Weekend of local rock volume 36

It’s a Christmas tradition around these parts – maybe not on the scale of trees, mistletoe, or boughs of holly, but 16 years seems to be a long enough run to call it tradition. Consider it a more modern forum for caroling.

The 16th annual 12 Bands of Christmas was, as always, presented by this guy.

Skip Dixxon has probably seen or been in hundreds of local rock shows, so he knows just how to put together a party. One oddity of this lineup was its popularity for other venues, as I’ll get into shortly.

My friends from Semiblind began the show at 6:00. Normally they appear later on the bill, but Jim and Michele had their own acoustic gig later that evening in Milford so Semiblind went first with a little bit more of a rockin’ countrified set than normal.

Dust n’ Bones did their own set of hard rock covers before exiting for a show in Salisbury later that evening.

The next band was the bluesy jam band Monkee Paw, who stopped by before doing their own gig in Bethany Beach. It’s good to see that bands are being employed in these parts but had the time to drop in to do a half-hour or so set.

Livin’ the Dream put the host to work on the drum set as they cranked out the hard stuff, including a couple from KISS, and gave an impromptu bass lesson to a lucky and nubile young lady in the crowd. It was fun.

The newest band of the night, Gabriel Nation was making its debut – they weren’t even sure they were keeping the name. But they played the stuff their borrowed drummer knew.

Switching to some originals, we were treated to a staple of Skip’s events – the blues-rock of Melodic Groove. The Crisfield-based trio was rocking the joint as we reached past the halfway point.

It wasn’t just the long, long, Santa hat – Crookedfinger played a couple in their set to get us in the Christmas spirit. But they also tossed in a couple originals and some interesting mashups to keep the crowd into it.

The party needed some Gravy, said Skip, and they delivered a solid set of classic rock covers even with some sound issues involving their keyboard player. It took until the second song to get him squared away.

Don’t try this with your guitar at home.

A band new to the area, Maddam Ink came down from Philadelphia to introduce themselves.

I liked them enough to give them two pictures, and hopefully they will make some return visits to the area. It was good exposure for an up-and-coming band.

I hadn’t seen Gravitate before, but they kept the party going through their interpretation on a number of classic tunes. Even the bullhorn (seen on the stage) was employed a couple times, which is a touch I’ve only seen with one other band (Funksion, out of the Norfolk area.)

We wrapped up the night with the high energy of Witches Brew.

I added a couple shots for them just so you could get an idea of their frenetic pace.

They closed out the show by reprising hard rockers from Nirvana, Judas Priest, and AC/DC, among others. So much for a slow letdown.

The summary: music fans at Pickles Pub in Ocean City were treated to eleven bands in eight hours, at the best price possible – free. Next year, make it part of your Christmas tradition!

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

2 thoughts on “Weekend of local rock volume 36”

  1. I was there that night but this is not a picture of Gabriel Nation Gabriel Nation Is solo artist Jason Bennett also known as singer for halflink Gabriel Nation Did play this night but that is not me

  2. Actually this was not a night i played This is a picture of a drummer that was fired and falsely using my name i would appreciate it takin down please……………………

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