Giant Killer Gummy Bear of Death Awakens and Commands You To Follow Link!

At the Yanks vs. Brewers game last Tuesday (6/28), I had a terrible vision of delicious chewy fruity DOOM!


Giant Killer Gummy Bear of Death arose over the 3B Grandstand and told me to tell you, that you should totally check out the awesome Yankees Butts blog and share it with all your friends who are into Baseball, because it's a Baseball blog, for fuck's sake. Or else, he said, you will MEET YOUR HORRIBLE FRUITY DESTINY!!!!

Then he told me to run for President. Yesss, I see...

American Babies, 5/13 & 5/14, Albany, NY & Wilkes-Barre, PA

American Babies
5/13/11, Red Square, Albany, NY
5/14/11, River Street Jazz Cafe, Wilkes-Barre/Plains, PA


FRIDAY, 5/13/11

An added perk of American Babies fandom (besides being the envy of all your friends because you clearly have impeccable taste in music) is that they are incredibly easy to find on the iPod-- very close to the top, you see. Though, this wouldn't help on Friday 5/13, as I have a rule of not listening to the band I am going to see on the day of (especially on the drive to) a show. The same thing goes for the ride back, but that is more lenient, as sometimes I need to hear a specific song the band did not play, and in rare cases must appease that craving on a song-by-song basis. Anyways, in the days leading up to the Albany show, I was pondering what my soundtrack for the ride would be, because over the past couple of weeks I have been listening to the Babies excellent new album, Flawed Logic, & the 4/29 Mercury Lounge show constantly. The Yanks/BoSox game got me through most of the ride, but when things went sour, I turned to the Bad Livers. Seemed appropriate.

Grape Drink is awesome and American Babies are my Grape Drink. I was psyched to see 'em again so soon. Live Music OCD actually had me really worried that if I didn't see their Burlington Metronome show the previous night, I would miss something spectacular. Like David Bowie materializing out of thin air, Knighting Tom Hamilton, and presenting him with the Royal Goldfish for Outstanding Achievements in Rock Music. Which didn't happen, but still-- what if it did and I had missed it? Yes, Albany would do just fine.

Upon arrival, I chilled outside for Turbine's set. Sure, it was a beautiful night & there was plenty of good company out front. But additionally, I am still ever-so-slightly mad at Turbine after the 3-5AMish moe.down xi RV lot set, in which their PA system was set up about 50 feet from our heads, resulting in us wanting to gut their souls for depriving us of at least 2 really important hours of sleep. Moving on.

American Babies called everyone inside with Dance All Night, which began a 2+ hour set of rock awesomeness. The show was mainly comprised of Tom Hamilton's sickeningly sweet originals, but also sprinkled with phatty covers like Dark End of the Street (Percy Sledge), Fa Fa Fa (Otis Redding), Further On Up the Road (made famous by Eric Clapton), & a sweet You Really Got A Hold On Me (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles). Unconventional selections. Original covers, if you will.



But back to the Original Originals. At the core of American Babies are Rock songs that sound so right, they may have been floating around in the collective unconscious since the Dawn of Time until finally someone (Hamilton) was able to recall them. (Putting the bag of chips down.) If you are a fan of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis, The Beatles, Brian Setzer, Johnny Cash--- if you are a fan of GREAT ROCK MUSIC, you will quickly fall in love with this band.



The whole show rocked. Highlights of the highlights: Streets of Brooklyn, Desperate Times, Joeline, Rocker, Swimming at Night, Brooklyn Bridge, Fa Fa Fa, The Sin, Baby Don't Cry, Winter War Games, and both encores-- Restless Heart and a dirty/sick/gritty version of Dylan's Tonight I'll Be Staying Here w/ You. Shit yeah.




New bass player, Mark Karwan^ is fresh off the National Tour of the Broadway musical, In The Heights. This was his 2nd show with the Babies and he's quickly finding his spot in The Beat-Down Equation, which during show #2 was him pointing and laughing at you. What I mean by that is: Adam Flicker's keys will throw sand in your face before Dave Butler's drums kick your ass and Tom Hamilton's Zazz puts a cigarette (or two) out in your eye. And you'll fucking beg for more.

