One band's postponed reunion is shaping up to be another's farewell of sorts. On the heels of the local pop icons The Maggies announcing their third, changed date for their first performance in seven years, Hatfield/Noho garage faves Curious Buddies slid into the Aug. 14 vacancy on the Sierra Grill bill for what will be their last "hometown" gig—with all future Valley plays most likely being prefaced with "homecoming."
"The band is moving to Philly," explains manager Mark Sheehan, "so technically, it's their last area show. But the plan is to come back up this way at least once a month—doing small, Northeast tours—to help widen their audience& so there will still be plenty opportunities to see them."
As of press time, just how much Buddies' devotees will be seeing of drummer "Dylan" after the transition to the City of Brotherly Love was still unclear, however. According to a report written by Brian Anastasi and published on hampmusic.com last month, Dylan had not yet signed on to the relocation and the band was in the midst of a percussion discussion on how the role would be filled.
As for the latest Maggies make-up date, their bassist, Max Germer, says the procrastinating popsters have now settled on Thursday, Sept. 25 at the Sierra for the eagerly anticipated reunion show. And considering the fact that 2008 marks the band's 15th anniversary, he adds, there is some incentive to get this show on the books by year's end.
"Fifteen is such a nice, round number," Germer concludes. "It's like a high school reunion for us, minus the fat." Although the current bassist for the School For The Dead was reluctant to chew the fat—or reveal any particulars—regarding special plans for the auspicious evening, he did report that "secret, surprise openers who rarely play the area" would kick things off.
When pressed as to whether or not the Sept. 25 performance would be a nice footnote or, in fact, kick off yet another chapter in the storied Maggies history, Germer set the record straight& as open-endedly as humanly possible.
"This is most-definitely, absolutely, positively a one-off reunion," he stated. "Probably."
The circumstances surrounding the impending demise of Easthampton electro-rockers BeastWith2Backs aren't nearly as ambiguous. In fact, one half of the infamous Back, Tess "DJ Swan" Coburn, checked in directly to report that the band's Aug. 16 show at the Elevens will be its last local show.
"[Gary] Temple, our lead singer and guitarist, is going to China after that to study Chinese," she reports. "He's gotten us some shows there in the past, and he's hoping to put us in a position to do some bigger things there in the future& but this is it for us in the Valley."
In addition to Temple and his Chinese connection, the duo and its videos have become Youtube favorites, boasting more than 100,000 views to date—and some 18 of their tunes where used in the Bode Miller ski-pic Flying Downhill.
After burying the Beast live locally this Saturday, Coburn adds that fans hungry for more can continue to sink their teeth into fresh tracks at the band's myspace (.com/beastwith2backs) on the seventh day of each month from now through& eternity?
"It's part of our Everlasting Album series," she explains"and we're already six tracks into it, and yes, we're going to keep it going forever."
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 698-9373 or email Garycarra@aol.com.
