http://wbkm.org/

 

 

Tonight’s local music radio show will run from 9-11p, US Eastern time Thursday June 7. It can be streamed from the WBKM.ORG website or here: WBKM It will go as follows.

You’re Not Alone – Saga

intro

From our small city to the great big world, these are the Sounds Of Burlington. It’s been warm and cold this week. There are flowers everywhere. Burlington is filled with jazz so let’s begin tonight with some blues.

1.) A Locally Specific Blues – Jason Baker
2.) Goner – REDadmiral
3.) Hippo Nose – Chris Alley
4.) Killer Bee Bop – Zoot Wilson
5.) Frozen Winning Streaks Of A Gambler – Matt the Gnat and the Gators

It was cool to see Matthew Bryan Hagen and Caroline Marie play everything except that song this afternoon at Red Square. Zoot rocked us in the ’70’s and Chris put out that album recently. Nice live version of Goner from the new mellower version of the admiral. Cool song form Jason. OK, let’s rock. Here is the next song on Engine.

6.) You Will Fall – Kelly Ravin Music
7.) Coast To Ghost – Doom Service
8.) Big Starr – sleeping in
9.) Six Month Winter – Suburban Samurai

Doom and Samurai will be at Big Heavy World next Wednesday. Sleeping will be there tomorrow. Great song from Kelly. OK, let’s keep rocking.

10.) Broken Radio – The Cush
11.) I Like Flowers And I’m Not Afraid To Say It – Peg Tassey MUSIC
12.) Help Wanted – Wide Wail
13.) So They Say – The New Siberians

Great song from their recent album. Wanted and Flowers went back to the ’90’s and Radio is quite new. This is a new song from a performer who will be at Shelburne Vineyard on Saturday.

14.) Shut Up And Kiss Me – Myra Flynn Music
15.) Practicing – Steady Betty
16.) London – Tom Pearo
17.) Tripping Along – The Decemberists

I’m very excited to see the Decemberists at Shelburne Museum on Saturday. Tom will be at Red Square tomorrow. Betty will take over Nectar’s tomorrow. OK, let’s play another song from I’ll Be Your Girl.

18.) Once In My Life – The Decemberists
19.) Sequoia 1 – Binger
20.) A Dark Light – Aram Bedrosian
21.) Born A Man – Aaron Flinn

Cool older song from Aaron. Great new song from Aram. The Binger song is a few years old and Once is quite new. OK, let’s keep rocking.

22.) Get Out – Clever Girls
23.) Full Moon Dark Places – Bull & Prairie
24.) My Fear Of Losing You – Milton Busker
25.) Running Away From Home – The Snaz

They broke up but it’s such a cool song I want to keep playing it. Great song from Milton. Nice heavy rockers from Bull and Clever. OK, let’s switch things up a little. This next performer played on Monday and Tuesday as part of Jazzfest.

26.) Skylark – Tiffany Pfeiffer and The Discarnate Band
27.) Yea Right – Made By Robots
28.) Every Last One Of Us – SWALE

Great rocker from Swale. Cool jazzy pieces by Tiffany and the Robots. Well, I hope you enjoyed checking out the music of our town. Let’s do it again next week, shall we?

outro

Songs after
Goldfish & Clowns – Fish
The Last Of The Unplucked Gems – The Tragically Hip
The Globe – Landlady
Godzilla – Blue Oyster Cult
Monsters Are Due On Main Street – Doom Service
Hand Of Doom – Black Sabbath
Time For Bedlam – Deep Purple
Feel Free – Dam Kat
Experiment IV – Kate Bush
My Old House – Andriana Chobot
Hollow – The Cush
Liluth – analog missionary
Paint With The Sun – Arc Iris
Strontium Burning – TILT
Sealine – The Church
Heavy – Clever Girls
Get Me Outta Here – Deep Purple
regular awesome programming

Advertisements

http://wbkm.org/

Tonight’s local music radio show on WBKM.ORG will run from 9-11pm US Eastern time Thursday February 1st. It can be streamed from the website or our Facebook page here: WBKM It will go as follows.

