When you have been out of the scene for roughly three decades, it’s pretty damn exciting to get out and see great bands again. I saw more bands in the past twelve months than I have seen in the past twelve years ! So here goes:
1) Generacion Suicida/ Black Lodge/ Seattle. When I heard that Generacion Suicida would be opening for us in Seattle I was excited as hell. Nobody out there is doing what they are doing. Live they were so ridiculously tight, like a machine, the best live set I saw in 2017.
2) No Negative/ Coop Katacombes/ Montreal. First off Katacombes is an unbelievable venue, with a fucking crazy crowd in a truly great city. No Negative were one horribly dressed outfit that blew the roof off the place. Leather vests, striped pants, 8000 effects pedals, and so incredibly loud. So effing good.
3) Arcane/ Cattivo (Skull Fest)/ Pittsburgh. Seattle’s Arcane had just released their new lp and the single “Ashes” was stuck in my head for days. Their live set, like many of their songs, swung back and forth between beautiful and violent. Dark and disturbing one minute, bright and wispy the next, power meets beauty.
4) Xylitol/ some garage outside of a house that night have been a meth lab / Tacoma, Washington. OK, GPS sends you into an odd neighborhood along the side of a highway, the “venue” has dogs, cats, goats, etc… wandering around the yard, there is a house with about 45 ,people in it, eating cut up fruit, and a garage with a PA next to it. Yeah it should have sucked…but Olympia’s Xylitol quite simply attacked the situation and unleashed a blistering 15 minute that was the most intense set I saw all year…scary good.
5) Faze/Coop Katacombes/Montreal. Yup that’s right, yet another Montreal based band that played on a great bill at Katacombes. Faze were part DKs part Flipper, part King Crimson, effects pedals for the vocals–::and a shit ton of energy.
6) Black Beach/ Narrows Center/ Fall River. A kinda sorta homecoming for these kids from Middleboro. I was fortunate enough to catch them back to back nights ( Once Ballroom, the night before) and they ruled both nights. They play a ton of local shows and you would be a fool to not check them out immediately.
7) Arctic Flowers/ Black Water Bar/Portland, Oregon. The Proletariat–Arctic Flowers mutual respect and admiration society met for a couple of days in March of 2017. Not only were the Flowers gracious hosts and hostesses, they rocked too. A smart hybrid of punk/post punk the Flowers put together back to back great sets ( Seattle and Portland), and were absolutely stunning in Portland.
8) Bellicose Minds/ Cattivo/ Pittsburgh. Yet another great band from the PNW. A well established band the Bellicoses closed the upstairs Saturday night show at Cattivo. Darker and heavier live than recorded surprised with tough noisy set….one excellent band.
9/10) It was really hard trying to rank in some order the eight bands I mentioned above. With that being said, trying to shave 5 or 6 bands down to two is all but impossible…Newport’s Benny Sizzler, Montreal’s ODD, Boston’s Disaster Strikes, Portland’s Piss Test all delivered sets that were brilliant and tight. So brilliant and tight that I have turned my top ten list into a top 12 ,:)
