PLAYGROUND BOSTON

Stuck in Boston this weekend? Can’t make it down for the inaugural Provincetown Rocks Music Festival? Don’t worry, don’t fear, don’t cry – the friendly folks at PGB have you covered! We’re down on the Cape this weekend in full force for this monumental occasion, and we’ll be doing our best to bring you updates on how everything’s going each and every time we can find a wi-fi signal to steal! We’ll have quick reviews of some of the bands we’ve caught, a few songs to check out from intriguing artists, and maybe some reports of weird, insane, and/or drunken encounters over the course of this long rockin’ weekend! And if you’re planning on coming down to P-Town, either to perform or to check out the scene, we’ll try to give you the heads up on bands playing multiple sets so you can catch them for yourselves!

Click here for a complete listing of bands and venues participating in the festival!

Day 1 – Wednesday, July 22nd

So the action on the first day of the festival was limited to just a few venues. We stuck primarily to the main stage at the Vixen and the bar Good Times, and caught some pretty decent bands. Contrary to popular belief (ahem Michael Marrotta at the Herald), the festival seems to be going along without too much of a hitch. Sure there’s some scheduling issues, sure the sound engineering could be a little better – its the first year of this festival and like 150 bands playing over the course of 5 days, you thought everything was going to be perfectly smooth? Event organizer Martin Doyle remains fully confident with the way things are going – I think I bumped into him about 20 times over the course of the night all over Commercial Street, taking a hands-on approach to make sure everything goes as planned. It seems things are looking good, and so far I have no reason to expect that’s going to change. Anyway, onward to the meat and potatoes…

Venue: Good Times

Scene: Kinda weird. Pretty small club, U-shaped bar in the middle, pool tables in the back and the stage area (unraised) up front. Sound system wasn’t too good, unfortunately. They had a guy manning the boards, but I don’t really think he made any adjustments the entire time we were there. We showed up as late festival addition Corridor Seven was finishing up their set… and immediately noticed that the Sox game (could they win a fucking game for a change, by the way?) was being projected in huge fashion onto the blank wall behind them – as well as on the band themselves. That’s gotta be distracting. They didn’t even shut it off after the game was over, either – afterwards they had what looked like a classic rock infomercial beaming out over the bands. So yeah, like I said – kinda weird.

Bands: After we caught Color of Seven’s last song or two, the next band to take the stage was Coolie Pool. This electronically-minded female duo definitely had an interesting sound, which unfortunately is not reflected too well by the CD they gave us after their set. Their set had more of a rock feel to it, whereas the CD almost resembles ambient trance. The guitarist was running around the stage area the entire time jamming out with spacey guitar riffs and some Tom Morello-esque innovation, while the drummer alternated between drums, guitar, cornet, clarinet, and a cool metal Brazilian samba drum called a Repinique (which I got to test it out – thanks Carolyn!) Here’s a track to check out for yourself, let us know what you think!

Coolie Pool – “Satt” – To Drive

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We came back to Good Times later in the night to catch Magic Magic, who have been getting a lot of buzz since being selected as the Boston Phoenix’s Massachusetts pick for Best New Band in America (annual 50 bands 50 states feature). They were very tight, very polished, VERY indie… and hell, they had two drummers – that’s always a good time. They featured some weird time signatures and some jarring stop-start action throughout their set – not bad. The lead singer sounded a LOT different in person than he does on the CD he hooked us up with – honestly all I can think of when I hear his voice on the album is Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star… Go figure. Check it out -

Magic Magic – “Sleepy Lion” – Magic Magic

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On another note, if you head down to Good Times be sure to say hello to the extremely cool bartender Katie – good people as far as I’m concerned. She mentioned that we missed out by not being there for the sets of Alexis Babini and Big East, both of whom played while we were sitting in traffic on the way down to the Cape. She said Alexis was a great singer-songwriter, well worth checking out if we get a chance, and Big East were a very young band with some great youthful energy that made them a blast to watch. She also said some of those guys had some pretty slick pickup lines they tried out on her – no dice though. Better luck next time guys. We’re going to try to catch Alexis’ set tonight at 6:30pm at the Old Colony Tap, and as for Big East, they don’t have anything else at the festival, but they told us their other band Brontosaur (apparently Big East is just a side project) is having their EP Release Party at the Middle East Upstairs this Sunday, July 26th.

Venue: The Vixen

Scene: Interesting place. Smaller lounge-ish bar in the front with pool tables and air hockey, bigger concert hall in the back. The concert hall kind of reminded me of PA’s Lounge in Somerville (small stage, hardwood floors), only about twice the size and featuring a full complement of disco-ish lighting. And a bar in the back. So yeah, maybe not all that much like PA’s at all. Whatever, you get the idea. I think. The sound system here was great – you can just tell by the professional-quality mix that this is the place where the bigger acts who come to P-Town play. There weren’t a huge amount of people when we first went into the Vixen, but when we went back at the end of the night the place had packed up pretty nicely, and everyone seemed to be dancing and really getting into the music. Here’s a tip though – don’t try to get a cup of water at the bar. The look the bartender gave me is still giving me chills, and Noah almost got his head bitten off when he tried. Fine, fine, I’ll stick to beer. Yeah, I know – big sacrifice.

Bands: I was sad that we got there in time to just catch the very end of local P-Town rockers Squidda’s set. Whereas the majority of the bands on this festival’s bill are from Boston or elsewhere in Massachusetts, Squidda was one of the few that were playing to their hometown crowd. These guys had a pretty typical bar-rock sound, nothing too crazy, but it was fun music and it definitely got everyone in the club moving. I’m always impressed when the lead singer is also the lead guitarist, and this guy Tom was pretty nasty with both responsibilities. We actually ran into Tom outside the club after the show. He was drunk, and fucking hilarious. He was telling us that their last two shows were kind of drunken messes and went pretty bad, so he was surprised by how well they played tonight. “Hell, we should play when we’re pissed off at each other more often!” Sounds like a good time, just wish we had caught a little more of it. Tom’s in another band, The Legendary Elephants Gerald (great name!), who will be playing Friday night at 11:30pm at the Vixen – think I’ll have to check that out.

We came back to the Vixen at the end of the night for Upper Crust… Wow. Just wow. I didn’t exactly know what to expect when these guys took the stage dressed up like Victorian British fops and dandies – we’re talking white wigs, powdered faces, and era-appropriate clothing. Then they started playing and, well, they fucking tore the roof off the place. They had a great classic rock style – hard, fast, and powerful. Between songs they bantered back and forth in falsetto aristocratic British accents – hilarious! The irony of lead singer Count Bendover singing a song called “Come Hither, Fair Youth” in the heart of Provincetown was not lost on… well… anyone. What a great set, unfortunately it was the only one they will play during the festival. Since they won’t be coming back around Boston anytime soon here’s a video of their recent performance on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson – you have got to check this out:

OK That’s all for now, we’ll have more coverage of the festival tomorrow. Tonight we’re looking forward to The Lights Out, The Luxury, The Shills, Freezepop, Varsity Drag, Thick as Thieves, Casey Desmond, and a whole lot more. We’re airlifting in some photographers too, so we should have some good live shots for you in updates to come. Stay tuned!

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