Up In Danbury. . .

This Friday I wandered up to Danbury CT to Cousin Larry's. It was a good night in a cool venue. Cousin Larry's is a small place right off of Main in Danbury. I have been there a few times and pretty much every time I am impressed with the acts. Small or not they have a solid sound system, good acts, and just a good scene.

Friday was no exception. They had Dogs of Winter, Fear the State Fear the State, and an act I had not caught before - Lions of Lido. I had caught the first two on several occasions up there. Both as usual rocked.

The Dogs of Winter provided a good sampling of their new material. Do make sure to check out their new video of their song, Player Piano, that they have posted it front and center on their website! Fear the State just rocked out, having a good time with a crowd that knows them well.

Lion of Ido, however, I knew nothing about. The crowd knew something about them. They were just a cool act with some nice keyboard and guitar work. They turned my head a few times as I was getting my beer and just searching for one of the few stools at the bar. I did find them once I had the right name. . . http://www.myspace.com/lionofido

I did give them a listen to yesterday driving around. Kind of an alternative sound, if that means anything, in short I need to go catch them again. I always get sucked in by a band with a keyboard. Talking about keyboards and guitar, last week end I was down at J&Rs in NYC and picked up UFO's Lights Out CD. Damn, the CD is 30 years old, but that is where I am coming from. Still some amazing stuff on that CD.

Going back to Cousin Larry's in Danbury. It is a great place, a great scene. It is a venue for indie music and more importantly they have a crowd that comes out and supports the acts and music. I guess it is in part a local college scene complete with college radio. And of course it is on MySpace. Whatever, the mixture, however, they bring them out it is very cool to find a venue and scene just digging original live music.

For more on Cousin Larry's located at 1 Elm Street, Danbury CT, check out: www.myspace.com/larrysdanbury  

A big part of their scene is driven by Sub Rosa, which organizes and promotes a lot of the shows:   http://myspace.com/safetoswimweekend

Subscribe to The Wild West Blog by Email

A Tribute Act I Can Appreciate and Other Stuff

Regardless of what else is going on, there are plenty of local talent playing out doing shows! We keep a small running list of some of those, but that list is far from complete. Occasionally I add some national acts, such as the Jeff Beck shows in NYC happening in April. Rarely do I mention tribute acts.

The one exception to that is Lizzyhead. a Thin Lizzy tribute show, which happens every year around St Patricks Day. I am just a serious fan of Thin Lizzy and as Thin Lizzy, well Scot Gorham, John Sykes and company are not coming to US these days, what choice do I got. And Lizzyhead does a damn good job. I caught them last year and I was quite impressed. their goal is to get it to Live and Dangerous standards and they are pretty damn close. What more could a Lizzy fan ask for. Well maybe some Beaujolais I suppose or Guinness as it is St Pats. . .

Other stuff going on includes Queen V's release of Death or Glory. finally. Though I need to get to that website and order it. Made it to the CD release part last week at Don hills. It was a cool show and she does have a solid band behind. Her guitar player is more than up to the task. I am hoping she hooks something up and has to take a break from the Don Hill's monthly shows.

This recession stuff does make shows a challenge,at least for myself. I went to the Queen V show last week, my ass was dragging and I just spent much of the ride back and forth thinking bout shit and in the course of the night, I was not there-not really. Good show but I was in many ways not there-could have stayed home. Perhaps it is part the age thing-hard to shake some stuff off.

Lastly, there is Mad Juana. This is an interesting act originally from NYC but in the last year or so have been over in CA. Mad Juana is a pretty cool band featuring Sami Yaffa (Hanoi rocks and recently New York Dolls). What makes them cool though is their sound. they are acoustic, with a dash of gypsy music, and horns. Karmen Guy is front and center and reminds me of an old fashion torch singer. So you have an eclectic mix of styles and it just works. As one reviewer suggests, they could be the soundtrack to a Tarantino movie.

I do wonder if they are going to make it back to NYC for a couple shows to celebrate their new well recent CD "Bruja on the Corner". I could have sworn I saw some shows listed in NYC on their Myspace, but now they are gone. I thought I did. Not sure if I was hallucinating or what, but now we just have the SXSW shows down in Texas. Hopefully they will make it back to New York sometime soon.

In the meantime we got Lizzyhead at Europa and that will more than work. Recession crap or not I will be there.

Bob Schaffer
March 3rd, 2009

Subscribe to The Wild West Blog by Email