What is wrong with me? BIG TAKE OVER

I can't even think about why I haven't posted anything on The Big Takeover show I went to a couple of weeks ago...

The evening began with rushing out of work, piling in whoever needed a ride into my baby blue station wagon and sitting in traffic while my olfactory organs were enticed by the smell of fancy cologne and Japanese cakes. So my working class fancy folk smelling friends and I made our way to The Bell House in Brooklyn mainly to see two people... Steve Drewett of The Newtown Neurotics and Mark Burgess of The Chameleons...

(note to those going to The Bell House in Brooklyn on an empty tummy... bring a snack, bring a snack, BRING A SNACK... There is nothing around there and filling my belly with whiskey sours wasn't an option because I had been at work since 6am, it was only 6pm, and Mr. Burgess wasn't going on till around midnight.)

Steve Drewett went on pretty early. Beginning his set solo. He played some songs including a new one called, "You Break my Heart", which was super catchy with doo doo dooooooos! and fun guitar riffs. He later was joined by his backing band featuring Jack Rabid on drums. After some potty humor and drum seat problems, the band, who rehearsed for no more than a hour, played an awesome set including Neurotic songs "When the Oil Runs Out" and "Kick Out the Tories".

My friends and I got a chance to talk with Steve Drewett outside the venue for a while with his sweetheart wife. So what has he been doing all these years? WEB DESIGN! After making a this quick career move, he finally has decided to go back where he belongs... THANK YOU! He told us fun stories about sleeping on Justin Sullivan's floor and having Kajagoogoo's tour bus when he was in the Neurotics. They didn't take the big Kajagoogoo off the side of the bus and they were confused for the two-toned-spiky-i dunno what the fuck is going on hair-pop band- when they were on the road... He must have been one of the happiest men I've ever met and I really hope he decides to come back to NYC really soon!

The rest of the evening I spent walking around the venue and dropping in and out of sets by Jon Auer of The Posies and For Against... Most importantly staring down Mark Burgess while he was enjoying a smoke outside because I am a total creep... I was ready to hear this man's howling voice.

This was the closest I'm ever going to come to The Chameleons... They played all my favorites like "Perfume Garden" and "Pleasure and Pain". The set was all Chameleons except for ending their set with Alternative TV's "Splitting in Two"... Mark Burgess was jumping around with his red Big Take Over tshirt on full of energy. I was really impressed with the eye-lined backing band and my ears were ringing for a few days after this show.

I'm still in "did that just happen?" mode...

The Squirrel Nut Zippers Lost At Sea

It’s hard to put Squirrel Nut Zippers into a genre, so let’s just say they’re like the jazz funeral bands from New Orleans who make people feel great and get everyone to dance away their troubles. This North Carolina band blends together delta blues, swing, gypsy jazz, and a bunch of other genres, achieving worldwide recognition during the Swing Revival of the late ‘90s and not disappearing after the fad faded away.

Their new and first live album Lost At Sea is a perfect gumbo of sound, which is surprising when it was recorded in the dead of winter at the Southpaw in Brooklyn, a dingy little club. Their songs live transition extremely well with little musical interludes between them and it’s a very clear and well-balanced recording. With classics like “Hell” sung by Jimbo Mathus and slow sultry songs like “Blue Angel” sung by Katharine Whalen, the energy of the album makes up for the band not releasing anything in the past nine years.

Lost At Sea is a great example of how to do live recordings. Surprisingly none of the instruments overpower each other and the clapping and screaming of the fans doesn’t get annoying, enticing people to see The Squirrel Nut Zippers live.

photo by Joshua Smelser