POSTED: Monday, May 10, 2010, 10:37 PM
Filed Under: Critical Mass
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| Photo | John Vettese |
The walls were shakin' with a chorus of moans
Let's play a game of
Band to Get the Most People Dancing Wins. At their CD release show on Friday, local punkabillies
T.J. Kong and the Atomic Bomb had whole of Johnny Brendas' fricking moving. Now, we could point to the free-flowing
Dogfish Aprihop or
Yards Tavern Spruce. The trio of shithammered ladies gyrating wildly in front of the stage, shrieking the words to every damn song from Kong's new full-length
Idiots. Maybe their uninhibited enthusiasm made the rest of the crowd more comfortable with the whole
Let's Jump Around idea — at one point
Needles Jones, standing near me at stage left, conceded "I can't remember the last time I saw the girls go this crazy." But what was the driving force behind it all? The slammin', amped up bluegrass spitting offstage.
Dan Bruskewicz's gravely, throaty vocals. Mosh-tempo washtub jams like "
Helena Handbasket." Kong got the people dancing. They win.
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
The competition was solid all around. Preceding Kong, West Philly faves
The Chimeras turned in a tight, tidy set of literate psych rock tunes — their last for a few months, since bassist
Adam Cooper is taking a summer sabbatical to study in India.
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| Photo | John Vettese |
Guitarist
Dan Ferry proved to be an animated stage presence that played off
Il Shim Pearlman's drum hits with dramatic gesture; swinging low to the stage, arching backwards, shoving his guitar toward the ceiling. By contrast,
Matt Turnbull was much more stoic, but the most vocally together, the fiercely concentrating performer of the bunch. The crowd easily doubled over the course of their early set, and by the resounding string bends that close "
Leigh," the first flicker of the
body movin' chaos we saw later began to emerge.
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
Wrapping up the night were
Grandchildren, the most obviously danceable band on the bill. But by the time they went on,
folks were wiped out from all the dancing they'd done already. So they swayed in place and zoned out, letting their minds be blown by the intricate tapestry of sounds and beats playing out before them.
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| Photo | John Vettese |
Grandchildren's
Cold Warrior LP —
whenever the fuck they get around to releasing it — is stellar, an insanely imaginative addition to Philadelphia's musical canon. But to truly get this band,
you need to see them perform it live. Catch them next time, and save your energy till they hit the stage.
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| Photo | John Vettese |
