Cave Stomp '98

It was Friday November 20th and the crowd at Coney Island High was, indeed, ready to stomp, despite the fact that it was a couple hours earlier than most New Yorkers even wake up for Friday night fuzztivities. The Mount McKinleys were here to kick things off and, if the place wasn't jammed, there was certainly at least enough of a crowd to cheer them on. They romped through a cool set of galloping garage rock'n'soul, augmented by occasional theremin warping. Absolutely beautiful.

Plasticland were next. I'll be honest: I'm the wrong person to ask about these guys. Even back when they were riding, er... high... back in the mid-80s, this psychedelic flower-pop group didn't do much for me. Seeing them now without one of their founding members wasn't helping matters. But the (by now swelled-nicely-in-size) audience seemed to enjoy them. So much for my being a barometer of people's taste. Funny thing is, it was kinda nice to see that people still appreciate this sort of thing, even if it's not my own mug o' root beer. I could speculate on this endlessly (and probably will in the next Teen Scene), but... on with the show.

I was a HUGE Headless Horsemen fan. And with every reunion of the group, I'm reminded just why. Simply put, they were one of the best damn bands of their time period (late 80s, mainly). They knocked out a spectacular set of cool covers (including one of the best versions you'll ever witness of "Leavin' Here") and excellent originals. ("Can't Help But Shake" is a bona fide classic.) Here are four guys who, plain and simply, have "it." Yeah, fantastic musicianship, strong vocals, dynamic stage presence, good songwriting, and excellent arranging talent. I wish they were still together for real. But at least there's always a chance they'll do the odd reunion gig.

Headless Horsemen guitarist Elan Portnoy wasn't done yet. He had to stick around to play the next set with his previous band... The Fuzztones! Yeah, the NYC version of The Fuzztones was here to play. Well, actually, they weren't able to find bassist Michael Jay, but they pulled the group's original (1980-82) 4-stringer out of their hat. Unfortunately, drummer Ira Elliott was in Spain playing with his current confabulation, Nada Surf, so vocalist Rudi Protrudi had brought a friend in from LA to bang the skins. So much for the "original NYC Fuzztones." But who cared... Rudi was playing with Elan Portnoy and Vox organ mistress Deb O'Nair again! How'd they do? Easy... they kicked it out. From covers like "Strychnine" to originals on the order of their classic "Bad News Travels Fast," they were, once again, The Fuzztones. The guys yelled, the girls screamed. They burned us up and down. They finished up by bringing out the guitarist from the Vanilla Fudge. "Oh no," thought more than a few, "they're gonna do a friggin' Fudge farter." But, no, Rudi was bringin' out a guy from the Vanilla Fudge to play none other than "Psychotic Reaction!!!" That, of course, ended with him, uh... getting rather intimate with his Vox Phantom. Quite the show.

The Chesterfield Kings were up next. They were banging out some beautiful rock'n'roll noise right from the get-go, but the wireless mic wasn't actually doing anything, so all most people caught of the vocals was some backing stuff. Eventually, Greg grabbed a regular mic... and that didn't work, either! Man, talk about not being able to catch a break! Too bad, too, 'cuz they were doing some incredible stuff. (The nice thing about standing up front is that you at least hear a bit of what the guy's singing.) Hilarious moment: Jeff Connolly biting Greg Prevost's leg while said vocalist was playing. After a damn good Kings' mini-set, they brought on Mark Lindsay of The Raiders to do a mini-set that included "Kicks," "Just Like Me," "Louie Go Home," "Steppin' Out," "Hungry," and "Steppin' Stone." Together, these guys sounded EXACTLY like the Raiders' records, but more alive! Kinda like an aural 3D thing jumping out at you in full technicolor. YEOW! This was perfection. Mark Lindsay was right on. (Check out Mark Lindsay's web page.)

The evening came to a close with the appearance of ex-Seeds' singer Sky Saxon backed by The Mysterians. Now, while this may have an interesting sort of appeal, let me assure you that it was less than stellar. The Mysterians, for their part, were great. Sky, on the other hand, seems to have slipped off into outer space. His voice was completely cracking and he really didn't have much to give. I gamely tried to make it through, but by 4 AM, after a couple songs with Mark Lindsay (who did a fine job), I decided I'd rather catch a 4:30 bus home than sit through the rest of this and have to wait for the 6:05. Sorry, gang, I'm not willing to cut anyone slack just 'cuz they did some great stuff over 30 years ago.

Saturday Night!!! I hit the WFMU Record Fair in the afternoon (as did many other Stompers), getting there just in time to hear a semi-unplugged Pretty Things' set in the back room (which was, by the way, broadcast live on the air!) But this is about Cave Stomp...

I'd heard only one or two songs by The Mad Three before they played Cave Stomp, but this bunch did a decent job. No, I'm still not a fan of the Guitar Wolf-type thing they do, but they did a good job at it, at least.

When Jon Weiss was looking for bands for this thing, I'd given the enthusiastic thumbs up to The Conquerors, based both on their recordings and their live show (which I'd been lucky enough to witness at Fuzz Fest a couple months earlier.) Well, the Minneapolis boys came to NYC and did a damn good job, as well. No, not as good as the Fuzz Fest set, but... well, the sound pretty much stunk for their first bunch of songs (a problem the house had, in my opinion, for more than a few of the bands this weekend, which I did NOT appreciate). But these guys just blow me away with killer songwriting, excellent vocal ability, strong showmanship, and amazing musicianship. And they can switch gears without the slightest hint of a grind, be it from song to song or even on the fly. WOW! Check out their 10"er on Get Hip!

