Spies Album Release Show

Hour 1

I arrive at The Triple, fashionably late.   The show is not even close to set up.  Everyone here is a redneck, trucker or...no, that's it.  Me and a bunch of redneck/truckers. 

I don't know anyone here, so I grab a drink and sit down by myself at a table, doing my best to project an image of "aggressively lonely".

One of the redneck/truckers winks at me and smiles.  I'm not sure if he's hitting on me, or if this is some sort of trucker etiquette.  Either way, it makes me uncomfortable. 

Hour 2

The bands still haven't started to play, but an acquaintance of mine has shown up.  We talk at length about comic books.   For the first time in my life, someone else's knowledge on the subject dwarfs my own. 

He also tells me that the lead singer of Spies is Joe Norris, another acquaintance of ours (HOORAY!) meaning that getting the interview should be easy.  Unfortunately, I also learn that the band that was supposed to headline, Pedals on Our Pirate Ships, isn't playing.

I meet Joe Norris; he doesn't believe I really work for Magazine33.  I gotta get a goddamn press-pass. 

Hour 3

My liver gets into a drinking contest with my wallet.  After two drinks, my wallet throws in the towel, and I'm forced to quit drinking.  The jokes on it though: People keep buying me drinks throughout the night.

At about 12:30, the first band finally starts: "Wake of the Flood".  They're three guys with acoustic guitars, sharing vocal duties, though one of them does the bulk of it.  The main vocalist is really fantastic; he's got a really deep, rich voice, which reminds me of a less raspy Tom Gabel.  They do a bunch of covers of really great old country songs about whiskey and running from the law, and all that jazz.  I felt like the other two guys in the band were kind of superfluous, the lead singer really could have done all this by himself, and probably would have been better for it.  Overall though, even though these guys are just getting started, they're already very good.  I'm looking forward to a lot of great things from these guys.

The next band up was a solo act; a guy named Tom Woods.  Another country act (a little disappointed and confused that 2/3 of the bands are country, when I was expecting a punk show).  He's really good though, just him belting out great country songs on an acoustic/electric guitar.  Like the previous band, he's embodies all the great elements of country without falling prey to any of the nationalistic "GO AMURIKA! -We'll put a boot in your ass! -Mainstream bullshit" that so many people think of when they think of Country music.  His voice is great, really booming and great.  If Saw Wheel had the songwriting ability of John Prine, he would sound a lot like this. 

Hour 4

Finally, the headlining band, Spies, is up.  They're a three-piece melodic punk band, sort of like Jinxed at 12 or NOFX.  They've also got a little bit of a ska influence on some songs, although they're definitely not a ska band overall.   They have a lot of great energy, with great lyrics and great stage presence, but they're just not my thing.  I was really hoping for something much heavier and faster then what they delivered, but that having been said, I can see a lot of people really getting into this band.  If you get a chance, check them out.

Links:

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By Author: Ratso

Ratso is a Russian-American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Ratso is one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited about 500 books and over 9,000 letters and postcards. His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (the sole exception being the 100s: philosophy and psychology).

Ratso is widely considered a master of the science-fiction genre and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he is considered one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers. Ratso's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the Galactic Empire Series and the Robot series, both of which he tied into the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He has penned numerous short stories, among them "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time, an accolade that many still find persuasive. Ratso wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.

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