Hey folks! Another week on North Ave and all matter of musical lifeforms stopped by to share their noises with us. From lighting fast punk and bar rock, all the way to chiptunes and ska it was a very diverse week in music DownSquares. Ok, so now that intros and formalities are out of the way, let’s have a look back at what went down this week.
8/10/16 - Smarthearts // Quitter // the Not
Wednesday we had some good ol’ punk rock DownSquares. Starting things off was the Not with a quick set of dance tunes before Quitter took the stage to obliterate the crowd with their unkempt energy. The SmartHearts from Philly closed out the night with a great set of noisy power pop that sent the punks home happy.
the Not
8/11/16 - Harlan County Kings // The Jigsaw Seen
Thursday Joe Squared was host to local rockers Harlan County Kings and Los Angeles’ The Jigsaw Seen. Big shout out to The Jigsaw Seen for their excellent set of well-written psychedelic garage rock (made complete with the on stage antics of drummer/ character Teddy Freese), they put on a hell of a show and I hope they make it back to the east coast sooner rather than later.
8/12/16 - BAI Fest - Pure Junk // Ratboiler // Garbage Masher
The first night of the Baltimore Academy of Illustration’s one year anniversary festival was held Downsquares Friday night. Leading the charge was chiptune warriors Garbage Masher who captivated the crowd with an epic homage to video games and old school arcades. I saw Ratboiler a few years ago when they were first starting out at an Artscape audition, and I can honestly say the band’s come a long way! Hard hitting rockers lead by the amazing charisma of frontman Gregory Parks. Ending the evening was the very brief appearance of Pure Junk, who’s singer Nolan Strals completely annihilated the crowd with some of the most expressive (and explosive) onstage presence I’ve seen all year. This was a great show and I want to thank everyone who played for making it easy!
Pure Junk
8/13/16 - Out of the Basement // The Captivators // Interstate Rivals // Stratus Fear
Ska night. Oh boy, what can I say… Oh I know! I’d like to thank the Captivators for coming up from DC and providing some real ska energy to Downsquares with their horn-heavy set of authentic ska tunes (complete with fedoras) that you could easily skank to. They closed out their performance with a cover of Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book which was tons of fun and a highlight of the evening.
Out Of The Basement
8/14/16 - June Star // Emily Rodgers // Barnyard Sharks // Rodney Henry
Hit up Windup Space on Sunday for an early “brunch” show complete with bloody marys and spicy green beans. June Star opened things up with a set featuring Sparky Spiridiliozzi who was filling in on drums. I got to push a few faders for the band while they played and took the time to mess with the board a bit. It’s a Presonus StudioLive which I’m still pretty new to, but after a few minutes looking through the board's menus it didn’t seem quite as tricky as I thought. We continued our day-drinking onslaught over to the The Avenue for a set of blues and roots tunes by Rodney Henry over at the pie shop. Sunday ended with rainfall and late night jams that put a great stamp on an already fantastic weekend.
That’s all folks. Tune in again next week for another round of music and Charm City mayhem. Until then keep cool and be safe.
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