Adventures with Allen

The Conservatory 03/20/2009

On the ticket was: the Street Dogs, The Righs, and The Bashed. So first up was The Bashed, this was I think my second time seeing these guys and it sounded like they improved a lot since last time I saw them. I hope to check these guys out again sometime soon.

The Righs were up next another local band. This was the first time I have heard of them and they were pretty impressive. I guess they are a Celtic Punk band so if you like The Dropkick Murphys then you should like these guys. They have a pretty good sound, the Mandolin helps, and a good stage presence. I would like to see these guys again also I wouldn’t mind seeing them with the Dirty Mugs since I think they would complement each other pretty well.

Last up was the Street Dogs and they just keep on getting better. They played an energetic, thought provoking and emotional show. Mike McColgan’s stage presence continues to amaze me each time I see him, this is a guy that can take you though a range of emotions and still keep you excited and wanting more. They have a broad range of messages but they present them to you in such a way that you don’t tire of hearing them. These guys continue to be the best live act around; I don’t think I have yet seen another band that can keep a crowd so energized during a set as these guys. This will be a hard show to beat but it looks like there will be a lot of competition this year so we’ll see.

The Conservatory 03/21/2009

I mainly went to see Over Stars and Gutters and Teenage Bottlerocket but also playing was Needlepoint and Scouts Honor.

Over Stars and Gutters continues to put out a solid set. They keep expanding their play set so I hope they will try and put out an EP or something. Needlepoint is a local hardcoreish band I think. I couldn’t understand a word of their songs and musically it didn’t sound all that great either, this could have been because they didn’t play on the stage so the acoustics could have been all screwy so I wouldn’t rule them out yet.

Scouts Honor was up next, a punkish/jamish band from out of Chicago that. They were alright though not all that impressive. They didn’t really have a good stage presence and the consistency of their set wasn’t all that good, sometimes they could pull you in then slam on the breaks and made me lose interest in what was being played.

Finally Teenage Bottlerocket showed up and rocked the house. These guys are pretty straight punk band in the mould of The Queers and the Ramones, so musically it might not be all that impressive but they sure are a lot of fun to listen to. Pretty much from start to finish, with a little hiccup in the middle where the drummer’s snare broke, they were none stop high energy fun. This was impressive since they played a show earlier that day in Austin. I hope it doesn’t take another four years for them to come though OKC again.

Welcome to another installment of my poorly worded critizims and praises for the various bands that I go to see.

Got some good and got some not so good with this last batch of shows.

First up the not so good is Sundays show at the Conservatory. The lineup was billed as Valencia, Sing It  Loud, Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer, Single File and Cash Cash. The only band I knew of before the show was Zolof and that was the reason why I went. Well Zolof didn’t play, I don’t know why either, so I was pretty disappointed there.

I don’t have much to say about these guys, I think my disappointment over not seeing Zolof  might have clouded the evening for me.  All the bands did a pretty good job of getting the crowed involved in their sets; some of them even attempted some funny banter while on stage. Most of them had a New Wavy sound to them with some Alt Rock and Pop mixed in, generally I do enjoy some New Wave sound here and there but these bands just were not doing it for me. The kicker was when Valencia said something about playing something different from their Punk Rock roots; I refuse to consider any form of Emo as part of Punk Rock. So all in all if you enjoy lots and lots of Emo and don’t mind New Wave sound then these are your bands but if you’re like me a despise Emo then I wouldn’t bother.

Now the good and GREAT.

The show before the last was The Cute Lepers, Avenue Rose, Dreadful Children and The Bashed. Now this is was a damn good show. All the bands except for The Cute Lepers were new to me, The Cute Lepers being Nix and Kicks from the Briefs.

First up was The Bashed, a three piece local band. They had a nice straight up sound to them; I got a very Oi feeling from them which is a good thing. Also they covered This Land is Your Land, which actually makes a good Punk song, and If the Kids are Unite from Sham 69. I hope to check these guys out some more soon.

Next up was Dreadful Children, another band with a very cool Oi sound to them. These guys were a lot of fun on stage and they reminded me a little of the Toy Dolls, just a few songs here and there not the whole set. This is another band I hope comes though again.

The penultimate band up was Avenue Rose. At first I was thinking were we’re going to get an Emo show out of them or something similar, I’m so glad it was like that. These guys were pretty good up on stage, I don’t think their set was as good as Dreadful Children. I don’t have a whole lot to say here, I was getting pretty damn tired at this point as the show started pretty late for a Tuesday. So I guess just the regular line works here: I wouldn’t mind them coming back though town so I can check them out again.

Finally The Cute Lepers showed up and rock the house. They pretty much showed like at the end of the Avenue Rose set and had to run all their equipment out on stage as Avenue Rose was tearing down, van trouble seeming to be a common thing with the past few bands. But they didn’t disappoint with their set, even though the girls didn’t have their Tambourines. The only disappointing thing about this show was the crowd; it was almost a ghost town considering the talent that was there. If you like The Briefs you should like The Cute Lepers and if you don’t like The Briefs or The Cute Lepers then what the hell is wrong with you. 

Leper show photos.