As always, thanks to promoter Greg Bell, for all that he does to keep the Live Music scene thriving in Albany.

5/13/11, Red Square, Albany, NY
Dance All Night
Streets of Brooklyn
Desperate Times
I Want A Girl
Dark End of the Street
Joeline
Telephone
You Really Got a Hold On Me
Rocker
Swimming At Night
Brooklyn Bridge
Fa Fa Fa
The Sin
Night Has Fallen
Invite Your Friends
Baby, Don't Cry
American Babies
Weight of the World
Further On Up The Road
California's Calling
Winter War Games

E:
Restless Heart
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here w/ You

SATURDAY, 5/14/11


I was awoken around 7AM by the faint aroma of Cheetos that seemed to be emanating from the carpet of a shitty hotel. Since there were no Cheetos to be found in the vicinity, my only guess as to it's origin was that this carpet was haunted by the ghost of a murdered Cub Scout trying to make contact from the afterlife in order to avenge his death. That, or Britney Spears had recently stayed there.

No matter. I had said "why the fuck not?" the night before and decided to see American Babies at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Wilkes-Barre, PA on Saturday too. It was kiiiind of on my way home anyway. So-- fuck it. I was already psyched to hit a Pilot Truckstop (of course there'd be one). It's the little things.

The River Street Jazz Cafe is a cool little venue in a little office-type complex & when I arrived, some locals (it's a safe assumption) were ATV'ing around the parking lot. Welcome to Pennsylvania.

This video covers some bloggy ground, so watch the damn thing.
This is why the kids call it "interactive multi-media".

What was most bizarro to me on this day was that American Babies were opening for a Jeff Beck tribute band. Mad respeck to Jeff Beck, but my head asplode. After drenching the room in bourbon-honey-bacony goodness with a delicious Streets of Brooklyn soundcheck, at showtime the Babies took the stage and blew the crowd away straight out of the gates. There was a great energy in the room and all eyes & ears were on the band... Except for in my peripheral vision, where I was trying to stop watching the Yankees have their asses handed to them... again^^.

Eventually, I turned my back to the total shit-show on the bar's TV and took comfort in the music I had traveled to witness. Annd focus: American Babies. Sweet Rock. They had the crowd eating out of their palms by the end of these 90 minutes. Winter War Games, pushed it way over the edge. Holy fuck. The audience was excited and the room was abuzz.

In Bassist Mark's 3rd show with the band, he sounded more relaxed and confident in exploring the material. He and Dave were laying the rhythm down thick. It's a great combo. Perhaps he is beginning to pour salt into the burnt eyes of your sorry ass. Adam Flicker was again, a shit-ton of fun on keys. Tom Hamilton shredded on Lead Guitar while simultaneously wearing the fuck out of some suspenders. The chemistry up there is magic. More, please!


I skipped out on the Jeff Beck tribute band to get a head-start on my 2 hour drive, which went swimmingly-- and I even saw my very first coyote!! Freakin' bonus!!

A giant thank you to Tom, the owner of River Street Jazz Cafe, who was super awesome, hospitable, and I couldn't find to thank in-person on my way out. Another huge thanks to the American Babies who kept me entertained while on mini-Grape-Drink-Tour. Totes awesome. Can't wait for the next show, but come on back to NYC, willya?

No tapirs. You'll just have to go see American Babies for yourself! Check their website for the most updated Tour Dates!

American Babies, 5/13/11, Red Square, Albany, NY & 5/14/11, River Street Jazz Cafe, Wilkes-Barre/Plains, PA: 9 HUZZAHS!!! If you don't love American Babies, the Terrorists have already won.

