Their name itself may evoke overtly violent imagery, but according to guitarist Ryan Morin (aka Dino Bambino), his time spent with seminal Springfield-area rockers Shoot The Dancing Bear was all love. An almost disturbingly comprehensive kind of love, as it turns out.
"Even when we broke up, we all still loved each other even when we were busy hating each other, " he explains of the Shoot's demise in 2001. "But after all this time, we decided it had been too long since we made sweet love on each other, to each other, for each other, in each other."
Whew… anyone else need a cigarette?
In any event, to bring back that loving feeling, Bambino and bandmates will give Shoot one last shot of life of this Saturday, Jan. 16 at The Elevens in a reunion show that is scheduled to feature everyone who has been in the band performing classics, from 1999's Reversing The Atrophy (Sike Records) through assorted chestnuts from other studio efforts and even some previously unreleased/never before heard material.
"This is most certainly a one-off deal, and definitely the only chance to see everyone and hear some of this stuff," Bambino concludes. "In fact, we only have one opening act, our friends in Under Falling Skies, to allow us to get through it all."
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The previous night, Jan. 15, at the very same venue, a bunch of white guys will try and decide who's blacker.
"I think there needs to be a lot more friendly rivalries in the metal world," Black Pyramid's Andy Beresky notes of None More Black, a sonic showdown of sorts he has concocted with billmates Hotblack. "I'm friends with all those guys, but at some point, this just needs to be settled so we know once and for all which band best represents the ideals set forth by the mighty Spinal Tap."
Southern Maine's Sun Gods In Exile, Virginia moonshine metallers Might Could and the Valley's own The Uncomfortables round out the "Black Friday" festivities. Doors for this 21-plus show open at 8:30 p.m. and admission is $5.
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In other news… those shufflin' off to the Donna The Buffalo show at Pearl Street Jan. 16 will catch their favorite folk/rock/Cajun/zydeco practitioners as headliners proper for the only time this month.
Prior to the local play, the Buffalo-ians could be found in support of veteran American rockers Little Feat on a mini-tour that included a benefit for Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward, who is battling liver cancer. (Journeyman percussionist Gabe Ford, whose musical pedigree includes having noted jazz/blues guitarist Robben Ford as an uncle and a father who kept time for the likes of Charlie Musselwhite and Jimmy Witherspoon, has stepped in during Hayward's medical leave). Later this month, DTB will hook up with Nashville roots-rock faves The Believers and head south for a spell.
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Last up, Tim Rapa checked in to report that his band will lend its considerable talents to a benefit opportunity that appears Tailor Made for them.
"There is an alumni show at Agawam High School on Jan. 20," the singer/guitarist of 2009 Grand Band Slam Best Pop Band Tailor Made explains, "and since all four of us in the band graduated from there, we wanted to give something back."
As a means to that end, Rapa says that he and his merry band of Made-men intend to donate all their ticket sales and 50 percent of CD sales to the school's music department.
"Guess it's our little 'Save The Music,'" he concludes. "But really, we learned so much there, and certainly wouldn't be doing what we are today had it not been for the experience."
Tickets are $5 in advance, $8 at the door. The show is slated to run from 7 to 9 p.m. Also scheduled to perform are SDRUM and The Primate Fiasco.
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 698-9373 or email garycarra@aol.com.
