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Cocked 'N Loaded,Motherboar,Mellow Bravo,more-Mid East,8/3
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Author:  scarab cadaver [ Sun Aug 04, 2013 9:27 am ]
Post subject:  Cocked 'N Loaded,Motherboar,Mellow Bravo,more-Mid East,8/3

Let’s get right to it, shall we? No big introduction or opening statement. This is about rock ‘n roll and the life affirming powers thereof.

New comers I Am Become Death opened the show, featuring Kyle Neeson of headliners Cocked ‘N Loaded on vocals. These dudes are the Converge to CNL’s AC/DC. In other words, no boogie blues rawk here, no sir, but lots of jarring time signatures, some D-beat action, and a whole pantload of “fuck-this” screaming vocalizations. Angular, heavy, chaotic. In other words, GOOD SHIT. Looking forward to seeing them again. And again.

Old school Boston rockers Wild Zero did the reunion thing next. They had one album out during their time, which they were giving away for free, and which I seem to have forgotten to pick up. Son of a bitch. Anyway, pretty straight forward stuff going on here, kind of in the realm of Social Distortion. Some songs start off sounding like Guns ‘N Roses (think “Welcome to the Jungle”) but then slam headfirst into three-chord punk rock, with a fourth chord sometimes rearing its ugly and unwanted head.

At this point in the night, the Middle East Downstairs transformed into the set of an 80’s John Hughes movie (Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, pick one) as Bearstronaut provided the synth heavy dance soundtrack to our very own Boston rock prom. Someone asked me at one point if they were just playing all covers of 80’s pop music, as pretty much every song sounded exactly like Simple Minds, but it was GOOD, Goddammit. I’m not gonna sit here and lie about it. Not every band can sound like the end of the world. A welcome breath of fresh air, and at one point I thought I saw Molly Ringwald dancing by herself over by the coatcheck but then Judd Nelson came to get her and dragged her off upstairs.

Enough of these shenanigans, for we have even more shenanigans awaiting us in the form of Mellow Bravo. Coming on like an over-caffeinated E Street Band/J Geils Band hybrid, these guys and lady provide rock music as spectacle. Lead mouth Keith Pierce does this kind of dance thing and glares at the audience while exhorting us to HAVE A GOOD TIME ALL THE TIME, and the band plows through a set of Rock 101. Epic arena rock guitar solos? Check. Awesome powerful female vocals? Check. A solid rhythm section holding it all down while the frontman goes apeshit? Check and check. Okay, you’ve met all the requirements for a full blown party, enjoy youself and stay away from the pink acid!

This is it. This is the last hurrah for Motherboar, Boston’s own fire-belching, napalm-breathing, beer-spurting metal juggernaut. They fought the good fight a good number of years, but now the time has come to watch the Croctosquatch ride off into the sunset amidst a torrent of spit beer. Ponchos were handed out beforehand, which I dutifully wore, and once the band started playing the beer started flying, lead throat Kenny Irwin leading his charges into battle. It seemed at one point as if a beer firehose had been turned on, but that couldn’t be, could it? Nah. Anyway, the Boar ripped it up one last time, laying down riff after almighty riff, sounding like the bastard offspring of pre-prog Mastodon and New Hampshire’s Scissorfight. The set came to a glorious and messy end with a combo of “Raise the Death Toll” and half of “Sweet Leaf” by Sabbath. Why only half? Why do you need the whole song? All of the good shit happens in the first two minutes of it. Motherboar just did us a service and saved us a little time! Thank you! Farewell, Motherboar. You’ll be missed but never forgotten.

So how do you follow up a beer hurricane (Beericane? Quick, get SyFy on the phone) free-for-all? Easy. You put Cocked ‘N Loaded, Boston’s own version of Bon Scott AC/DC, up there and let them celebrate a decade of ruining ear drums. All of the guitarists who ever played for the band were brought out at different points in the show, I think at one point I counted like 23 guitar players, but that might have just been the pink acid kicking in. But yes, there was a dude with a marching band bass drum up there, I’m sure of it. And I’m pretty sure there were a couple of dozen back-up singers for pretty much the whole set. CNL played all the hits, including their own anthem “Out For Blood” and a raucous cover of “Whole Lotta Rosie”, and then it all came to an end, everyone sweaty and drunk and exhilarated, beer cans all over the stage, ponchos balled up and tossed aside. Yup, that was one for the books. That’s how you fucking do it. And if you see Molly, tell her I said hi. Thanks.

Author:  RalphSnart [ Sun Aug 04, 2013 8:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cocked 'N Loaded,Motherboar,Mellow Bravo,more-Mid East,8

Guy from my town used to work with one or two guys from Motherboar...in Allston I guess. At Blanchard's maybe? He was more of a hip hop guy I always thought, but he diligently supported his buddies. I never did get out there to see them. But it will happen.

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