5/14/11, River Street Jazz Cafe, Wilkes-Barre/Plains, PA
Dance All Night
Streets of Brooklyn
Desperate Times
I Want A Girl
Dark End of the Street
Joeline
Telephone
You Really Got a Hold On Me
Rocker
Swimming At Night
Night Has Fallen
Fa Fa Fa
Invite Your Friends
Weight of the World
California's Calling
Winter War Games

SLIDESHOW & HI-RES GALLERY


^ Jim Hamilton is currently way too busy serving his family, City, and/or Country full-time, to hit the road even part-time. Understandable.
^^ As a total aside, I'd like to add here how completely doomed my fantasy baseball team is and that a head-to-head league format this year may actually destroy me. Last week Kendry Morales was sentenced to season-ending surgery (before his season even began), Jason Heyward lost all feeling in his right hand (awesome), Cano has dropped into a slump like it's '08, Ian Desmond and Mitch Moreland (who I picked up to replace Kendry) are suddenly sidelined with tight hammies. Hughes was a bust from the start, Bailey's been on the DL since opening day, CC just blew another game, and then a few songs into this set I got a news alert that KC had spotted a flaw in my elite closer Soria's delivery-- I don't even know if that's good or bad news anymore. *breathes* (picks up bag of chips.)

moe.lloween, 10/31/09, albany, ny

moe.lloween, 10/31/09, the washington avenue armory, albany, ny


Sometime before moe.down x, moe. sent out an email asking some of their most moe.ronic fans to step up and nominate 1 song for moe. to play "to create the ultimate setlist". Since I met the qualifications, I ransacked my brain* to try and think of ONE song- an original, a cover--- but ONLY ONE SONG to nominate. Why do you toy with me like this, moe.? One song??? Ugly American**? Rebubula? Eventually I settled on one of my most favoritest songs in the world- Sweet Jane, originally by Lou Reed, but by far the most outstanding version I've ever heard is by Mott the Hoople.


At the very end of moe.down they announced song nominations would go up as a poll on jambands.com and asked everyone to go vote, because the winning songs would be incorporated into their Halloween setlist. No shit.

Of course I voted for Sweet Jane, but I also voted for Faith No More's Epic because that is just a flat-out fucking brilliant idea. Everyone had to wait for the show to find out the winners, so the excitement multiplied as Halloween approached.

On the ride up to Albany, el Herno and I discussed how this moe. show could very well suck, but in it's suckingness, it would be awesome beyond our wildest dreams. We knew the band were "rehearsing", but that's a lot of shit to remember and Chuck has enough trouble with his own lyrics. What would moe. dress as? We were hoping they would take our suggestion and go as Slutty moe.***. One Thing was certain: it was going to be a fun fun night.


We got into the Armory and were met by a wall of anticipation... & smoke. A wall of anticipation & smoke. As for costumes- there were plenty! Regulars Bender & moe.bot showed up, and why not? If you're gonna wear a cardboard costume for the entirety of moe.down weekend, Halloween would seem like a breeze. There was a Bob's Big Boy, Lady GaGa, an Annoying Boom Mic Guy (he nailed it), the characters from Where the Wild Things Are, & a whole lot of slutty ____'s. I was (live action) Master Shake. With some last minute alterations to the complimentary sleep mask in the Crowne Plaza goodie bag- Hern became Dr. Hamburgler, and Metzger, c4d, & Heidi pussied out and were dressed like a whole bunch of douchebags that didn't dress up.






The stage was dressed with spooky trees and a gorgeous haunted backdrop. I was afraid to go pee, lest I miss Sweet Jane. At long last, moe. rose in a cloud of evil from the depths of hell. They were dressed as skeletons which was all sorts of more spooky and stuff. They busted into TGORM and promptly fucked it up. It's moe.lloween, betches!

Godzilla is so huge and evil, I love it and wish they played moe.'s version at Yankee Stadium for Hideki Matsui. Farmer Ben was a fun treat, Jimmay owns that act. They did a monster-medley inside it- w/ Frankenstein club sandwiching: Werewolves of London, Munsters, Addams Family.


please note: rob. is wearing shorts over his skeleton suit as not to offend any moe.ron's sensibilities.


Then al. on lead for Paul Simon's You Can Call Me (al.). Wow, it was gorgeous! They had all the layers working. It was impressive to begin with, but then al. pulled out a trumpet and started playing the horn section- 10 HUZZAHS for al.'s Mad Trumpet Skillz!