Song before: Sugar Bullets – Stranglers

intro

From our small city to the great big world, these are the Sounds Of Burlington. Let’s begin tonight with a look back at the good old days when you would make mix tapes and give them to friends and lovers.

1.) My New Mix Tape – Eef
2.) True Hue – Ivamae
3.) The Cats – Hana Zara
4.) 15 Steps – Maryse Smith

I was excited to hear that Maryse will be back in town for many shows in February including a residency at Light Club Lamp Shop. Hana will be back in town for a show on February 11th at Radio Bean and I’m very excited for that too. Ivamae plays such beautiful songs. Great song from Eef. OK, here is the next song on Black, Blue, and White.

5.) The Sun Comes Up – The New Siberians
6.) The Static Divine – Crazyhearse
7.) Glover Tonight – Chin Ho
8.) Come Kiss Me – Near North

That’s such a lovely song from North. That’s a classic from Ho. Great song from the Middlebury band. Another great song from the Siberians. That album is packed with them. OK, I’ve got a treat for you. This next song is brand new and features Urian Hackney on drums!

9.) Honest Will – The Parts
10.) Light Walking – Adam Wolf
11.) Midnite Dance – Christopher Dorian Alley All Star Band
12.) Interview/Neutrino – Black Rabbit

That’s from the Live From Robot Dog Studio album that Ryan Cohen and I put out last week. They will be at ArtsRiot tomorrow. Another cool song from Alley’s new Hippo Nose album. I caught Adam a couple of weeks ago and loved the show. His band will be at ArtsRiot on Saturday. Great song from Danny LeFrancois and the rest of the Parts. OK, these next three bands will be at Club Metronome tomorrow.

13.) Monsters Are Due – Doom Service
14.) Six Month Winter – Suburban Samurai
15.) A Part Of You – NODON
16.) No Magic – Hellascope
17.) Doomed Convoy – Wolfhand
18.) …And The Gods Made War/Visions Of Gehenna – Black Pyramid

I caught Pyramid, Wolfhand, and Hellascope at Nectar’s last Metal Monday and loved all three. The first three will rock Metronome hard tomorrow. OK, let’s keep rocking.

19.) Burn – Dirty Blondes
20.) Move Through Time – Persian Claws
21.) Sun In The Sky – Ninja Custodian
22.) Sequoia 3 – Binger

I love the lyrics and power of that song. The Ninja song always used to cheer me up when i was down. Great rockers from Persian and the Blondes. Hey, this next band just released this new song.

23.) Where Do we Go From Here? – Madaila
24.) She Moves In Passages – Late Night Sneaky Uncle
25.) Basin And Range – Ver Sacrum
26.) Miniature Stairway To Heaven – James Kochalka Superstar
27.) Waiting For The World To End – The Depth and the Whisper
28.) The Next Instead – SWALE

Such a great song from Swale. The Whisper song has stuck with me since they played town that one time. Great new song from James. Ver is Matt from Vedora. He’s such a good soul and the music has a lovely flow. I love Ann-Marie’s singing on the Uncle song. Thanks for all that you do Madaila. Well, I hope you enjoyed checking out the music of our town. Let’s do it again next week, shall we?

outro

Songs after
Jungle Ride – Fish
She Didn’t Know – The Tragically Hip
The Revenge Of Vera Gemini – The Contrarian
Usual Plays In Heaven/Be Kind And Talk To Me – Active Heed
Try To Love parts 1 and 2 – Dam Kat
A Great Good Comes – analog missionary
Strange Phenomena – Kate Bush
Not I – Andriana Chobot
Holes – Mercury Rev
Another Murder Of A Day – Fish and Tony Banks
Images – Saga
New York My Lovely – Joshua Glass Music
Myrrh – The Church Band
regular programming.

