Weekend of local rock volume 19

Since it's Friday, it's time to kick back into that last weekend of Christmas shopping. Next weekend, I'll be compiling the items for WLR volume 20 at Skip Dixxon's 12 Bands of Christmas but in the meantime I wanted to review the last two weekends, which I'm melding into one post. By the way, for the benefit of Final Frontier and whoever else checks out the site, I've saved the photos as 640x480 so they should load much faster (I hope.)

You know, you'd think I go out every weekend but I really don't. It just seems that way. I wasn't planning on making this particular show until I learned that my friends from Semiblind were going to take a hiatus (for the most part, as they're on Live Lixx this evening at 6 p.m. and one of the Twelve Bands of Christmas next weekend) and this would be their last full-night show for awhile. So I made tracks to Long Neck to show my support.

There's one personnel change in the band, which explains part of the break. (Another part is hoping they write more great original songs, expand that set list, and do some recording.) Now there's two guys named Jim in the band, as I call the new drummer Jim 2. He played last with the Baltimore-area band Seventh Seal.

I added this last picture just because it's sometimes funny when the band gets some unexpected help, as they did playing "Simple Man."

As is normally the case, Semiblind put on a good show and I enjoyed rockin' with them. I'm not sure just how long they plan on taking it easy, hopefully it won't be too far into the spring if that.

The next Saturday night, I decided a trip to OC was in order once I found out about this show:

To be honest, I was expecting something more along the lines of more modern rock, but instead a number of the bands who were there played more in the hardcore punk vein. Not that I minded; sometimes I like to pull out an old hardcore tape (or record, yes I own vinyl still!) and crank it to 10. I'm more of a metalhead but I can abide by thrash and punk too. Anyway, the first band was called The Odd Squad, from Delaware.

The Odd Squad bashed out hardcore classics and originals before heading out the door to do another show up in Smyrna. Then another band in that same realm took to the stage. These guys were called DUI, and they were also down here from Delaware.

Again, about a dozen songs, mostly covers. Going second, DUI wanted to play another song or two but Odd Squad had already done those numbers.

We got a change of pace with band number three. No, they were still from Delaware, but Arizona Lives had a sound more in line with what I expected when I came to the fundraiser.

I know the stage setup was a bit unusual, but man! did these guys make it hard to take pictures because the poor drummer was buried behind several amps. It's probably going to be a memorable show for them as one of the guitarists broke his string midway through the first or second song. One thing the singer might learn from the experience is a bit of self-promotion in these cases...give out the Myspace, pimp your upcoming shows and the later bands, introduce the guys, whatever while you're waiting. Better a show with 40 or 50 people in the place than 400 or 500, I suppose.

Next up was a more traditional three-piece band called Phantom Limbs. They got two pictures for a reason.

Phantom Limbs was one of the more enjoyable bands of the evening, because they had a lot of energy without being thrash - more straight-ahead, blues-based rock. The drummer did double duty as he also played for the next group up, called MDHC.

I'm going under the assumption that MDHC stands for Maryland Hardcore, because that's what they cranked out. Yep, back to the traditional three-piece punk/thrash setup.

We had one more hardcore band, but this band was different because they featured two lead singers and was 40 percent female. Hence the name Speed Queen. Also, I thought the Bettie Page hairdo was appropriate given recent events.

Yes, there's a lady bassist and we all know I dig chicks with bass. Gratuitous shot alert.

The next band came across the bridge to help out the Salisbury Skatepark cause; this was the surf/punk band Nagchaumpa.

When I looked up the Myspace for the link, I realized that surf/punk is a perfect description of their style. They're not as hardcore as some of the earlier bands but do play fast.

Finally, we got to the headliner, Lower Class Citizens. I don't have to add the link because they're already linked from here. Besides Semiblind, they may be my favorite local band. I have several pictures of these guys, mainly because the crowd that was 40 or 50 for Arizona Lives was probably three times that by the time LCC got underway, and I was right up front (naturally.)

One last shot before I go. Here's the set list for the LCC show, I just thought it was interesting, and song #10 (by my count) - that's a good one.

So the event I figured would be done by 10 wasn't through until 2 a.m. But it was a good time and the last two bands in particular were worth the wait.