The sheer insanity of it all began to sink in. They did We Got the Party, by Miley Cyrus. Interesting and sounded kinda like the Go Go's, but I won't be buying her fruit snacks. George reminded people they were at a moe. show and brought it back to Earth.

Echoes is getting it's own paragraph and tangent. I don't remember what year it was, but I had gone to see Ominous Seapods play Bogies up in Albany on NYE. It was fucking freezing. We all crashed at the Grunge and around 7am, the Dark Horse took out Echoes (on vinyl?) and we all passed the fuck out. I mean-- really, it cleared the goddamn room. I always thought that was on purpose and kind of Evil Genius of him.

Anyways, moe. played Echoes and it was cool--- but it was also long. And I may have yawned. (...Twice.) And they hadn't even finished it!




I don't recall much about setbreak. Echoes left me confused, but shit was just about to go cuckoo-insane. To begin SET II, moe. broke into Phish's Stash and the place went absolutely berserk! Every second of it was mind-bending. They nailed all those little humorous twists and turns that makes Stash such an enjoyable song. Jim rocked Page's line.


hey, wait a minute- what's jim holding that 3rd mallet with?

meat rules and the floor was bouncing up and down, very cool. Eyes of the World, sure, cute. -> Echoes, very cool. Rebubula, now we're talking- can't go wrong. The show was a classic Albany freakshow. A vibe that cannot be described without using the words "craziness", "North Country", and "madness". -> Dark Star -> Rebubula. Awesome.




This is as good a time as any to discuss my new favorite moe.ron friend, who I got to rock out with down front on chuck.side. He was dressed as a McChicken Sandwich**** (Daniel?). He picked up a glowstick-necklace off the floor and wiped it down with his shirt before putting it on me. Who says chivalry is dead?

who is this moe.ron?

For the encore, chuck. serenaded us with the sweetest version of Fuck Her Gently you'll ever hear. The thought of chuck. balling anything discreetly brought a single tear to my eye. Just one. They blew the top off of Don't Fuck w/ Flo, as classic a moe. tune you'll ever get. That's a song you play for your friends who have never heard moe. because you're hoping it will make their head asplode. Crab Eyes, great song- was that really voted into the setlist? Hmm...





The Yankees (who we were following all night via text updates) defeated the Phillies to win Game 3 of the World Series as we filed out. I got slammed with a migraine and couldn't make it to U-Melt.



When I woke up it was morning and it was time for breakfast at Cafe Madison. I dragged the skeptics along and forced them to dine on the best breakfast this side of the Hudson. Happily, it didn't disappoint. Apricot-cranberry stuffed french toast, betches... w/ bacon. *POW!* The perfect capper to a moe. filled Albany weekend.






LET'S RECAP: classic invigorating Albany freakshow, Halloween madness, North Country vibes, McChicken Sandwich Dude, setlist insanity, Slutty moe.. They didn't play Sweet Jane, Epic, or, Ugly American, but I still left a very happy moe.ron. moe.lloween, 10/31/09, Washington Avenue Armory, Albany, NY: 9.25 HUZZAHS! Thanks for an awesome time!

UPDATE: Since I'm allergic to beer I was unaware at the time that the venue ran out of beer well before SET I even ended. Apparently the only alcohol left on premises was Bacardi Malt Liquor. As my new theory goes, I believe the Malt Liquor for mass consumption was a heavy contributing factor in the sheer madness of the crowd.

SET I:
TGORM
Godzilla
Farmer Ben
You Can Call Me Al
We Got the Party
George
Echoes

SET II:
Stash
meat
Eyes Of the World ->
Echoes
Rebubula ->
Dark Star ->
Rebubula

ENCORE:
Fuck Her Gently
Don't Fuck With Flo
Crab Eyes

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW! http://www.archive.org/details/moe2009-10-31 (thanks, rob clarke!)

SLIDESHOW & HI-RES GALLERY.


