Darkbuster, Abbey Lounge, February 21, 2007
By JEFF BREEZE | February 27, 2007
DARKBUSTER: The line between band and fan blurred. |
For years, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones celebrated the holiday season and their Boston roots with a week of club gigs they dubbed the “Hometown Throwdown.” Leave it to Darkbuster, the beer-swilling, hard-rocking band who are Boston to the core, to pick up where the Bosstones left off with something a little more their style: a week of gigs at the Abbey christened last year as the “Hometown Throw Up.”The taps at the Abbey Lounge were flowing and the cans of PBR were plentiful as the crowd gathered fairly early for a Wednesday night midway through this year’s “Throw Up.” The pompadoured Trash Boys set the tone with their piss-and-vinegar punk. The tempo slowed a bit as scene legends the Real Kids took over for a set that peaked with a blistering “My Baby’s Book.” Unfortunately, things fell apart during an encore of their best-known tune, “All Kindsa Girls,” thanks to some sort of in-joke that left most of the crowd in the dark.
As soon as Darkbuster stepped on stage, Lenny “CaCa” Lashley seemed to start directing the momentum of the crowd, a circular swirl of bodies that stopped and went vertical in a rage of fist pumping as the choruses hit. The line between band and fan was quickly blurred as audience members jumped on stage to shout along to the choruses. Bassist Mike “Sweet Pea” Gurley and drummer Danny “Deer in the Headlights” O'Halloran kept it all together, from driving anthemic punk backbeats to the occasional dubbed-out refrain. And aside from her nimble fretwork, the biggest difference that Darkbuster’s newest addition, guitarist Amy “Grif” Griffin, has brought is that the audience seems less inclined to spit beer back up toward the stage when she’s in the frame. No, the crowd saved most of that for Lashley, who seemed unfazed even as a few beer cans whizzed by, precariously close to his head.
Related:
Surfing the tube on Turkey Day, Of Doctor Tremendanus and the giant furry jellyfish, Unorthodox Jews, More 
- Surfing the tube on Turkey Day
Here’s a sign of the times for you: this year’s Thanksgiving television offerings are getting pretty, uh, not classic. And pretty tweeny...
- Of Doctor Tremendanus and the giant furry jellyfish
It was New Year’s Eve and in the belly of the Roxy nightclub, away from the teeming Bright Night crowds, there were monsters on the loose: creatures with protruding noses, googly eyes, and spindly legs.
- Unorthodox Jews
You won't hear feel-good Chanukah ditties in the style of the Leevees nor any pages out of Matisyahu's prayer book. This is a foul-mouthed, shtick-heavy act inspired by the borscht-belt comics and the seventies-era.
- Jersey state of mind
Richard Ford created Frank Bascombe in The Sportswriter (1986), returned to him in Independence Day (1995), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and a PEN/Faulkner Award, and has now come back to him for what he says is the last time in The Lay of the Land. Listen to audio excerpt of The Lay of the Land
- Feasts and fasts
Ramadan is a family-oriented month, and Islamic societies at universities around town provide new sets of communities for students.
- Portland scene report: November 28, 2008
The results of the WePushButtons Awards came in just a tad too late to get them in the last paper, so here's a quick recap of who took home what last Saturday at SPACE Gallery.
- Throwing Down Again
The air was thick with nostalgia and Boston pride, not to mention the more tangible sweat that was dripping from the pipes downstairs at the Middle East.
- Give a goat for $150
The holiday season is traditionally a time of wonder and wastefulness.
- It always looks a lot like Christmas at this Old Port store
Descending into Country Noel, which sits below street level on Exchange Street, is an assault on the senses.
- Holy nights
The Maccabees, the Holy Temple, the menorah that burned for eight days straight — all of these went unmentioned during JDub Records’ Chanukah celebration at the Paradise on Tuesday night.
- Unaccompanied Minors
Five children — mostly products of broken families en route from one parent to the other — get snowed in at a fictitious Midwest airport on Christmas Eve. Watch the trailer for Unaccompanied Minors (QuickTime)
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, Culture and Lifestyle, Holidays, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
