Bands: Free Pizza, Acidosis, Animal Lover, Palberta (Missed), Designer (Missed)
Date: Friday, May 23, 2014
Venue: JP Drive-In

It was a pleasure as always to come through the Drive-In to see some bands. This particular spot is a bit more out of the way for KLYAM so unfortunately there’s the usual leaving early and missing out on some groups we would really love to stay and watch. But I got to make the most of a live rock ‘n roll experience and I loved every second.

Free Pizza is an institution around here. They were up first. The threesome powered through a pretty new set – I think they only played one tune from BOSTON, MA. I witnessed these newbies fitting nicely alongside what they’ve done in the past. Jesus has a particular pop inclination present on particularly every FP song, but hell I feel this inclination broadening and really opening things up. I’d probably be scared if anyone other than FP was venturing here; it’s just that the Pizza does things right. Nice and snug.

Next on the agenda was Acidosis. I should not neglect to mention that Free Pizza and Acidosis spent some significant time on the road together in the month of May, which included a couple more stops after this show. So Acidosis is BUFU Records honcho Ben on bass and vocals, Diego on guitar, and Will on drums. They’ve got that metal, that hard rock – stuff not all too often bandied about and extolled on this very site. That said, I greatly respect the punk attitude, the shred, the fun that is these guys live. I’m sure there are bands out there doing something like this around here, but it seems to me like they just don’t matter when you’ve got Acidosis. I was frankly worried about my right ear as I was positioned smack dab in front of Diego’s amp. Lucky for right ear, he turned up just right. So everyone’s wailing, everyone’s pounding, Ben is shouting God knows what while making faces and stances that spew intimidation. These are friendly guys. Birthday man Rory from Designer joins the crew on the mic for the first song.

The last band that my right and left ear and eye could percept was Animal Lover. Now in my younger years I would go see shows and frankly a lot of the openers at these above ground spots were not my cup of tea. At a house show, though, I find a lot more exciting bands on the bill. This makes sense, pal. Alrighty so Animal Lover – a noisy racket from Minnesota. They’ve got the speed and tenacity a la Guerilla Toss, a la Designer. Indulge if you dig on those groups. The packed Boston basement crew was real receptive to these folks and yeah of course I wish I was up front for the action. I saw it go down from the boiler section. I still had loads of fun.