State of Mind Music Magazine's Andrew Wyatt has some great pics of the night and some of the funnier costumes here: http://www.stateofmindmusic.com/entry/812/moe./

*It's still a mess in there. Vacuum broke in the flood.
**I miss this song!
***Slutty al. shops at Joyce Leslie and wears too much eyeliner.
****Someone had already eaten the bread off his hat.

Yonder Mountain String Band, 10/17/09, Nokia Theater, NYC

Yonder Mountain String Band, 10/17/09, the Nokia Theater, NYC

3/4 of YMSB tuning
We began our evening at the Irish Rogue, where I met up with el Herno, c4d, and Heidi who had all gotten a head start on the drinking. Despite the tickets warning us that the show (Danny Barnes, Railroad Earth, & Yonder Mountain String Band) would start at 7:30 or something ludicrous like that ("there's no fucking way that show starts before 8pm, that's ridiculous." -me), we stayed at the bar and watched the beginning of ALCS Game 2: Yanks vs. Angels. At no time in particular we walked the long block to the Nokia-- where not only had the show already started- but Railroad Earth was onstage (and we had missed all of Danny Barnes)... WHUT-EVA, Mr. Early Start. We were left with no choice but to enjoy the remainder of Railroad earth- they were pretty fun.

Yonder hit the stage and rocked right from the beginning. Raleigh & Spencer is a great way to start off a show. Lots of highlights, New Horizons -> Holding -> New Horizons. Traffic Jam -> Little Rabbit -> Traffic Jam was stellar. Danny Barnes joined them for a few songs and they had a blast together. Peace of Mind makes me close my eyes and smile. For the encore Tim Carbone from Railroad Earth came out and jammed- also a great cameo.






Speaking of cameos- standing next to us for the first set was none other than OLD GUY FROM WETLANDS!!!!** He had his giant backpack with him and was such a pro about it all! Someone tried to walk past him and no joke- he barks at the dude, "man, there's a big fucking bag
right there and if you step over it it's gonna bite you in the fucking
ass!" HAHAHAHA!!!! Omg, it was just about time for an Old Guy From Wetlands sighting. He's like Sasquatch of the NYC Jamband scene. During the 2nd set he started getting really into it and jumping up and down. That's how you can tell when a show is really rockin'-- if Old Guy From Wetlands is jumping in place--- and Yonder were ripping shit up!


Jeff Austin is such a fun musician to watch, submitting himself over to every single performance. I never get tired of watching him. Dave Johnston also rules all the way over Yonder on the left (and yes, Ben & Adam are awesome too). Yonder Mountain String Band are just so solid and deliver a live music punch-to-the-gut. 4 guys in a string band that create such an energetic & massive sound, who keep getting better and better. They (and their setlists) always make it worthwhile to catch them, so go freakin' catch them.






We had been getting text updates on the Yanks game throughout the night and when the Yonder ended, we headed back to the Irish Rogue to catch the end. The entire bar was watching and the atmosphere was tense, but when the Yanks finally won the place erupted in HOORAAAAHS! Melky got the walk-off RBI and Hairston got a pie in the face. It was a pretty special NYC moment and NYC night.

Yonder on fire, Yanks win ALCS Game 2 vs. the Angels, good times with great friends! YMSB, 10/17/09, Nokia Theater, NYC: 9 HUZZAHS!




Set 1:
Raleigh & Spencer
40 Miles from Denver
Pride Of Alabama
Sometimes I've Won
Wind's On Fire
Another Day
Complicated
Southbound
Elzic's Farewell >
New Horizons >
Holding >
New Horizons

Set 2:
Traffic Jam >
Little Rabbit >
Traffic Jam
Crazy
Pike County Breakdown *
Going Where They Do Not Know My Name *
Finally Saw The Light
Country Boy Rock & Roll
Natchez Whistle >
Peace Of Mind
E: Harder They Come ^
Shady Grove ^

* with Danny Barnes on banjo & vocals
^ with Tim Carbone on fiddle
Danny Barnes and Railroad Earth opened.

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW! http://www.archive.org/details/ymsb2009-10-17.ca14o.st9100.flac24

HI-RES SLIDESHOW AND GALLERY/DL'S



** aka, Wavy Gravy's Dad