Two Days with Bob Fay: Are You an Aging Rocker? part one~Saturday

This past weekend I went to two shows in two nights at John Doe Jr in Greenfield, MA. I was excited because my favorite aging rocker, Bob Fay, was playing both nights with 2 different bands. I jokingly use the term "Aging Rocker" because this is what people become if they don't die of an overdose or a fire-induced trampling/crowd crush. If a person isn't aging, then that person is dead.

SATURDAY: Bob played with Danny Cruz and Matt Robidoux in their band called Vanishing DMC. I liked it a lot. The first song was fun and catchy, I think it was called Evil Eye. Danny played keyboards and sang. Matt played drums and Bob guitar. After that song Bob played drums while Matt played guitar and bass. The 2nd song, Fake Pizza, was a loud rock tune and the 3rd song had a improvised intro which Danny waited through, wearing his long leather gloves. The fourth song I think was called Peaceful Thing and was interesting, with the perfect effect on Danny's voice. It was a bit like the Clash. The last song, which was About Sex, had people starting to dance and bop around a little bit.

After the set I asked Big O what she thought of the set and she said, "It was real." I asked Bob how the band got together and he said Matt called him up and they were going to get a fourth player, a drummer, for the group but Bob took the drums and after the first practice, they knew it was all they needed. I was glad to have checked them out.

The second band did not feature Bob Fay but did feature Jackie Jackieboy who changed into a white turtleneck behind a stack of amplifiers before his set. He was the punk vocalist frontman for UROCHROMES, who were fun and good. Before they started their loud, exciting and new punk music set, they waited to be joined by their second guitarist. Jackie entertained us with a story of playing at a club that had a bathroom right by the stage. The bathroom was so small that there was no sink. The sink was outside of the bathroom, near or perhaps on the stage. Jackie told us that he delighted in using the toilet and then coming out of the bathroom and publicly NOT use the sink. I wasn't personally shocked by that disclosure but I was very amused that he played the dirty boy role.

There was a band from Cleveland which was playing, Cruelster. They were driving to the show and didn't make it in time for the 3rd slot. Jackie announced that they were driving here to the show and then after the show were driving right back to Cleveland because someone was expecting a baby to be born at any minute and one of the guys in Cruelster wanted to be there. They ended up arriving and playing last.

So the third band was a local named Gluebag. Have you ever seen them? Why is that their name? From Urban Dictionary:Gluebag. any person exhibiting unusual, erratic and ridiculous behaviour or practices. (usually the result of gluesniffing). I didn't find them very erratic at all. They are a straight ahead rock group with fabulous frontman guitar solos by Tony Pasquarosa. This is them on the youtube. Here is their LP for sale from Framework. At the show folks were wild about Gluebag. If I may come clean about my personal choices, I would rather hear Tony play something like this.

Cruelster showed up and did their rendition of punk rock. They were different from Urochromes in that they were brighter and heavier. I felt like I was somewhere outside of western mass and I was, I was in Cleveland, which was very cool. People crowded in the basement and there was a bit of moshing. I'm not sure if they had their baby yet.