New Brunswick 3 Day Weekend -- New Brunswick,
NJ April 25-27
New Brunswick is famous for its basement
shows, but I can't remember another time in
the last 20 years when there were this many
houses regularly doing shows, or so many good
bands playing in those basements. 3 Day Weekend
was a DIY festival celebrating New Brunswick's
underground music scene, a crazy multi-venue
frenzy of loud noisy punk rock, thrashing
bodies, indie-label 7-inches, underage drinking,
and all the other things that make life worth
living. Unfortunately a back injury kept me
from participating as much as I would have
liked, but we do have reports from two of
the many shows that comprised the weekend.
Friday - Day one - Yoga Vayu
by Jim Testa
Seasick - photo
by Jim Testa
The first official show of 3 Day Weekend
served up a microcosm of what makes this whole
scene so wonderful. There was a mix of local
and touring bands, an intense celebratory
crowd that went nuts dancing and singing along,
plenty of quality merch, and free copies of
a special issue of Hub City: Out Of The Basement
fanzine that focused on the 3 Day Weekend
festivities (and NB's basement show sub-culture.)
DDMMYYYY - Photo
by Jim Testa
The spastic bludgeoning high-speed
hardcore of local favorites Seasick started
things off with a sweaty high-pitched energy.
DDMMYYYY (pronounced "day month year")
from Toronto followed with their cerebral,
arty yet highly energetic post punk -- two
keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, and percussion,
with members switching instruments and leading
the crowd in intense, almost tribal chants.
For Science - Photo
by Kelly Lynn Sullivan
For Science has become an important
lynchpin of the New Brunswick scene; guitarist
Joe Steinhardt runs Don Giovanni Records,
which has been releasing quality records by
some of the best New Brunswick bands today,
and the band itself has been spreading the
word on NJ's punk rock renaissance with a
lot of touring. They're also one of the catchiest
bands around, and the crowd always goes nuts
singing along with the charismatic John Slover.
Baltimore's Double Dagger is another art-punk
band, as well as the only group that dressed
for the occasion in snazzy new-wave outfits.
You could tell they've been to New Brunswick
before; the crowd knew the songs and was thrashing
right along to their jagged polyrhythmic beats.
The mighty Hunchback, who recently released
their debut full-length on Don Giovanni, ended
the night with a totally over-the-top exhibition
of noisy yet compulsive hardcore that somehow
managed to involve even more crowd participation.
But - and here's where this current generation
of New Brunswick fans really distinguishes
itself - no matter how crazy the shows get,
people respect each other and the property
where the shows are being held: No fights,
no vandalism, no furniture (or bones) being
broken. And that means there'll be more shows.
Hopefully, a lot more.
Hunchback - Photo by Kelly Lynn Sullivan
SATURDAY - Day 2, Yoga Vayu
By Zachary Huff
The curtains were bright red and yellow and
the ceiling was high at Yoga Vayu, but the
second day of the 3 Day Weekend festival in
New Brunswick felt like it belonged six feet
under a house. Yoga Vayu may be on the second
floor of an office building in the heart of
New Brunswick’s business district, but
live music there certainly feels like a “basement
show,” with all the energy and community
that phrase suggests.
The Used Kids -
Photo by Kelly Lynn Sullivan
After waiting for awhile while Used Kids
set up, they kicked off the night with a lot
of sound. A quaint little four piece, the
band ripped into their songs with passion
and, eventually, a lot of sweat. They were
fast and came off as not too calculated, though
they seemed to know exactly what to do when.
They also managed to hit up every cliché
band pose for pictures: two guys on one mike,
bassist and guitarist back to back and (crowd
favorite) guitarist wanders out into the crowd.
They also tempted the crowd with a possible
Springsteen cover, but that just never happened.
“We don’t want to get our asses
kicked if we fuck it up,” explained
guitarist Nato Paisano to the crowd that was
hungry for a little Bruce.
Mikey Erg on drums kept things from getting
too eye-rollingly desperate for attention.
He spent most of the soundcheck doing his
own thing, riffing here and there while they
fiddled around with the other instruments.
He had a quiet ferocity about him, and his
steady fast rhythms kept things from being
stagnant for two long. The two vocalists split
the singing duties pretty evenly, but most
of the vocals got lost in the guitar and bass
jumble they had going on. It sounded like
something was off, either the bass and guitar
were up too loud or the vocals were exactly
the same as the other instruments. Regardless,
it was distinct and strangely captivating,
twenty-plus minutes of constant, changing
sound.