 

 

 

Tonight’s local music radio show on WBKM.ORG can be streamed from our website or this WBKM Facebook link. It will run from 9-11pm US Eastern Time on Thursday August 10th and will go as follows:

Song before: The Sound Of A – Alice Cooper

intro

From our small city to the great big world, these are the Sounds Of Burlington. Let’s begin with a local classic.

1.) North Hyde Park – Hover
2.) Crazy – Clever Girls
3.) What’s To Become Of The Meaning Of Love – Daniel Romano
4.) Beach Day – Looms
5.) Automatic Sweetheart – Hammydown

Last Saturday I got to see Clever Girls play at The Monkey House with Looms and Hammydown and last night I saw Clever Girls with Daniel Romano at ArtsRiot. Tomorrow Clever Girls are playing at the Tarrant Art Gallery as part of Exhibitionists: Clever Girls at 5pm. OK, let’s play the last song on the Action EP.

6.) Everyday Weekend – 1881
7.) Kick Rocks – And The Kids
8.) Another Day Closer To Nothing – Grand
9.) Epic – Laureate

Laurieate will come visit us on Sunday for a show at the Monkey House. I haven’t seen Grand for a while and hope to catch up with them soon. They are such a fun band. The Kids are at Higher Ground tonight and always put on a great show. Great song from 1881. I hope you enjoyed listening to all of the songs on their Light’s, Camera, and Action EP’s. I’ll start a new album to play song after song week after week, nest week. These next two bands will be at the Monkey House on Sunday too.

10.) From Here – The Red Summer Sun
11.) Ex-Files – Better Things
12.) Surf Showdown – The High Breaks
13.) The Territory – Hana Zara

Hana has a new album together called Where Amanda Is King. She just launched a Kickstarter to raise money to get it mastered and printed. She writes such great songs and I’m sure the new album will be terrific. The Breaks played at the Summervale festival in the Intervale earlier today. Great songs from Better and Summer. Here is a cool song that I have not heard in a while.

14.) Think I’ll Stay – Great Western
15.) Breathing In – The Hero Cycle
16.) Somewhere Far – The Red Telephone
17.) The Drone – The Cush

The Cush have played many stunning versions of that song in our town over several years. Great song from Telephone who evolved out of Envy. Hero appeared for a year or so and went away but left us with some great music. I have not seen Western in ages but they put on some great shows in the 2010’s. OK, let’s keep rocking.

18.) Weapons Factory – The Wards
19.) Gas And Oil – Gas And Oil
20.) Alcohol Injection – Lord Silky
21.) The Path – Savage Hen

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Hen. I may have to go check them out in a couple of weeks. Silky just put out a new album and play stunning rock shows. Gas was Beano Parker’s side project and the Wards were his main band. OK, let’s keep rocking.

22.) An Obscene Amount Of Debt – Sink or Swim
23.) The Wolves Are Coming – Suburban Samurai
24.) We Need Bigger Knives – As We Were
25.) Welcome To The Hellmouth – Doom Service

Doom have been playing some shows but I have not caught up with them in a while. I’ll have to change that sometime. As used to play some great punk for us but I have not seen them around lately. Samurai were in town a couple of weeks ago. Swim just played out west. OK, let’s keep rocking.

26.) Carnage – Black Rabbit
27.) Jackbooted Thugs (Have All The Best Drugs) – Anders Parker
28.) Song About The Ocean – Dino Bravo VT
29.) Freeway – David Rosane & The Zookeepers

Great song form David and the band who are playing all over Vermont right now, and are recording a new album. Great new classic from Dino. Anders will be in Montpelier on Friday and at ArtsRiot on Saturday. Rabbit always rock. Oh, and I had to play Freeway to set up the next two songs. I hope you enjoyed checking out the music of our town. Let’s do it again next week, shall we?

outro

Songs after
Whiplash – Fish
Dynamite Road – Alice Cooper
Ronnie James Dio Medley – Metallica
Fireball – Alice Cooper
Delirious – The Church Band
Paranormal – Alice Cooper
Make It Work – The New Siberians
Rats – Alice Cooper
I Know Right – The Mountain Says No
Holy Water – Alice Cooper
Elevator – SWALE
New York My Lovely – Joshua Glass Music
regular programming

 

Tonight’s local music radio show on WBKM will run from 9-11pm US Eastern time Thursday July 20 and will go as follows.

