Bands: Mission of Burma, The Konks
Location: Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA)
Date: January 15, 2010

Introduction: A last minute decision was made to go to this show. I heard about it back in December and I was really excited and planning on going. I sort of forgot about it until the day of so at that point I got a hold of some tickets. Ben and I made the grueling walk to Commonwealth Avenue from Ruggles Station. We made pretty good timing, with only the diehards (including a J. Mascis look-a-like) standing there before us.

The Konks: I hate to say that these guys are your typical middle age garage rock band, but they really do embody that persona. “With cheap guitars and only two lousy drums,” they play fast paced Bompalicious rock that sounds incredibly polished given their frugality. Drummer Kurt Davis (looks like he is going to kick your ass at any given moment) knows how to command his two lousy pieces with precision and the two guitarists do their thing well enough. Most of the time I couldn’t make out what the fuck Davis was saying, but I did happen to notice a song that really stuck out. “God says ‘woah, motherfucker’ God says” is pretty messed up and I’m sure that’s their point.

Mission of Burma: “Wait, who are we seeing tonight?” joked (or was he being serious?) Ben as we approached the venue. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not too familiar with MoB myself, but still I was able to have a pretty great time. I recognized their older classic “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” and new hit “1, 2, 3, Partyy,” but unfortunately the buck stopped there. I’m sure they played a good chunk of material from 2009’s The Sound the Speed the Light, but shame on me for not extensively listening to that (even though I gave it a 9 out of 10 rating). Peter Prescott’s between song banter was humorous and Bob Weston did a tight job on audio engineering. I was convinced Miller said “here’s a Jay Reatard cover” at one point, but looking back I’m almost positive he said “here’s a new one.” So yeah, these guys gave us an awesome show. It was nice to see a few under 30s in the crowd. I mean they might as well make it 40+ instead of 18 for these guys.

Grade: B