Another weekend at Holdsworth court = Mopey, Local Tough, Pathological Lovers, Mudflowers, Cyanides, Justin Guzzwell

Howdy!
This weekend I was just itching to test out the new camera further and during this weekend pretty much all my favorite bands were playing simultaneously. I had to make some hard decisions and try to make the best of everything. I took a shitload of videos. I pretty much did nothing else yesterday except edit and upload 9(!) new videos for you all to enjoy.

First of all I was out at CBTG's on Friday and got a couple of good Local Tough videos, including this one which I think is my new favorite live video ever, just for visceral shirtless carnage and audience participation.

They also played some new material which is kinda rare for them.

But it was on Friday night that I went totally OCD on videographing everything that I could. I decided to go to Mopey Mumble Mouses CD release party at Distortion. There I got to see Justin Guzzwell's new band "Justin Guzzwell and the Crooks" and they were really good, the edition of Brad Morgan on bass made Justin's intense ivory punishing live show 10 times more palatable. Justin has an unique sense of structure to his progressions and an interesting sense of dynamics. Here's one of my favorite songs of his "Mornings that Shake Me"

and this spirited one: "Dependable"

I then snuck across the deck to catch The Mudflowers at CBTG's, but unfortunately only caught the last two songs. They remain on the top of my list of bands to properly give blog treatment to. In this video they are playing their sweat covered encore to a packed CB's crowd at the end of their second full set that day (they also played an all ages show early that day). It's a pretty good Joy Division cover but I would've preferred to film one of their originals. I will keep my eye out for them in the meantime.

Meanwhile back at Distortion my friend Jordan Young was doing his scronky Cyanides thing that he does, so I caught him on digital film doing a short new one called "Sacrificial Seal"

I then snuck back into CB's and caught The Pathological Lovers doing probably the best version of Bonnie Tyler's only classic "Total Eclipse of The Heart". The audience was hella into it as you can hear. My only issue was with this giant motionless jerk guy in the front row whose head was directly in the way of my view of Jody Richardson. I had to extend my arm way out to the side to get Jody in the frame at all, so the video is kinda shaky (I tried correcting it much as I could). Being an overly tall guy who likes to get at the front of the audience myself, it may seem like I am being a hypocrite swearing at this other tall guy, but this dude was clearly not enjoying himself and was just standing there without moving or doing anything besides drinking and blocking everyones view. I wanted to chuck something at his head so badly!

Then of course I went back to Distortion and watched Mopey Mumble Mouse perform for the first and last time as a 7 piece band as they tore through songs from their new album "I Am Happy Being Nothing". I was quite the show and it was their third full set that day, Yet there was no fatigue showing at all and this set was in fact much more andrenilized then their second set I watched early that evening. Here is the Theatrical Ballad "Compassion Comes From The Barrel of a Gun"

and here is a service industry themed hardcore stomper of their's "Food Fair" (I'm sorry but the audio for this one turned out kinda crap)

Anyway, fun times to be had for all who look for it.

My weekend with some bands

Well I was feeling better this weekend having just gotten over a vicious flu (not swine apparently). I decided to break my reclusive streak and take in some tunes. I saw that The Kettle Black was back in town and my head was still a flutter with some vivid memories I have of seeing his set from two years ago, I decided to go down with my (girlfriends) camera and with a new portable Edirol sound recording gadget (also my girlfriends) I was eager to try out. So as a result the videos I took have much improved sound (after I took the time to sync it up to the video) but the picture quality remains the same brutal pixelated mess it has always been.
The Kettle Black is without a doubt the most intense solo performer I've ever come across. He is a one man band who fills the stage with dozens of fancy toys and fills venues with blistering cascades of pure pink noise.



There was a large group of us who went to see him at Distortion on Friday but he was unfortunately put at the end of a six band bill with some badly miss-matched acts and some just plain bad acts that I won't get into. Since he has so much gear and theatrical props involved in his set and since he has no one else to help him set up The Kettle Black didn't get to start his set until 3:15AM! this is after the steel gate is locked and nobody else can get into the bar. So there was just a very sparse crowd of enthusiasts left in the room cheering him on, but did he let this this get him down? hell no! he played one of the most ferocious sets I've seen in a long damn while.



I decided to come check out his set the next day at The Ship, this time opening for "The Gramercy Riffs" and "The Pathological Lovers". The hipster quota of the bar was way off the charts, I spent the night counting Keffiyeh scarves (only four so it wasn't so bad) and the faces of really uninterested people in horrible eyewear. This wasn't really the right crowd for The Kettle Black, but it was stil a good set.
I hadn't really had a chance to check out the much hyped "Gramercy Riffs" before Saturday and by the tight packed throng of people gathered by the stage while they played it was pretty clear who the crowd had come for. So did The Gramercy Riffs live up to the hype?? no not really.. I really can't give them a ringing endorsement, but this isn't to say they were terrible. In comparison to the rest of The Nordic Beat, Mercy the Sexton, Texas Chainsaw pool of bands the Riffs have derived from, The Riffs are welcome breath of tolerableness. I actually really liked most of the songs Mara sings lead on and Lee Hanlon isn't without his charm. While there were 3 or 4 songs in their set I can declare as pretty darn good, the rest of the material suffered from some supremely uninteresting lyrics and tempos that plod along way too slow for a band like this. ughh.. I'm being a bitch on my blog and I should stop before I go to far. Here is a new song of their's I filmed called "Hold my Hand" and while it doesn't sound like Hootie and Blowfish or The Beatles, it does have a passing resemblance to Roy Orbison at the end with the classic break down style.



The Pathological Lovers were on next and as previously blogged, I have total chubby for Jody Richardson's voice. This was there third show in three days and they were in a very special drunken mode throughout the night. Much silliness ensued. This video had to be cut short due to 10 minute limits unfortunately. Anyway, it was nice weekend despite the large leather clad man standing way too close to me while I filmed and the table full of overpriced cupcakes tempting me with their delightfully decorated frostings, even though I totally despise the charity they were going for. Look, I don't care how many monkeys you have to torture or murder, if it means my mom won't get cancer go for it. Kill as many monkeys as you want.