Song before: Looking For A Place To Happen – The Tragically Hip

intro

From our small city to the great big world, these are the Sounds Of Burlington. It’s been a great week for music and I’ve been getting out to as many shows as possible. This first performer took the stage for the first time in many years last Thursday and sounded as great as ever. This is the song she opened with.

1.) First Kiss – Peg Tassey MUSIC
2.) (What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding – Elvis Costello
3.) The Art Of Giving In – 1881
4.) Oliver’s Army – Elvis Costello

I want to thank Higher Ground for sponsoring us at the station and for bringing so much great music to town. They are bringing Elvis Costello to the Shelburne Museum on Sunday and I could not be more excited. That’s the next song on 1881’s series of EP’s called Lights, Camera, Action. I had to stick that one in between other songs since the intro and outro are so fun. Great songs from Elvis and It was so great to hear Peg sing again. OK, let’s head over to Robot Dog Studio for another edition of WBKM live at Robot Dog. Tonight we feature the amazing Andriana Chobot.

5.) Dig Him – Andriana Chobot
6.) Cascade – Andriana Chobot
7.) Another Day – Andriana Chobot
8.) My Old Home – Andriana Chobot

I love Andriana’s songs and hope you do to. Thanks Ryan Cohen for making us sound so great. I saw this next performer play a couple of songs a long time and have loved their music ever since. I got to see them play a long show at American Flatbread yesterday and they were fantastic. Here is one of the songs they played.

9.) Urban Country – David Rosane & The Zookeepers
10.) Elevator – SWALE
11.) My New Mix Tape – Eef
12.) On My Way – Hover

That’s a classic from Burlington’s ’90’s. Eef played around in the ’90’s too but got back together about a year ago for a show and I’ve loved the song Mix Tape ever since. That Swale song has been stuck in my head all week. I hope it gets stuck in yours too. Great song from David and the band. This next band are at Red Square tonight.

13.) Lovely Day – gneiss
14.) Children Of The Stars – Madaila
15.) The Light – Kat Wright
16.) Salty Things – Queen Tangerine

Alice Austin and Julia Austin used to be in Zola Turn then did an album as QT and put out a few cool songs. Great song from Kat Wright‘s new album. Fun song from Madaila who will shut down Main st for a show in a few weeks. Gneiss are so lovely. This next band will be at the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery which is part of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts for a free show at 5pm tomorrow as part of it’s Exhibitionist series.

17.) I Know, Right? – The Mountain Says No
18.) Sin Is Funner – Swillbillie
19.) Oklahoma Road Rage – Crazyhearse
20.) Yayo – Dirty Blondes

The Blondes, Crazy, and Swill will be at The Monkey House tomorrow and that show will rock. This next band rocked the Monkey House last week.

21.) Lunacy – Cave Bees
22.) NA – Modern Trigger
23.) Stick That In Your Juicebox And Sip It – Better Things
24.) The Wolves Are Coming – Suburban Samurai
25.) Time Travel – Bearchild

Bear, Better, Modern and the Bees played a great show at the Monkey last week. Better and Suburban play there on this coming Saturday. OK, let’s rock out for a bit.

