The McLusky show at Metro last night was really great if not a bit of really weird billing.
These guys really put their hearts into it and they do rock right! They blend a great sense of humor with a true joy of playing out. Fun lyrics and a tight stripped down power groove. (3 piece, drums, guitar and bass) I got a big kick out of the masterful (and completely hilarious) way their bass player handled a real flaming asshole who was heckling them in a most unkind manner. ("I suck? Just me personally? Or all of these guys?? DO they suck too or is it just me?") Their standout player has to be the drummer! He sat really straight up and high on his drums, and just bashed the skins and cymbals for all they were worth. (His drumhead obviously was not up to the task as it was bashed off on the last song of the night and flung Frisbee style into the crowd.) A real heavy duty battery. But the group is really comfortable together and plays off each other perfectly. The fun they are having really comes off to the audience. "Don't fuck in the barn cause the barn’s on fire!" still rings through my ears and makes me smile.
We met the tour manager and the drummer after the show and they were really super! Very appreciative and seemed to not believe that people had not only heard of them here, but really liked them and liked them enough to come out on a Wednesday night. The drummer was totally psyched about being here and was just so fab! According to their tour manager, they will be returning to the States sometime in February. They are playing a few shows here now so the label can see them play out.
The weird part was that the "headliners" were a band called "NYR". All we could find about a band called NYR was an Israeli guy who lives in Paris now and plays R&B. We knew we wouldn't stay for that, but we were curious when we saw that most of the nyr fans hugging the stage area were literally between the ages of 10 and 16. (I kid you not) We couldn't make the connection between these fans and an Israeli R& B guy so we stuck around. Turns out they were a 20 something 4 piece where every one of them had a different crayon color hair, the lead guitarist had a "British Invasion/Union Jack/ REALLY bad aping of young Pete Townsend costume schtick" thing going on and they sounded like 50,000 other anonymous bands. They seemed to be a totally pre-packaged homogenized boy band based off a cartoon "punk bad boy" template. When the guitarist switched to a cherry red "Flying V" I grabbed the boys and headed for the exit.
--Sky
