Americanarama 8, continued
Scott Carpenter with another telecaster attack
The last outdoor set was a sizzling performance by Scott Carpenter and the Real McCoys, one of Buffalo’s hardest working bands, touring up and down the East Coast, through the Midwest and even the South and some Southwest USA, most recently in support of its “Dear Everybody” CD on Evelyn Records.
The band, with Carpenter’s vocals and rhythm guitar joined by guitarist/vocalist Matt Smith, bassist Charlie Gannon and drummer Brian Daddis, can be described as high-octane, amphetamined rock and roll with lots of greasy flavoring from rockabilly and punk to country and even 1960s and 1970s bubblegum pop rock.Carpenter and the guys opened with “Runnin’ Down the 2 Lane,” frantic, charging rock with some rockabilly sound, the stomping “Still Got Me Tonight” before Smith took over the vocals for the power pop of “78 Soul.” Smith, well known at least within Buffalo’s musical circles as one of the best guitarists around (he’s been playing for about 15 years on stage despite being only about 30), showed off his skills not only during the original songs but also in a searing version of the Supremes’ “My World Is Empty.” The only real problem the band encountered was the sound, having trouble hearing anything from the monitors despite constant complaints.At least this was safer than a few years ago, when Carpenter was almost blown off stage when he caught a serious shock from an apparent ungrounded microphone.
Val and I, like most others present, spent a lot of time going back and forth from the outdoor stage to indoors at Mohawk Place; the band schedules were basically staggered, so there were only a few overlaps. Inside, Flatbed, a pretty new band led by Joelle Labert’s vocals, contains a bunch of former members of RedGills, and played a good set of snappy country rock originals with plenty of both. Several songs were driving numbers with more rock, one was rather dark musically and lyrically, and bits of southern rock and harmonica were sprinkled throughout. Schmitty, former guitarist with the punky humor core The Wrench/Monkeywrench, one of Buffalo’s best andand underappreciated bands, sounded excellent at times with some very tasty playing.
Adam Gearing-singing and songwriting for the Outlyers
The Outlyers also supplied a very enjoyable set as one of the rootsiest bands in Buffalo, all coming naturally to the musicians who have or do play with people such as the Pine Dogs, Riddlers, Jim Whitford’s Real Beat Band, the Possums, Davy and the Crocketts and Nimrod Wildfire. The best songs that day included “I’d Be Lost Without You,” the cool rocking “Tumbling Down” and Val’s favorite Outlyers’ song, “The Ballad of Bo,” a bluesy rocker with Dave Meinzer’s fun but ominous vocals complemented by Adam Gearing’s slide guitar.
Back outdoors, Cash Only played a bunch of, you guessed, it, Johnny Cash songs, adding a lot of swing to the more stripped down Cash sound, with a particularly good version of “Understand Your Man” and a set-ended of “Delia’s Gone.” The All-Hank Band, led by singer/guitarist Rob Falgiano, performed on a side stage outdoors between sets, and sounded pretty darn good, as well as featured a fine selection of better-know Hank Williams songs as well as some more obscure ones. The Irving Klaws played with Bob Hanley (ex-Mudtown Rudy) as its new drummer and does not appear to have missed a beat, with the band also able to entertain a larger outdoors crowd compared to its usual mastery of a crowded, sweaty indoor audience. Of course, there will always be at least one stinker; Pete Worden and the Hardtimers played rockabilly that was as formulaic as possible. While Worden sounds like a good guitar player, the songs themselves were pretty run-of-the-mill and sometimes clichéd, basically serving as backgrounds for Worden’s soloing, which got tiring pretty fast.
Americanarama 8 actually started the night of Friday, June 18, with a show headlined by Lords of the Highway and Redheaded Stepchild. While this was a really good billing, we were simply unable to attend.