26.) Every Last One Of Us – Swale
27.) Song About The Ocean – Dino Bravo VT
28.) Jackbooted Thugs (Have All the Best Drugs) – Anders Parker
29.) Tow Truck – David L Jarvis

I want to dedicate that song to everyone who’s been aggravated to find that their car has been towed, especially to people named Cody. Anders has a couple of shows coming up soon. Great songs from Dino and Swale. I hope you enjoyed checking out the music of our town. Let’s do it again next week, shall we?

outro

Songs after:
Feast Of Consequences (live) – Fish
New Americana – Halsey
Hello Earth (live) – Kate Bush
Morrigan – Children in Paradise
This Is The Sound – Folksongs For The Afterlife
Isn’t It A Pity (live) – George Harrison
Pump It Up – Elvis Costello
Surrender (live) – Cheap Trick
The Wherewithal – The Tragically Hip
New York My Lovely – Joshua Glass Music

WBKM

http://wbkm.org/

Tonight’s local music radio show on 107.1FM WBKM can be heard from our Facebook page link, or over the air. It will run from 9-11pm this evening and will go as follows:

Song before: No Plan – David Bowie

intro

From our small city to the great big world, these are the Sounds Of Burlington. I want to begin by thanking the wonderful Higher Ground for sponsoring our station. With the upcoming change in Presidents a lot of us are feeling anxiety. Hopefully, tonight’s show will confront that anxiety and help steel our nerves for what is to come.

1.) Two Weeks (’til The End Of The World) – Grand
2.) I know Right – The Mountain Says No
3.) Six Month Winter – Suburban Samurai
4.) Lion Tamer – Carraway

Now that the lions will soon be in charge we are all going to need to learn to become lion tamers, in a loving caring way. Great new song from Suburban. They played at The Monkey House last night. That’s a great new song from Mountain from their upcoming album Golden Landfill. That’s an early mix but sounds so cool. Great song from Grand. OK, let’s play the next song on Shovel Down, the album I’m playing all the way through song after song week after week.

5.) The Violent Strain Of My Broken Heart – Seth Yacovone Band
6.) The Mime – Joe Adler
7.) The Road – Anders Parker
8.) Machu Picchu – The Mountain Says No

Wow, they really had to climb the heights to create that one. Thanks Mountain! Anders played an amazing show at ArtsRiot last Friday. His version of that song was stunning. It’s pretty great on album too. Joe played at Radio Bean a week ago Monday and reminded me how great that song is. Great song from Seth. OK, with lots of fake news about and an incoming President who speaks in vague generalities and when he does cite facts, is usually wrong, it’s pretty scary and makes this song sound appropriate.

9.) Barbie’s Plastic Army – REDadmiral
10.) Nicky Says – Black Rabbit
11.) There’s A Problem – Mr. Doubtfire
12.) Get Out Of Your Own Way – Kelly Ravin

Great song from Kelly’s new Bonneville album. He and his band the Welterweights opened for Anders last Friday. Doubtfire played at the Monkey last night. Rabbit nicely sing about the countdown to meltdown. Sadly appropriate song from Admiral. OK, here’s another Anders song. He wrote it about the W Bush years but is seems it will be appropriate again soon.

13.) Jackbooted Thugs (Have All The Best Drugs) – Anders Parker
14.) You Say You’re Alive – The Mountain Says No
15.) Devil’s Right Hand – Swillbillie
16.) 8 Long Years – 1881

Great new song from 1881’s Action EP. Hopefully, it will be four. Swillbillie will play at Nectar’s on Saturday. Another stunning new Mountain song. What a great rocker from Anders. OK, let’s play another new Mountain song. I’ve been waiting a long time to be able to play this one.

17.) Glazerbeam – The Mountain Says No
18.) Waterlanding – SWALE
19.) American Proxy – The Hero Cycle
20.) The Possibility Shop – The Red Telephone

No matter what happens in the next few years, there will be tons of possibilities. Let’s consciously make decisions to try and make choices that are good for us and our communities at all times. Great song from Hero. Swale are playing with a ton of other local bands at The Monkey House tomorrow. Everyone is playing country songs so that should be fun. I love that Mountain song. OK, as we stand at the abyss of a new administration this song seems appropriate.

