FiggsPitRock – Concert Review
TT The Bears in Cambridge. Good dive bar. A perfect venue for a New Year’s Eve kicking out the fake millennium and bringing on the real deal. On a night when everything is a rip off, twenty bucks to get in wasn’t. Sold out no less. Garage Punk, Garage Rock, Rock? Yeah, it was that. The Figgs, Gravel Pit, The Gentlemen, and Heavy Stud were playing.
The Stud (if I may) feature two women and two guys with the babes up front. Fun. Punk Attitude and chords but not especially angry. Appealing. They warmed up the place.
The Figgs are based in NYC with roots in Saratoga, New York. Mike Gent is on guitar and vocals. Pete Donnelly is on bass. Pete Hayes is on drums. They’re unpretentious. Their last album was called Sucking in Stereo. Hooky stuff with an edge. Informed.
Local faves Gravel Pit showed why. Jed Parish is a big, Irish looking front man, dapper in white suit like the rest of his mates: Lucky Jackson on guitar, Ed Valauskas on bass, and Pete Caldes on drums. They deserve it.
The Gentlemen stole the show. They are the Gravel Pit but with Mike Gent on vocals instead of Jed with Ed and Lucky singing some too. These guys were Weezer-iffic. Had a reckless quality as evidenced by slipping into a Kiss song until people smile and then charging back into what they were doing before. Very enjoyable. So was the audience, the vibe, the Champagne at midnight, the bone in the pool room, the sushi, and the crowded stage jam at the end. -Eric Holland