Bands: Sonic Avenues, Atlantic Thrills, Thee Legendary Rockin’ Prophets, The Little Richards
Date: Thursday, October 17, 2013
Venue: O’Brien’s Pub (Allston, MA)

The Little Richards – While my mind conjures up an image of four mini men dressed up as Little Richard (I know it doesn’t make total sense, just roll with it) instead I see four average sized white dudes from the North Shore. Body sizes aside, The Little Richards are an impressive and lively bunch.

The band’s set consists of speedy pop punk songs with a pile driver edge that is tight and relentless. This is straight up pop punk, but it’s more of the gnarly variety, not that pussy bullshit that was extremely popular back in the early ohhs like Simple Plan – ahh God I’m starting to puke in my mouth just at the thought of that nonsense.  So yeah, The Little Richards pack in a good punch.

I’ve never seen The Little Richards before, but there is a familiar face in guitarist Joey Unis, one of the raddest and most upstanding gents I have had the pleasure of conversing with in my young career as a show goer/documenter guy, uhh yeah.  I’ve also seen Joey perform in The BFs and The Electric Ears and if you dig those bands then you will most likely enjoy The Little Richards.

Two songs that stand out to me are 1) the Ramones possessed (well pretty much all of these tunes are in the musical spirit of the Ramones) “Insanities” with its inclusion of “Pinhead’s” line  “Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you one of us!” The song also has an image I can’t erase from my mind: someone falling down 40 steps and hitting their head on 39 as a sea of LSD leaks out of them. Ha! 2)  A seasonally apropos cover of The Misfits “Skulls,” showcasing the band’s gang  vocals. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Check out The Little Richards here: http://thelittlerichards.bandcamp.com/

Thee Legendary Rockin’ Prophets – Thee Legendary Rockin’ Prophets are here to praise the Lord and bring forth his holy message of salvation into all of your poor, lethargic lives. Hallelujah!

Dressed in classic mormon attire (plain white shirts with black ties and black pants) the Prophets are a six piece rock ‘n’ roll, garage soul ensemble featuring guitars, drums, keyboards, tambourines, and the limitless energy of the lead singer/preacher.

This show is a real spectacle  and in the traditions of other bands I have experienced such as King Khan & The Shrines and Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!,  and the lead singer is off the wall, out of control, and downright in your face (not to mention talented). He screams his heart out as he proselytizes to the audience, sometimes screaming right into individual crowd member’s faces.  It’s a perspiring, inspiring performance and I can honestly say that I have rarely seen a performer so committed to rockin’ and preachin’. He paces around the room like the roadrunner, knocking over mic stands and bottles in the process. He spends 90% of the set singing and dancing off stage, even climbing on one of the tables and hopping off it.

The Prophets’ set is surely a fun one, but I feel like the songs all sound the same. Granted, the band does have a great garage soul sound and I am certain that  if the Prophets’ had a wild, packed, beer guzzlin’ crowd in front of them the show would be pandemonium. Either way, check them out here: http://legendaryrockinprophets.bandcamp.com/

Atlantic Thrills – My dudes in Atlantic Thrills are back in Boston again and as always it’s a pleasure to see them. The foursome open with the Yardbirds hit “For Your Love,” kicking it extra slimy for all you garage dweebs out there. I especially dig Josh Towers’ drumming, gets me all pumped up like their epic original “Light Shines,” which they play later in the evening.  Towers also sports a funny ass shirt that proclaims “Fuck art, let’s Fuck.” Reminds me of that scene in Taxi Driver when Betsy tells Travis “Taking me to a place like this is about as exciting as saying to me ‘let’s fuck’.”  Somehow, I feel that some disco square bitch would say the same thing to me if I took her to an Atlantic Thrills show. Indeed, fuck art let’s fuck and dance to the Atlantic Thrills!

There’s plenty of vintage  punk slime for the Thrilz in this set including “A Day At the Beach,” “Drugs In It,” “Boozin,” “Almost Anything, ” and the aforementioned “Light Shines,” but tonight the Providence quartet spend a healthy chunk of their performance introducing a batch of fresh numbers. These include “Bed Bugs,” “Past Life,” and another untitled song.

The band remains a rowdy, rock ‘n’ roll beast, but with several of these new tunes they strengthen much of their tender side. I hear a lot of slower, doo wop fused vocals with all members singing at once. Like The Little Richards, Atlantic Thrills are masters when it comes to the gang vocals.

If you’re living in Providence, then you’re one lucky dog because you have the potential to see Atlantic Thrills more than I do, but I most likely do see Atlantic Thrills more than you do. Point is, they’re the best and they’re always playing. But, Boston stooges don’t worry. Along side Fagettes, Atlantic Thrills are opening for Shannon and The Clams on November 20! https://www.facebook.com/AtlanticThrills

Set – List:
“For Your Love” (The Yardbirds)
“Drugs In It”
“So Long”
“Bed Bugs”
“Past Life”
“Holy Mountain”
“Light Shines”
“Almost Anything”
“A Day At the Beach”
“Boozin'”
New Song

Sonic Avenues – Sonic Avenues continue this evening’s brand of fast, pummeling rock ‘n’ roll. They came here on tour all the way from Canada and they are very grateful to be here. In fact, much of this set’s entertainment stems from one of the guitarist’s drunken rambles about how awesome it is to be here and how everyone should dance. Even though the crowd is small there is some dancing and people seem to genuinely appreciate Sonic Avenues. They sound decent to me, but I’m not huge into it. They have a solid grip on power pop, but overall I’m not a big fan. Still, I think you should check them out and decide for yourself. http://sonicavenues.bandcamp.com/