21.) Into The Void – Surf Sabbath (The High Breaks)
22.) Politicians In My Eyes – Death World Wide
23.) Blind Pigs – ROUGH FRANCIS
24.) Boys Club – Peg Tassey MUSIC

That is a great song about lashing out at an idea that seems to be coming back into power. Great song from Francis about standing up to racism. Sadly still appropriate song from Death. Breaks are playing at Foam Brewers tomorrow. This song is about fighting for the American Dream.

25.) American Dream – Doll Fight
26.) Upstream – The New Siberians
27.) Back Home – Eastern Mountain Time
28.) Babies To War – Milton Busker

Great song from Milton. Yes, let’s not send our babies to war anymore. He and his band The Grim Work played at Light Club Lamp Shop last weekend. Eastern are at the Monkey tomorrow. That’s a great new song from them. Great songs from Siberians and Doll. I hope you enjoyed checking out the music of our town. Let’s do it again next week, shall we?

outro

Songs after:
The Great Unraveling – Fish
Willow i & II – Tyler Daniel Bean
Nothing In This – The Mountain Says No
Morrigan – Children in Paradise
Not I – Andriana Chobot
King Of The Mountain (live) – Kate Bush
Last American Right – The Cush
Forgotten Sons (live) – Marillion
Block – The Church Band
Be Like Ryan – The Mountain Says No
Whole World Hangs – Anachronist
New York My Lovely – Joshua Glass Music
Mon Ange – Francesca Blanchard
regular programming.

WBKM pic by Tim Lewis

 

Tonight’s local music radio show on WBKM will go as follows:

Song before: I Don’t Know How To Love Him – Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack

intro

From our small city to the great big world, these are the Sounds Of Burlington. I want to thank Higher Ground for sponsoring the station. They’ve got The English Beat and Of Montreal in town this week, among others. There has been a ton of great music played in town in the last few weeks and I will highlight a lot of it tonight. Let’s begin with an artist who played around town a couple of years ago, including a rock show at the Fletcher Free Library, who finally released some of her songs.

1.) High And Mighty – S.e. Ward
2.) The Worst Part – Bethany Conner Music
3.) The Birds Of Parks Slope – Eastern Mountain Time
4.) Pas d’sa Faute – Francesca Blanchard

Francesca put on a great show at Summervale a couple of weeks ago. She will be at Spruce Peak on October 1st if you want to check her out live. Great song from Sean Hood‘s band. Bethany is a young singer songwriter with lots of promise. Yea, I finally have some of S.e. Ward’s music to play. Yea. This next singer will stop by the studio and play for us live in a couple of weeks, when he gets back from Iceland.

5.) Endless War – Jeremy Gilchrist – Singer-Songwriter
6.) Happy Birthday Harry – Hana Zara
7.) More Than Gold – Ryan Fauber and Samara Lark Brown
8.) Brother Of Mine – Mike Brewster Music

I want to thank Mike for sending that song to me. I want to send that one out to my brother Ken and to everyone’s brother, whether it’s a brother by blood or a bond that is formed. Great song from Ryan and Samara. I am still thrilled about seeing Hana a couple of weeks ago at Light Club Lamp Shop. Sadly true song from Jeremy Gilchrist. OK, last week I played the last song on Lendway‘s Giant Places album so now it’s time to start a new album to play song by song, week after week, until all the songs are played. This next album has some great songs and intriguing music. The album is called Song For My Double and the band is Invisible Homes.

9.) :Little Song – Invisible Homes
10.) Ladybug – Ninja Custodian
11.) Pitseleh – Milton Busker
12.) She Has Your Name – Phil Yates & The Affiliates

Phil Yates and the band played a cool show last week at Switchback Brewing Company. I’m loving Milton’s new album You Are What You Pretend To Be. With all the new music I’m playing tonight, I had to toss in the Ninja classic. Great song from Homes. This next band shut down a section of Main St on Sunday and threw a giant party.