Another band I'm proud to say I recommended was The Raunch Hands. Yeah, I knew they'd broken up about six years earlier and, sure, I knew that both guitarist Mike Mariconda and vocalist Michael Chandler were living in Austin, but why let little things like that get in the way? They decided to do it. And their Cave Stomp performance was a highlight. We once again got to experience the delightful mayhem of one of the coolest bands ever out of NYC. A bit of the early stuff and lotsa later material (being that this was the lineup from about '92) thrown together made for a damn good set. It looks like Chandler's back in NYC now and he tells me that The Raunch Hands may do some more stuff in the future.

All too often people just take The Fleshtones for granted. But nobody who saw them at Cave Stomp '98 will ever think that way again. Rather than spending paragraphs talking about them, let's just say they proved that SuperRock (TM) is a way of life that all must aspire to.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are The Remains." Geez... back when I was 18 and hanging out at The Dive, The Remains were one of my absolute favorites. And, over the years, every time I listened to them, I was blown away all over again. But how would they be, 32 years after they'd broken up. I mean, OK, they'd done a show in the US about 10 years after that (1976) and they'd done a show in Spain in late September, but... well, I hadn't been there. Could they possibly pull it off?

Pull it off!?! Let's put it this way... They BLEW THE FLIPPIN' ROOF OFF!!! There were some incredible performances this weekend and the only group that even came within sight of these guys were The Pretty Things the next night. The Remains were beyond anything I could possibly have hoped for. They played a set filled with both their regular live material (they still do the best version of "Hang On Sloopy" you'll ever hear, not to mention a take on "All Day And All Of The Night" that rivals The Kinks' original) and originals like "Why Do I Cry?" and "Say You're Sorry," some of which they evidently didn't do live back when they were still playing together.

The audience reaction was incredible. A jam-packed house singing along, but still letting the experience wash over them, baptizing them in the true spirit of rock'n'roll. Yeah, you could say this was a religious experience. These guys still have it. Let's hope they do some more shows. Check out Hitomi's Remains' Page as well as the Official Remains web page.

After The Remains, The Litter were a bit of a come-down. But they started off well, with "the Midwest version" of "I'm A Man" (since we'd "just heard the East Coast version.) They continued with songs by The Who and the Small Faces, but then came a rather long descent into 12-bar blues that didn't do much for me. Many people commented on how cool it was that they were using a Farfisa. Well, what those people didn't know was that they'd wanted to use a newer Korg, but they were borrowing equipment from The Conquerors. Thanks to those guys, at least things sounded that much cooler. The Litter weren't bad. In fact, overall they were rather good. But after the incredible experience of The Remains, they just couldn't compete.

Originally, there wasn't supposed to be a Sunday night. But then Jon Weiss managed to book The Pretty Things. That made it a whole new ballgame and he put together a final night.

A bunch of Spanish kids called The Nuggets kicked off the night to a house that was already fairly crowded, thanks to people who wanted to make sure they got good spots for The Pretty Things. The Nuggets play exactly what their name suggests: rather well-known garage covers. They were good at it, but I can't imagine anyone would go see them more than a few times if they were a local band. The one nice surprise was when they broke the pure garage bonds and tore thru a Stooges' number.

Back in the 80s, The Optic Nerve had a major Byrds/Dylan thing going on. Jangly Rickenbacker-based folk stuff was what they were known for (and were damn good at!) Well, it's been about 10 years since they broke up "for good," but they're back at it on a limited basis. Both guitarists, Bobby Belfiore and Tony Matura, are writing again. The show started with two of the band's most well-known tracks, "Ain't That A Man" and "Mayfair" (find them on their first 45). Once again, the sound levels weren't set right at the start and these two songs ended up lost a bit. Sad, since they're great numbers. The rest of the set was all new material. These days, Tony sings about half the songs (rather than only about 2-3 per set as he used to.) They've got some great new songs that, while stemming from the same musical family tree, sound more modern than the old ones did. And, for the most part, they sound pretty good.

The 5-6-7-8's were up next. In their Ronettes' outfits, they looked damn good, and played a fine set. It wasn't the best I've ever seen them, but it was fun.

Finally, on walk a bunch of mature gentlemen in suits looking like the guys from Reservoir Dogs. These are The Pretty Things. And the image suits them (even if nobody's sure why their manager stays on stage with them and even joins them a bit from time to time for a tune).

The Pretties still have a major charge. When they hit tracks like "Judgement Day," "Rosalyn," etc. there's just no stopping them. This is prime Pretties, just as you want them to be. Yeah, more maximum than the R&B the Who could ever have hoped to lay a claim to.

They also played a number of tracks from their rock opera, SF Sorrow. And these were fine, too. It was only when they hit certain elements from their later period that they'd lose a bit of steam. Or, rather, I would lose my grip a bit. It wasn't that they weren't playing those tunes with the same enthusiasm and energy, but instead that those things just aren't my thing. On the other hand, songs like "Havana Bound" sounded incredible!

Yeah, I want to see The Pretty Things all over again. They're one of the greats. Sure, I'd like to be able to pick their set list myself (as I'm sure most people would like to do) and, yeah, I wish they'd done "Midnight to Six Man," but they were damn great all the same.

And that was Cave Stomp '98. I'm still reeling from the fact that I saw The Remains.
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