And it sounded like eleven too. This was the show I checked out last night:
I actually thought there would be three bands, so it was nice to get a bonus fourth. More on them in a bit. First up came that cast of characters known as Goatbag.
They played sort of a short set, maybe a half hour, but it was enough time for the pancakes to be made. You had to be there.
In the second slot came the “bonus” band out of Union City, New Jersey known as Lamps Burning.
I wouldn’t mind seeing these guys make a return trip at some point. And while they have an energetic front man, these three are pretty solid in their own right:
They played a little longer set, and the mosh pit was in effect at the end. That boisterous group had Lamps Burning play one extra song in the set, so the Monkey Barrel faithful approved of the group’s efforts.
While Lamps Burning didn’t bring much in the way of merch, since this occasion was also a CD release party for area rockers Falling From Failure that band indeed had copies of the new CD called “Calculating Errors” at their table.
And I like the logo. They need a nice square sticker like this for my bumper.
Oh yeah, they played too. Actually, they were who I came to see, so I took quite a few pictures. I’ll start with one of the full band.
I also got shots of the individual band members, although Blake didn’t quite cooperate as you’ll see.
I have to tell you that I took most of these shots relatively early in the set because by the end I was right up front on the ropes getting the occasional bump from the mosh pit. And my chiropractor will love me since I was headbanging for a good portion of FFF’s set. But it was fun.
Closing out the night was local favorite Hard$ell. I showed you Falling From Failure’s merch table, but they had nothing on Hard$ell’s.
There was one thing quite different about Hard$ell this time than the last time I saw them maybe a year or so ago. I took this shot just when they started playing from way back at the auxiliary bar so it’s not my greatest effort.
This is a better shot of the Hard$ell crew. Moving to stage left worked a lot better.
The last time I saw them they had a turntable player who also did backing vocals. He was there last night but only backed up on the last couple songs. I’m wondering if his voice couldn’t handle a full set anymore.
I got a kick out of the last song, with the crowd participating by yelling out a phrase that’s eerily similar to the two words our local “pro-Maryland” bloggers place before the name of Joe Albero.
Sometime this coming week I’m going to put up some more pictures and a little more of a review on the monoblogue Myspace site. I actually took almost 90 pictures, and a lot of them were at the large format I like rather than the 640 x 480 format I use for this site. If the bands want some they can ask me at the address above.
There was one more picture I took just because I thought it was cool.
I also should commend Jude for doing a great job with the sound. When he’s at a show (and he does a bunch), I can be sure that bad sound won’t be an issue. I still miss his Sunday evening radio show though.
Finally, if the creek don’t rise you can look forward to another pictorial like this sometime after next Saturday because that evening I’m going to head over to the Steer Inn to check out Skip Dixxon’s Spring Luau featuring 12 bands – Blake Haley, Crowded Outhouse, Johnny Suit and the Nice Ties, Woodstock, Aaron Howell Band, Melodic Groove, Trailerpark Romeo, Matthew King, Lower Class Citizens, Pirate Radio, Agent 99 (with a shout out to Casey!), and, of course, my good friends from Semiblind, who will be part of that bill as well. Should be a blast and it’ll be a little different sound – certainly not quite as heavy but still good music.
