The PTO was running a holiday fundraiser at the Barnes & Noble in Monmouth Mall last night. CoolDaughter #1 is in the school chorus, so she would be singing with them to give a holiday feel to the proceedings. It was pretty chaotic in there, but all of the orchestra, band, chorus kids acquitted themselves pretty well. I left directly from there, in a pretty steady rain, for my first-ever trip to Baby's All Right in Williamsburg.
I was heading in to see London, Ontario punk foursome, Single Mothers, thinking that it was pretty unlikely I'd be seeing them in New Jersey anytime soon. The trip in was a smooth one, and I made it to the place before the first band took the stage. I ran into our good buddy Mike V, which was a nice surprise (You can run into him next Sunday at 610 Bangs in Asbury when he plays a rare acoustic set for us at our holiday benefit show.).
Single Mothers went on at about 11; and, within the first few seconds, a sparsely populated but energetic mosh pit developed right in front of the stage. A large percentage of the crowd hung back and stood relatively still, prompting Single Mothers' frontman Drew Thomson to give them a little crap for it.
Thomson himself was a whirlwind. He leapt, fell over himself, knocked over mic stands, spilled beer all over the stage, and climbed into the crowd, all the while letting loose with his scathing, snarky lyrics about the frustrations of living in a small Canadian city. He had a few sharp words for current Brooklyn baddie, Vice Media, who were holding their holiday show somewhere else in the borough. Then he was back to opening his shirt, removing it entirely, doing push-ups on the stage, and finally birthing and nursing his microphone during the band's performance of "Baby" from their self-titled 2011 EP.
The set also included songs from the this years' fantastic Negative Qualities. I shouted along from behind my camera to "Half-Lit," "Marbles," "Overdose," and others. The band -- Mike Peterson (guitar), Evan Redsky (bass), and Brandon Jagersky (drums) -- were just as relentless as Thomson. Jagersky had "Brandon Jagersky feat. Single Mothers" printed on his bass drum.
So two good shows last night: a bunch of kids playing / singing holiday music in a shopping mall followed by some of the best punk out there right now. Who says you can't have it all?
The stage was enveloped in fog for the whole evening, and most of the lighting was at the rear of the stage. That made for some interesting shots: blown-out in some spots and way dark in others. Here are highlights. The rest are in the Flickr galleries; and, soon, I'll put shots of the openers up there, too.
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