The Upper Crust: Bowery Electric, New York, NY (3/19/2016) Retroactive Review.

Boston, MA's The Upper Crust put on quite possibly one of the most fun shows you can possibly attend. Allmusic aptly describes The Upper Crust as "AC/DC meets The Buzzcocks at a theater showing of This Is Spinal Tap", so I shan't attempt to better that, since it's so right on the money. They dress in 18th century attire; wigs, pancake make-up, songs about being affluent and the like.

The song titles alone simply don't do justice to material; "Little Lord Fauntleroy", "Tell Mother I'm Home", "Come Hither Fair Youth", "Eureka, I Found Love" and "We're Finished With Finishing School" are just some of the titles from this fantastic live band.

Here's a plethora of photos and videos that I took at the show from stage right. Because they're taking up an obscene amount of space on my phone...so here you are. 'Twas a great show.

Photos by Bill Wikstrom.

The English Beat: The Hall At MP, Brooklyn, NY (3/3/2017)

The English Beat were, along with The Specials, Madness and others, part of the U.K. 2 Tone ska revival in the late 1970's. The had a slew of hits in the U.K. and a few in the U.S., namely "Mirror In The Bathroom", "Save It For Later" and "I Confess". They broke up in 1983 (spin-off groups included General Public and Fine Young Cannibals) and have recently reformed. The English Beat has always been something of a third-string favorite band of mine, yet I've always immensely enjoyed their small catalog of three albums. I've certainly never thought to see them live, until now.

The new band features Dave Wakeling and six new able-bodied members. The band confidently took the stage dressed in matching black Fred Perry polo shirts (reportedly shoulder checking various audience members on the way) and were sprightly, tight and well-rehearsed. The certainly exceeded my expectations as far as reproducing their danceably spare sound. They're touring ostensibly to celebrate the band's forthcoming Here We Go Love album, which is due this Summer. It will be the bands first studio album in thirty-four years. The band sampled two new tracks from the album ("The Love You Give Last Forever" and "Said We Would Never Die").

The band reminded the audience just how many classic tracks they had: "Twist & Crawl", "Doors Of Your Heart", "Too Nice To Talk To", "I Confess", "Hands Off She's Mine", "Save It For Later", their cover of "Tears Of A Clown" and "Mirror In The Bathroom". Wakeling and company even pulled out "Tenderness" (his later band, General Public's biggest hit). It was a great show by fine band.

Special thanks to Laurel.

Adam Ant: Charline McCombs Empire Theatre San Antonio, TX (2/15/2017)

New Wave icon Adam Ant has been touring on the U.S. performing his classic Kings Of The Wild Frontier album. The tour hit San Antonio, and Ant came ready to (Stand &) deliver the goods. Armed with two drummers (just as The Ants had), a bassist and a guitarist, the band was well-rehearsed and you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a brand new band and not an exercise in nostalgia. Although his fans know that he's covered so many bases and very well, it seemed like maybe Ant (nee Stuart Goddard) had something to prove. He's always been an energetic, charismatic performer, and at age sixty-two, he still is.

He performed the U.K. version of Kings Of The Wild Frontier album from beginning to end (which included the U.K. Top-Five hit singles; "Antmusic", "Dog Eat Dog" and the title-track). He tackled plenty of early material ("Zerox", "Cartrouble" & "Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)"), mega-hits ("Goody Two Shoes", "Stand & Deliver", "Prince Charming"), a few shoulda-been mega-hits ("Vive Le Rock", "Desperate But Not Serious"), approximately six early Ants B-Sides and a cover of T.Rex's "Get It On".

All-in-all it was an amazing performance. His backing band were loud and present and were fine de facto replacements for the Kings-era Ants. The man is still as capable as he ever was and it seems like he has more fire under his belly than the average 80's new waver. Mellow is not a word one would use to describe his current edginess.

A perfect show.

The Plimsouls "Resouled" at Bowery Electric, New York , NY 2/3/2017

I've been a fan of The Plimsouls since I first heard "Zero Hour" in the classic 80's comedy The Last American Virgin. Not too long after that I saw Valley Girl, which not only had three of their songs but the band itself playing "live" in a club scene. This was when was a preteen, sometime in the mid/late 1980's. The original band broke up in 1984, but reformed (unbeknonst to me at the time) in the mid/late 90's. And I managed to miss them when they toured yet again in the mid 2000's.

This time The Plimsouls have been reformed (or "Resouled", if you will) by lead guitarist Eddie Munoz with a new backing band. Original Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Peter Case and bassist Dave Pahoa are not in the current line-up (original drummer Lou Ramirez hasn't been part of the band since their initial break-up). The new members, whose names I do not know, were all fine and well and they replaced the absent-member's parts admirably. However, anytime a band replacs such important members like the lead singer, who wrote all the lyrics, etc. with new band members, I feel like I'm giving points for effort when I'm not only watching the band's performance but reviewing their set/performance.

The Plimsouls "Resouled" are a fine cover band that also happens to feature a member of the band they're playing tribute to on lead guitar. They played all the classic Plimsouls songs; "Now", "Zero Hour", "Hush, Hush", "I'll Get Lucky", "Lost Time",  "Oldest Story In The World" and the band's biggest hit "A Million Miles Away". I love these songs, so it was nice hearing them all in alive context. The Plimsouls - the original band proper - have always had a reputation as a great live band. After all, the band have as many live albums as they do studio albums.

I'm glad I (finally) got to see "The Plimsouls Resouled", but I really hope I do get to see The Plimsouls reform one day and see
Peter Case sing these songs he wrote with the band he wrote them for.