Beach Slang Played Rough Trade with Chris Gethard's Mr. Shankly and The Franklys, 9/27/16

Play Me Something That Might Save My Life

I think of it as a professional responsibility to read Pitchfork's reviews of new albums I'm interested in. Our tastes have diverged somewhat over the last decade or so, but I do find it instructive to see what that part of the "indie" music-sphere thinks about certain things. It's often a game of trying to guess what number rating they'll apply to a particular release.

I headed over there to check out their review of Beach Slang's A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings the other day; and, while it was a solid review, it wasn't gushing. Many of Ian Cohen's points were, in one sense, spot on: "...the mere decision to call this album A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings—even if it is earned—calls into question whether [songwriter / frontman, James Alex, is] truly operating without pretense."

But, to answer that question, all you have to do is spend a few minutes speaking with James Alex before or after a show -- a few minutes that he seems more than willing to grant to anyone who approaches him, usually beginning and ending things with a hug. After that, there will be no doubt in your mind that any of this is for real. James Alex is the person who screams things like, "Play me something that might save my life!" and "Your arms are like a car crash I want to die in."

That sincerity carries onto the stage. Last night at Rough Trade, James Alex shouted out new friends he'd made before the show, fans who bought him drinks, old friends he hadn't seen in ages. He and the rest of the band raged and careened through songs from the new record and dug back into their catalog for songs like "All Fuzzed Out," a favorite of mine that I haven't seen them play live in a while.

As predicted by Scotch LaRock the other day, the set was full of false starts, mistakes, power outages, audibles, and ad-libs. The band covered The Replacements (twice), Jawbreaker, The Cure, and gave us snippets of "Jessie's Girl" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Alex, along with band-mates Ed McNulty (bass) and Ruben Gallego (guitar), conversed and joked with audience members up front. Mikey Erg took over drums on "Can't Hardly Wait" and "Alex Chilton."

Alex dedicated "Bad Art and Weirdo Ideas" to "my friend Jim [Adkins of Jimmy Eat World] who's here," but I'm going to pretend that he meant me. I can't hear that song without feeling like CoolMom and Jeff and Scott and Emily are jumping up and down beside me or without seeing Ed and Carrot sailing over my head from the stage during the last show at Asbury Lanes. I'm going to admit I got a little choked up. Pushover.

They ended the set with "Young And Alive;" and the crowd, who'd gotten pretty rowdy up front beginning with "Noisy Heaven," were all in for one, last song. Afterwards, Alex was in the corner at stage right talking, shaking hands, hugging anyone who came up to congratulate him on his band's latest release. He told them all how much it meant to him that they came to his band's show, and he meant every word.

I can't leave you without mentioning opening band, Mr. Shankly and The Franklys. Fronted by Chris Gethard and featuring Mikey Erg on drums, Alex Knudson (Hiccup) on guitar, and John DiNominice (Bomb The Music Industry, Jeff Rosenstock) on bass, they're a Smiths cover band that started as a gag. The backing band's chops and Gethard's commitment and razor sharp wit (I mean, he is a pro.), though, made their set something of a revelation. Loads of fun; and I sang myself hoarse, as I've been known to do at Smiths tribute shows.

Confession: It's always kind of been a fantasy of mine to be the Morrissey in a Smiths tribute band. I will never do this. I'll just content myself with living vicariously through Chris Gethard.

Pictures from both sets are up in the Flickr galleries.