East Up slipped in a school night gem of a show this past Wednesday night. Brad Marino Band is a headliner in his own right. His britches ain’t to big to take the opening slot on this solid triple bill. He was totally tubular in the opening slot even sans a direct connection the the Valley Girl flick. He got the crowd lubricated with awesome, communicable, three-chord monty power punk ditties, say it once, why say it again, solos and choruses that were boy toy bomb.

Plimsouls

The Plimsouls were choice fer shure. Our own Anthony Kaczynski (Fire King, Magnetic Fields, any good one-off worth its salt) on lead vocals and snappy rhythm guitar, and the always dapper Garret Vandermolen of Speed Fossil trading his six-string of the low-end four we have a hopefully long-lived Boston version of The Plimsouls. They joined major legacy keeper Eddie Munoz to rip through a party-hardy catalog from "Everyday Things" to "Hush Hush", to the moody break of "Oldest Story in the World."

Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, only one of the best power pop tunes of all time. A" Million Miles Away" was like wicked awesome. It lifted everyone up off the floor and left us spinning in the air to the max.

Josie Cotton

The most awesome surprise of the night was the Josie Cotton band. She of "Johnny Are You Queer" from the Valley Girl soundtrack. Even though it was intended to be LGBTQ positive it rankled both the right and the left and pretty much derailed Josie’s recently launched music career. This was a grody sin to the max cause the gal has tunes, attitude, and solid front-woman moves. The band slips between 80’s sounds (License to Dance) a desert surf groove, a touch of Cramps, Ronnie Spector, and solid garage. "Pussycat Babylon" cranks, Ditto for a swank cover of "Secret Agent Man" and the tubular Swim groove behind "Love Love". "Day of the Gun" is the title track from her most recent disk. Excellent decapitation video. Check it out on Bandcamp. The audience was in on the kitsch and roll wink of Johnny with is hand claps and implied synths.

This was, gag me with a spoon, Josie’s first Boston show. Hopefully, word of mouth from tonight’s fantastic gig will spread and bring her and her excellent, stoked band back to the East Coast soon. This is totally her kind of town. Don't be a wannabe dweeb. Add her to the top of your watch list for sure.

Brad Marino Band

Eddie Munoz - Plimsouls

Garret Vandermolen - Plimsouls

Josie Cotton Band

Josie Cotton

Josie Cotton

Josie Cotton Band

Josie Cotton Band

Josie Cotton Band

Plimsouls

Plimsouls drummer