13.) Starman – Madila
14.) Live A Certain Life – Marco Benevento
15.) Kaleidoscope – Arc Iris
16.) Give Me All Your Love – Madaila

You just have to love Madaila for pulling off such cool shows. Great song too. Iris played Sunday night as part of the festival, but played upstairs at Club Metronome. They played Joni Mitchell’s album Blue, so they did not play that song. Hopefully, they will come back and play it for us soon. Marco and his band played on Main St and played that song from his new album The Story Of Fred Short. Hmmmm, Madaila. I want to thank Bobby Hackney Jr.for inviting me, and most of Burlington’s musicians and artists, to his birthday party recently.

17.) Black And Red – ROUGH FRANCIS
18.) Living Arrangements – The Red Summer Sun
19.) The Wolves Are Coming – Suburban Samurai
20.) Casanova With A K – Better Things

It was cool to see Sun, Samurai and Better at 242 Main recently. All three rocked hard. Hmmm, Rough Francis. I saw a band (Zeus Springsteen) that evolved out of this next band do this next song last night at The Monkey House.

21. Lights Of Montreal – Lobot
22.) Bidets And Confused – Sad Turtle
23.) Bird On The Sea – The New Siberians
24.) Such A Scene – Wood Coats

I want to thank David Anderson for turning me on to Coats. Another great new song from the Siberians. Turtle have a new album coming soon, and it sounds like it could be very good. It was so cool to see Zeus play the Lobot song. I hope you enjoyed checking out the music of our town. Let’s do it again next week, shall we?

Outro

Songs after: Crucifix Corner – Fish
Superstar – I Don’t Know How To Love Him – Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack
The Crucifixion – I Don’t Know How To Love Him – Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack
John Nineteen Forty-One – I Don’t Know How To Love Him – Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack
He’s Dying – Children in Paradise

Better Things at 242 Main August 27 2016 pic by Tim Lewis

 

 

I had a great time seeing music Saturday night at 242 Main. I had plenty of time after work to get downtown and into the super hot sweaty club by the 7:30 start time. The Red Summer Sun hit the stage fast and loud. With a singer/electric guitar player, and electric guitar player, bass, and drums they had a ’90’s alt rock sound played at punk speed. The bass player and guitar player were constantly bouncing and spinning as they threw their bodies at the notes. The singer had a nice voice and the drummer was rock solid. Their set was short but energetic. They played their whole EP and a couple of newer songs and were lots of fun.

 

 

 

The Red Summer Sun at 242 Main August 27 2016 pic by Tim Lewis

 

 

During the set break we all moved outside into the cooler evening air. I ended up chatting with Ryan Cohen about the music scene from past to present until it sounded like the next band were set.

Everyone moved inside as Suburban Samurai began to play. They are a trio with singer/electric guitar, bass and drums and had more of a classic punk sound. They mixed in some pop elements but mostly just rocked hard. As the intensity of the music built a few members of the audience began to mosh and everyone was having fun. Their set was short as well, but very powerful. I will have to check into them more.

 

 

Suburban Samurai at 242 Main August 27 2016 pic by Tim Lewis

 

 

Again, during the set break everyone moved out of the club to get some air and cool down. It was not long until a loud noise from inside signaled that it was time for the headliners. Better Things were there to release their new album Getting Worse. They are a four-piece with a singer/electric guitar player, electric guitar player/singer, bass, and drums. Their sound also has roots in the ’90’s, nice harmonies, and heavy rock. Their set was a bit longer and consisted mostly of songs from the excellent new album. There is something earnest and insistent about their music that intrigues me. I’ve seen them play a few times and they keep making me want to come back. After 45 minutes of blisteringly intense music they called it a night but the audience demanded an encore. They set the instruments and microphones aside, the guitarist picked up an acoustic and they had the audience huddle to the stage. They sang a beautiful song about the struggles of life every day. The effect was a beautiful mix of simplicity and magic.

As the last notes faded out I returned to the cool night air and took a happy and bouncy walk home.

 

 

Better Things at 242 Main August 27 2016 pic by Tim Lewis