Music is Art '06, Day 2 Sunday, June 11
Joe McCarthy/McCarthyizm open Day 2
We got there for day two a little later than we had for day one, but we still caught a lot of music, starting with a great set by McCarthyizm. Led by vocalist/guitarist Joe McCarthy, and joined by guitarist Paul Ceppaglia, bassist Dave Mucha and drummer Joe Suplicki, the band’s attack was electric and acoustic guitar-based rootsy rock with some strong Celtic flavoring and a wee bit of wallop. In particular, “Victors Morning,” punchy Celtic rock, featured some excellent Irish imagery, including “pints of stout and pints of blood” and a fine fiddle section by Helen Butler. McCarthyizm ended its set with an energetic run through of “Not Go Home,” detailing a winter pub crawl, and really, if you haven’t recently caught McCarthyizm live, you ought to do so soon. IMAGE, a hip hop effort to fight violence and gang influences in teenagers’ lives, coordinated by saxophonist Eric Crittenden, performed its positive message while fighting through adversity. When the group’s backing tracks would not function, Crittenden became for several songs a 2006 version of the Human Beatbox and the performers on stage fed off his enthusiasm and finished their set with smiling faces.
Next up were three older/reunited bands that showed a lot of bands how things are supposed to be done. The Painkillerz delivered a strong, grating set of what may seem like simple punk songs but were filled with meaning and subtext, as well as some skronky guitar sounds; singer Paul Galvin still prowls the stage like a caged animal. The Vores, with Biff Henrich on guitar and vocals, played a great set of disjointed, rough edged new wave and punk in a style that would sound fine next to early classic Gang of Four. The set, made up of old and new songs, included “Raven and Eagle” and “I Do Not Respond.” While not a band as early back as either the Painkillerz or the Vores, the Steam Donkeys, now a four-piece, are certainly veterans and still have the goods, playing a set of smart country swing and country with a touch of rock, including “Pothead,” “Ain’t That the Way,” “Strip Joint” and possibly the best slow/surviving a heartbreak song to come out of Buffalo,” singer Buck Quigley’s “Dashboard Mary.”
Eric Crittenden with IMAGE You go!
Biff Henrich and Gary Nickard - original Vores
Newer Vores members Cathy Carfagna and Scott Ryan
The Global Village Idiots performed a set of mentally confrontational music that sometimes falls into art rock, sometimes theatrical rock and sometimes basic rock. Martial drumbeats, chiming guitars, throbbing and floating bass are sometimes combined with dreamy guitar and synthesizer. The two-note line of “Freaks on Parade” was developed into lower, rhythmic guitar. Klear seems to have changed its sound again; after hearing a metal/hip hop blend on the “Music Is Art Live” television program, the banded sounded WAY too much like Alice in Chains, and I like Alice in Chains. Of course, playing a power ballad and another song that was too close to a power ballad for comfort didn’t help, either.
Paul Painkiller - Ah! Those were the days!
Artists spent the weekend creating
Robby with tireless Music is Art volunteer Shelly Seidman
Joined by several other dance troupes over the weekend, Rince Na Tiama take the street
The Juliet Dagger delivered a real good, rocking set, starting with the chunky, tough rock of “Champion of the Universe;” the next song was even faster and punchier, prompting TJ Zindle of the Last Conservative to note that I wasn’t dancing or moving (hard to do when you are taking notes), then saying “OK, Kevin, come on,” after which he held up his secret Devil sign hands and proceeded to head bang, kick and handclap. This brought chuckles from guitarist/vocalist Erin Roberts. Roberts then brought up the females from the guitar clinic on stage to play “Sooper,” (a great idea/gesture) which appears on the “Music Is Hope” CD. Before The Juliet Dagger played its last song, Roberts noted how some local female musicians continue to play to the stereotype of women in music being or are expected to be sluts: “You can be punk rock or you can be sluts; you can’t be both.” Zindle turned to me and with a smile said, “The Voodoo Dollies.” The band then kicked into “Rag Dolls,” all but sealing Zindle’s observation; the song’s lyrics include “You make it harder for girls like me.” Speaking of the Voodoo Dollies, I was fortunate to miss most of their set earlier on and only had to hear some of it from behind and off to the side of the stage.
The Juliet Dagger's Erin Roberts
Erin leading the guitar clinic band
To end Music Is Art 2006, Amungus, the industrial/ambient/noise band of Takac and Brian Schulmeister, played as part of a virtual revue. After Takac and Schulmeister started working the electronics, Takac picked up a hollow-body bass; the heavy, ponderous beats and washes eventually became rather dance oriented with many layers, and a dance troupe accompanied the music, which then moved to some ambient passages with sampled found sounds. Takac moved to center stage with a boom box and microphone; Z. Mann Zilla then began rapping, which was pedestrian at best, and Takac, with one of his mischievous smiles starting to form, rapped the Pop-a-Matic Trouble television commercial to laughter and cheers from the crowd, especially those of my, um, advanced age.
“See kids, that’s what you get when a kid from the suburbs raps,” Takac, from the Buffalo suburb of West Seneca, joked. To add to the fun, Takac then rapped the Tootsie Pop commercial (how many licks does it take to get to the center).
Finally, Erin Roberts and TJ Zindle danced to Amungus’ remix of Ani DiFranco’s “Napoleon” (one of my favorite DiFranco songs; the remix also appears on the “Music Is Hope” charity CD), and to end the performances, while Amungus continued its music, was a fire dancer, a feature started last year which Amungus and the audience obviously enjoy.
Music Is Art 2006 was not only another success, but it is becoming a standard by which other music and art festivals, and successful Buffalo/Western New York musicians and artists, are to be measured.
Robby and Z Mann Zilla
Amungus with stage dancers during finale
Our hero! Thanks for another fun success!