Full of Fancy took to the stage next, hitting
the crowd with slow, droning female vocals.
The drummer seemed out of place and bored
for most of their set; he was far more interesting
when he was just fucking around while they
set up. Regardless, the crowd seemed to be
into them, getting a little more rambunctious
(and, in some cases, obnoxious) as they churned
out their guitar-driven, jangly punk. They
were just too calm for me to really get into,
but they kept my head bouncing the whole time
they were up.
Prizzy Prizzy Please
- Photo by Kelly Lynn Sullivan
Hailing from Bloomington IN, Prizzy Prizzy
Please had me curious from the minute the
lead singer strode up to the mike with a saxophone
around his neck. And once they got to playing,
they blew me away (horrible pun intended).
They had an extremely varied sound, slowing
things down and speeding them up with some
interesting, quick time signature changes
mid-song.
The singer also managed to continue to impress
me as he went from singing to playing the
sax to screaming in the same breath. His vocals
were lighter and heavier than most of what
I had heard earlier in the night, captivating
and clear enough for me to make out exactly
what he was saying. His plights with having
too many t shirts and his ode to basketball
players who found their season cut tragically
short were hilarious. The keyboardist was
equally interesting, quietly accentuating
just about every song with his looping riffs,
and the drummer was fucking intense. I don’t
think he sat for more than ten seconds; his
quasi-crouch kept him on edge and pounding
the drums as hard as he could. The band also
finally appeased the desire for Springsteen
that Used Kids had incited; they presented
a vocal-less version of “Born to Run”
that just plain rocked, even though the singer
hummed 95% of the lyrics. It was a fantastic
rendering of the song, and it got the crowd
pumped and eager to hit the mike and sing
the words.
Shellshag - Photo
by Kelly Lynn Sullivan
Shellshag quickly set up their equipment
after Prizzy Prizzy Please wrapped up their
set. They had a curious set up; two mikes
criss-crossed as close to the crowd as possible,
and a simple drum set up of a floor tom, tom
and snare was built up on one side of it.
The drummer was hot and confident as she strode
up to the set with a self-assured swagger
and holsters filled with drum sticks up and
down her jeans. Her bell belt rounded out
her look, jingling whenever she shook her
ass. The guitarist was just as confident,
with long blonde redhead hairstyle and a commanding
grip on his guitar. He looked like he could
fit into any beach anywhere, but he was here
in New Brunswick, ready to impress.
They had a definite Matt and Kim thing going
on (if you haven’t heard of them, picture
The White Stripes if they weren’t so
full of themselves), albeit more DIY punkish.
They ripped into their own songs, with “Gary’s
Note” as the definitive highlight of
the set. It is probably one of the most captivating
love songs I’ve heard in awhile. They
also took on When in Rome’s “The
Promise,” giving it an epic treatment
that set the crowd into an awe that was contagious;
everyone in the room slowed down and rocked
with them.
To finish off their set, they built a drum
guitar tower of doom, stacking all of their
instruments onto the floor tom and trying
to keep it balanced for as long as possible.
The feedback from the guitar against the drums
was awesome, filling the room with the reverb
as we collectively held our breaths and hoped
the tower wouldn’t topple into the crowd.
After someone from the crowed assisted the
drummer with impaling one of the drum heads,
they were off into the night.
Screaming Females
- Photo by Kelly Lynn Sullivan
As a sort of finale to the night, Screaming
Females took to the stage. There were certainly
females in the band. And they were certainly
screaming. They didn’t really do anything
for me, as they sounded pretty generic hardcore-ish
rock with female vocals. Some of the songs
had a great beat (kudos to the drummer for
keeping with the running theme of awesome
drummers), but the guitar-bass-vocal mish-mash
didn’t impress me all that much.
The local kids, on the other hand, seemed
to eat it up; the crowd exploded into action,
thrashing into each other and throwing kids
high into the air. Shoes and glasses were
lost, everyone was dripping in sweat and the
condensation on the windows was thick by the
time they wrapped up their set, and consequently
the night. All in all, it was an amazing night
and a testament to the spirit of the bands
and a New Brunswick show. If you have the
chance to check out any of these bands, or
any show in New Brunswick really, jump on
it.
