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Thee Lexington
Arrows
Show Review August 1, 2008
The Sidebar, Baltimore, MD
By Tyler Vile
I came to
the show just before they opened the doors.
I
got a free copy
of Think Forward Zine,
put out by Easton All-Stars/International Jet Set Members
Cody Finkler, Jon Beasley, and Chris Beasley, in an attempt to
galvanize
Maryland’s Eastern shore into a punk
scene (For those of you who don’t know, the Eastern shore is a good
hour or two from B-more.).
My
friends were walking by The Sidebar, saw
me, and felt compelled to come in. They were a bit short on cash, so I
lent them
a few for the cover charge.
The first
act to play was PETE YORKO, a one man
band with the energy of a quartet. He sang, played electric guitar, and
played
bass and snare drums with his feet. The maniac minstrel was like a
cross between
Woody Guthrie and Iggy Pop, flailing and wailing across the stage,
while his
hands and feet moved across the instruments so madly.
Yorko’s
songs were rooted
in '20s and '30s delta blues and folk, but played with a punk zeal. He
told me he
gets stuck playing psychobilly shows a lot, but he has a style all his
own.
The
next band on was The International Jet Set, a seven piece ska
supergroup
consisting of members of Press Black, The John Hardy Boys, and The
Smizokes.
They had a smooth Two Tone sound but with obvious punk edges.
The Jet
Set
treated the crowd to a stellar cover of “White Man in the Hammersmith
Palais.”
by The Clash. My friend Megan and I skanked gleefully throughout their
set, not
caring that we probably looked like complete idiots.
Next
to play was Buzz Deluxe, a husband and wife psychobilly duo all the way
from Toronto, Canada.
The pair
looked like they’d fit perfectly into the John Waters film "Cry Baby."
Comparisons to The Cramps would be too blatant, but I don’t know how
else to
describe them. I thought they could use a stand up bassist but that
would
contribute more to the image than anything else.
Thee
Lexington Arrows, who
used to feature Pat Termite of The Beatnik Termites on drums, were the
next
band to play. Their set that night was faster than I’d ever heard them
play but
they still maintained there surf/garage rock sensibility and general
luster.
The last
band of the night was wanna be Japanese white boy noise band Geisha
Lightning, whose performances have become scarce recently. Seeing them
was a
real treat. They asked me if the lyrics they ran through an online
Japanese
translator made any sense, but I have trouble understanding their
English
lyrics
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