[bomp] Little Steven tour #2

[Blair Buscareno <blairb@xxxxxxx>]

As many of you know, Little Steven's Underground Garage is running 
cross-country tours.  The first one - in September - had The Zombies as 
the headliners and included The Mooney Suzuki and The Woggles, as well 
as many other bands for various regions of the US, plus usually a local 
band opening.  (In NYC, it was The Anderson Council, The Woggles, The 
Fleshtones, The Mooney Suzuki, and The "Zombies".)

Last night, the tour was back at Irving Plaza.  This time, the 
headliners were The Shadows of Knight, with The Romantics in the support 
slot.  The Charms are the other band that are on the full tour.  Two NYC 
bands opened: Baby Shakes and Headquarters.

My take on the evening:
Baby Shakes (http://www.babyshakes.com) opened up.  I love this band.  
I've been nuts about them since I saw them open for The Undertones 
probably about a year and a half ago.  (Now, do the math:  Their first 
show ever was in February, 2005.)  This is absolutely PERFECT power 
pop.  It rocks, rolls, moves, shakes with melody bursting through all 
over.  I can listen to these songs over and over.  Oh...And they really 
enjoy themselves on stage.

Headquarters...NYC band that's been around for 7-8 years?  I have 
friends who like 'em way better than I do.  Ostensibly Mod, but I have a 
stricter definition in that regard.

The Charms...Sorry, I've never been a big fan, but at least a couple 
years ago they didn't bore me to tears with their current, extreme 
rock-ist approach.  But Little Steven seems to be in love with them.  
He's got 'em on next month's tour, too.  (Well, at least I'll have time 
to go downstairs and hang with friends for awhile.)

The Romantics...These guys still know how to do it.  Besides the 
obligatory "What I Like About You" (still a great song) to finish up, 
they included one of my old favorites, "When I Look In Your Eyes", as 
well as "Tomboy" and "First In Line".  Plus, a couple songs off their 
disc from a couple years back (which was DAMN good) and covers of both 
"Come See Me" and "Midnight To Six".  About the only song I wasn't nuts 
for the entire night was probably "Talking In Your Sleep".  Still, there 
was an element of the crowd that was obviously expecting to hear it, so 
I can hardly fault them for doing it.  Oh...And the band was absolutely 
flying.  Their playing was fantastic and they were clearly way into it.

Once The Romantics were done, the room really emptied out.  While I 
understand Little Steven wanting the 60s band to headline, I can't 
imagine it does much for their ego when a huge portion of the crowd 
leaves.  Sure, I know The Shadows of Knight had some big hits in the 
60s, but The Romantics had hits WAY more recently.  Granted, their last 
one was probably 20-25 years ago, but "What I Like About You" is still 
all over the place.  Can you really say the same thing about any of The 
Shadows of Knight records?  (OK, maybe somewhere else in the country you 
can, but that's definitely not true here in the NYC area.)

I saw The Shadows of Knight 9 years ago at the first Cavestomp.  They 
were awful back then.  I actually walked out about the time Jim Sohns 
(the only original member) opened his shirt all the way and started up a 
song called "Red Hot American Girl".  So I was prepared to walk out 
right away.

I didn't.  They started with "Someone Like Me".  That one was on one of 
the first garage comps I ever picked up.  And, although the band looked 
awful, they didn't absolutely butcher it.  It was a good way to start.

Within a couple songs, though, I went to the back.  By the time they hit 
"I Got My Mojo Working", I took a break.  The material was good, but the 
band was...Well, they just didn't have the fire that The Romantics had.  
They didn't seem to burn with the intensity I wanted.  One friend said 
the band reminded him of a bunch of guys you find working in a suburban 
guitar store.  And Jim Sohns?  On the plus side, he didn't have a shirt 
he could rip open.  But he did turn around and shake his 60 year-old 
butt at the audience.  And that is *not* a butt that anyone was 
interested in.

They did "Bad Little Woman" and, of course, "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" 
and "Shake".  They did *not* do "Potato Chip".  For "Oh Yeah", they 
brought up a couple members of the Vanilla Fudge.  Yes, they finished 
with "Gloria".

What killed me was that they had so many good songs that this could've 
been great.  Sadly, it just wasn't.

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