Party Girl // XXXPRSNXXX // Party Plants // Horne + Holt @ MoHA 2/8/14

This was a really fun bill to play, and I think a very interesting bill as well. It came together as 2 bills being mashed together, but i think if you look at it from an obtuse angle the common punk thread runs straight thru. I dont know how I am even defining punk for myself these days, other than to say seemingly arbitrarily. pretty much whatever i say is punk is punk, hahaha.

XXXPRSNXXX ("expressions") was from New Orleans.  That makes them punk right there, practically.  I had seen 2 of their members play in different bands, Dark Dark Dark and The Back Pockets, who I am getting confused with other good band from Atlanta (the other band im thinking of, im sure theyve played bills together). I think the lead singer painted my face during Escapes one year when she was with Back Pockets. Very battle hardened musicians, and they were doing some funky shit -- the guy from Dark Dark Dark was playing a pattern on a foot organ the same time he was playing i think electric banjo, and the drummer had a lot of pad things and electronic looping things he could do, but his style was mainly the thing that stood out --- kinda hard for me to put my finger on it, but he definitely had his own style, his own patterns and stuff. It kinda reminded me of Smashing Pumpkins, in terms of heaviness, or Trent Reznor, but very musical, a light touch at times.  They had a bitchin smoke machine strobe light combo going and there were a lot of electronics.  They were playing as a 3 piece most the set and then a guy joined them at the end with a moog like synthesizer, with a lot of non keyboard knobs, and maybe a patch bay.

All the first 3 bands got to set up during load in, across the venue, and then Party Girl played on the stage to close the night out.  Party Plants played second and we set up behind the semi-portable L shaped bar, with the mics coming over the front of the bar.  All the musicians stood basically in between that and the crux of where the stage met the wall, and then we set all the amps up on the stage, and boosted on these other speaker cabinets.  I busted out my Sunn bass rig for this show, and both the guitar amps we used were of decent enough size for the space.  Charlie was offset so that his drum kit could be heard without being obstructed by the audience from one side and by the band as well from the other side of the bar.  We got a lot of nice compliments after the show.....it was our biggest crowd yet, and it felt like we naturally rose to the occasion, so thats a good feeling.  Also we debuted 4 new songs, The Grey, Hipster Stew, Voyeur, and Who Forgot to Pay the Electric Bill, so that always makes the band feel a posi-nervous energy that I think is the kind of thing that is fun to translate to an audience.

It was my first time seeing Party Girl.....my buddy had played their record off his computer for me, and I knew a few of them from The Carrots and other bands.  I danced the whole time....a lot of it reminded me of Gary Newman at times.  I was expecting it to remind me of Blondie, I guess it did a little.  Towards the end it wasnt really reminding me of anything, it was just fun.  The lead guitar was painted so it was glow in the dark green.  I like that song "Romeo" it got stuck in my head.  It was cool to see Trotter rock the bass.  

Horne + Holt was awesome to open the show, they were the ones who originally it was their show.  Jonathan left his like ten thousand dollar amp set up on top of a cabinet about 1 foot wide and 6 feet tall, and i almost bumped into it during our set, i was like wtf is this even doing here still?!?  he would have hated me forever if something had happened to that gear I know it !  I had seen the Horne + Holt duo before, but it had been a while.....Randall Holt is a cool musician straddling the line of punk and classical/experimental, and he also used electronics...I think what he was playing was a cello, I guess it might have been a stand up bass, but pretty sure it was a cello.  I had a good angle on him for part of his set and he really has some serious bow precision, cool stuff.