Drummer Dave Keating certainly appreciated the chocolates, CDs and even the iFeast gag gift (brought to you by the fine folks from The Onion) bestowed upon him during the recent celebration of his 40th birthday. But during an interview with your friendly neighborhood Crawler, the Valley veteran said he realized he would trade it all to feel the sweet reverberation that can only be obtained by bookending one’s head with massive Marshall stack amplifiers one more time.
“I’ve been in—and am currently in—a few bands, but there was always something special about Big Ugly Wrench for me,” he says. “We haven’t played in at least a decade, but back in the day… we were getting regular airplay on Lazer 99.3, playing the NEMO music fest and even renting coach buses and ‘kidnapping’ people to come to our Springfield shows. So much fun, so many decibels.”
Keating and fellow/former bandmates Tao Jones, Kurt Fedora, Will Cluster and Steve Huggins will give the Wrench another turn this Saturday, Nov. 26 at The Elevens in Noho. The one-night-only engagement will feature a hearty mix of classic covers and assorted collaborations between opening acts Nice Try and Auto Climax Control and the headlining act.
“The piper will be paid, and then eviscerated by a scorching maelstrom of shredding guitar riffs, thunderous drums and primal scream vocals,” Keating says. “I’d say we’d do more shows, but presenting such a spectacle on a regular basis is just untenable and unwarranted.”
The show starts at 10 p.m. sharp.
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In other news… Gillian Welch comes to Northampton’s historic Calvin on Monday, Nov. 28 in support of her first studio effort in eight years, The Harrow & The Harvest. When it comes to the subject of the preferred mode of transportation for Welch and musical partner David Rawlings on said tour, the couple seems to exhibit a penchant for… shall we say, ahem… auto eroticism?
“There was something we were finding increasingly dislocating about airplane travel, the lack of acknowledgement of space-and-miles movement,” the singer/songwriter, who has had her tunes recorded by the likes of Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris, says of her recent decision to tour exclusively by car. “We even stopped taking the interstates, which is the fastest way, and starting spending time on back roads, just moving around. I know that it’s part of this record—that we dispensed with the quickest route. The topography, culture and language of this country [also] figure prominently in our work.”
Tickets are $35 and available at iheg.com.
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Meanwhile, Orange Crush percussionist Tommy Kielbania, Jr. says he never “sausage a buzz” surrounding one of his band’s patented party songs…
“Our track ‘Sausage Party’ was on the ABC show Happy Endings a couple of weeks ago,” he explains. “This was the second song we have licensed off our debut CD, and I was on the radio and our singer [was] interviewed on local television because of it. We slayed millions of people with 20 seconds of music.”
This Thursday, Oct. 23, Kielbania and crew will hold court at Louie B’s (louiebs.com) in Southwick for an evening of ’80s-inspired audio and hors d’ouevres.
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Last up, in the shameless self-promotion department, the Crawler will also hold court at one of his favorite drinking holes—The Hazard Grill—on Thanksgiving Eve for a Summer’s High show stuffed with cameos by local notables. Among those already confirmed as participating in the festivities are area singer/songwriter Bob Pepek, Perchell Jackson (Crystal Blue Project), Peter Polis (Johnny Sixgun) and Aaron Faye and Eddie Blizniak (Maxxtone). For more info, please call (860) 798-1551. The festivities begin at 6 p.m. and there is no cover charge.
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, PO Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email Garycarra@aol.com.
