Shame and Viagra Boys at White Eagle Hall
10/17/2022
Okay, so maybe this one was a stretch.
Friday night I saw Yard Act, and Sunday I saw Nova Twins, both at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. Both were excellent, and both bands zipped back to London to take part and perform in BBC’s Mercury Awards show this past Monday. Yard Act played their masterpiece “100% Endurance”and Nova Twins performed their monster hit “Antagonist”. They played to a roomful of Oscar-like tables, with patrons a LOT better coiffed than either of the Bowery crowds.
So, Monday night I was off to Jersey City, to see two bands I knew next to nothing about. Other than Shame has a great song, “Concrete”, that gets a fair bit of play on my Spotify account, and Viagra Boys has a goofy/fun song “Sports” with a cool bass line. What could go wrong?
For starters, I was bummed that Nicole and Alex weren’t available for my regular pre-show dinner. That sucked. At least I had the smarts to Uber to Jersey City and save myself some Jersey City parking agg, which helped a bit.
Inside White Eagle Hall, I saw my photographer buddy Eric, who warned me that it could be a rough night. I looked around the room near the stage. I’d say about 95% of the crowd were young guys looking for a fight. You know, a typical IDLES crowd. So, I saw most of the show with one eye on the stage, and one eye looking over the mosh pit for the most likely problem children.
First up was Kills Birds, a five-piece group from LA. Lead singer Nina Ljeti bounced around in a cute plaid schoolgirl skirt while belting out some hard-core lyrics to match the in-your-face punk set they played. But not bad, overall, and set a pretty good tone for the night. They sounded a bit like a young version of The Pixies.
Shame was up next. They were pretty insane. Lead singer Charlie Steen gets the crowd going, practically begging the mosh pit to crank it up. He rips off his shirt, pumps his arms at his sides, sticks his neck out like a demented bobble head, and moon walks on top of the crowd, who’s holding up his feet as he walks. Soon, there are crowd-surfers, jumpers, and moshers beating the crap out of everybody. Bass player Josh Finerty is literally running back and forth across the stage in his gym shorts with his axe, like Angus Young on speed. What a circus.
Their actual set was pretty good, if you get past the noise and the antics, which is a lot. Lots of yelling and screaming during their “Concrete” anthem, and even a few tender moments during the ballads that Steen sang. He’s a definite crowd-pleaser, and this crowd went for it big time.
Last up, Viagra Boys. They have a massive following, apparently. After Shame, I was expecting the worst, and edged away from the stage a bit. But they and the crowd were a bit more civilized than I expected, and Viagra Boys were fun, and talented, and put on a great show.
Lead singer Sebastian Murphy introduced the band as “the worst band in Sweden for the past 40 years”. They clearly don’t take themselves seriously. A couple of songs in, Murphy ripped off his track suit jacket to grace us with his massive, tattooed, overweight self. And not in a good way. But that seems to be part of their shtick. He was the physical polar opposite of the buff guy from Shame, so it was a Tale of Two Shirtless Guys.
Viagra Boys is their own crowd. I counted six pieces in the band. They have a steady, heavy bass line through most of their songs. There’s a tall guy in short shorts who played a mean saxophone, including a long solo during the set.
For most of us, “Sports” was the highlight, but they had several other great songs in their set, including Ain’t Nice, Punk Rock Loser, and Just Like You. They are pretty consistently goofy, foul, and totally entertaining. Front man Murphy is hilarious, and the rest of the band focuses on playing good music.
Way better show than I was counting on, and great way to sample some hugely popular bands.
Check out short clips from the evening here.