Boston Hassle put on a punk rock show at The Lilypad in Inman Square last Friday night. While things didn’t get started until 10:30, the small club (which has no stage, only an area where the ceiling was slightly lower stacked with speakers) quickly filled up with loyal fans.
Dylan Ewen and his band the Sulk Scouts opened the night. This is a full band where Ewen trades off and harmonizes (read: talks at the same time as) a female vocalist/”keyboard”ist while drums and bass keep things moving. I’m not sure how closely related this project should be considered to the bandcamp link I’m giving you, but it seemed somewhere between pastiche and parody of bands like The Moldy Peaches and other bands where the aim seems to be making the music as dumb as possible.
They wouldn’t take offense to that statement, I’m pretty sure. Songs like “Boys are Wimps,” where the chorus is just the song title shouted atonally four times pretty much ask for it. There were a number of songs like this, with lyrics made to sound like they were written by kindergarteners, which have passed in and out of my brain so quickly, as they seem intended to do. But the music was pretty nice. Low key punk with a meowing children’s keyboard for melody (hence the quotations above), it kept everything interesting, when the words didn’t.
They brought out a slightly-more-upbeat-than-the-original version of Girls’ “Lust for Life” right next to a similar take on “Like A Virgin.” Unfortunately, no historical record exists for most of the songs played that night, but if you like music that makes you actively not think, check these guys out.
I have no idea what any of the words to Providence’s Gymshorts‘s songs were (not exactly a wowing statement in the world of live punk rock music), but they blew the doors down. They made the silence between their sets noticeable to an extent I’m not familiar with. Although based on the feedback coming from the speakers whenever they stopped, it’s possible that someone just turned them up super loud.
Anyway, this was the band that had people rushing around to make sure that people didn’t open the doors while a song was being played, as per a compromise with at least one local resident. The riffs are simple and the vocal melodies are too—all I could think was that the music was super primal. My only real thought was the giant music ape from this scene of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
I keep hearing about Free Pizza. This might be because they’re really big, but it might also be one of those scenarios where I’m in a bubble of people who have mutual love for this local band. Either way, I felt like the time had come where I needed to know what was going on.
They’re a diverse trio—I mean they’ve gotten lumped in with the punk scene from what I understand, but there was a lot going on in this set. Instrumental track “Freedom Pizza” plays like a hoedown, crowd-pleaser “Ducks” is a sparse 90s clean guitar picked super passionate song about ducks, with a calm but jazzy turnaround, Boston, MA is a very atonal but dancey song where 60% of the words are either Boston or Massachusetts.
The lyrics and vocal melodes can’t have been worked on very much before a song is finished, but that’s not a criticism. That’s a legit way of writing, and it gets right to the point—they want to play music, you want something you can shout back at them in appreciation.
Loved it.
