I Can't Wait to Tell You All About (Big Apple Stomp Night 1)
Nothing reminds you of your age like participating in something from your youth. Yesterday and again today is the Big Apple Stomp, a two-day ska festival. Fourteen hours of ska, two days, bands I genuinely like seeing live, what a great idea!!! After six hours, I am definitely feeling the effects of not going to shows on a regular basis and generally being old. Very, very old. To be quite honest, the most exciting part of today will be when the schedule for today is released, so I can see how many hours I can cut off tonight's performance.
As to the actual show itself, the first night was good, but certainly not as great as I hoped. I can cover The Fad and What's Your Problem, Brian with the following comments: "The Fad opening their set and the entire show with Rat Race by the Specials was an inspired choice." and "My that was a lot of floor punching." I have nothing else memorable to say about either band. Actually, it had been many years since I'd been to a show with floor punching, which both took me back and reminded me that hardcore is not a tall person's music.
Inspecter 7 came on after them. I'd never seen Inspecter 7 prior to last night and was not overly familiar with their catalog. I knew some of their songs from the endless number of skampilations that I purchased over the years. For me, the highlight was a Skoidats cover, salving a small amount of the wound I felt for having never seen the Skoidats live. From here, it was all downhill.
I won't lie, the above was written in the present tense, while the below comes five and a half months later, since I am a great many things, but consistent in my writing output is not one of them. The great disappointment was The Pilfers, who were the big draw of night one of the Big Apple Stomp. For the vast majority of you who don't know, The Pilfers were one of the best third wave ska bands. Fronted by Coolie Ranx and powered by the signature wail of Vinny Nobile's trombone, the Pilfers produced this huge sound. In fact, I saw one of their reunion shows last November and was reminded how great of a live band they were. So, Coolie Ranx hits the stage and I don't see Vinny. But bands come out like that, sometimes letting one member playing his way on stage.
But then I realized, there was some other guy, on stage, with a trombone. And he started to play. And he was horrible. I mean, drowned out, washed out, missing giant pieces of the Pilfers sound horrible. Coolie kept coming over to him to offer encouragement, but that just made it worse, as if somehow the crowd, about 80% of which expect Vinny Nobile's trombone to be blaring over the rest of the band, wouldn't notice. The error was only compounded when Vinny Nobile came out and electrified the crowd with his sound reaching the whole room. It was such a downer when Vinny left the stage and led me to leave early during the Suicide Machines' set.
Fortunately, there was a day 2, which is a story for another time.
As to the actual show itself, the first night was good, but certainly not as great as I hoped. I can cover The Fad and What's Your Problem, Brian with the following comments: "The Fad opening their set and the entire show with Rat Race by the Specials was an inspired choice." and "My that was a lot of floor punching." I have nothing else memorable to say about either band. Actually, it had been many years since I'd been to a show with floor punching, which both took me back and reminded me that hardcore is not a tall person's music.
Inspecter 7 came on after them. I'd never seen Inspecter 7 prior to last night and was not overly familiar with their catalog. I knew some of their songs from the endless number of skampilations that I purchased over the years. For me, the highlight was a Skoidats cover, salving a small amount of the wound I felt for having never seen the Skoidats live. From here, it was all downhill.
I won't lie, the above was written in the present tense, while the below comes five and a half months later, since I am a great many things, but consistent in my writing output is not one of them. The great disappointment was The Pilfers, who were the big draw of night one of the Big Apple Stomp. For the vast majority of you who don't know, The Pilfers were one of the best third wave ska bands. Fronted by Coolie Ranx and powered by the signature wail of Vinny Nobile's trombone, the Pilfers produced this huge sound. In fact, I saw one of their reunion shows last November and was reminded how great of a live band they were. So, Coolie Ranx hits the stage and I don't see Vinny. But bands come out like that, sometimes letting one member playing his way on stage.
But then I realized, there was some other guy, on stage, with a trombone. And he started to play. And he was horrible. I mean, drowned out, washed out, missing giant pieces of the Pilfers sound horrible. Coolie kept coming over to him to offer encouragement, but that just made it worse, as if somehow the crowd, about 80% of which expect Vinny Nobile's trombone to be blaring over the rest of the band, wouldn't notice. The error was only compounded when Vinny Nobile came out and electrified the crowd with his sound reaching the whole room. It was such a downer when Vinny left the stage and led me to leave early during the Suicide Machines' set.
Fortunately, there was a day 2, which is a story for another time.