Tuesday night’s Underground Open Mic was a truly amazing
affair. Mike Weber of Shadow Fox Photography took some killer pictures, as
usual. You can view them here. Oh, and the raffle prize was
a sick TMNT razor scooter – totally jealous of whoever won that. Next week's Open Mic is already brewing - check it!
I was super excited to finally see Maiden Mars. They were
awesome! A simple 3 piece band, all ladies, they had great energy and set the
fun and rocking tone for the rest of the night. You can listen here. I’m thinking maybe next time
they play, Kate Kane can get someone else to introduce the next band? She
wailed on those drums the whole set and looked positively exhausted afterward. Don’t
be afraid to ask for help, lady. I hope to catch more shows soon.
And then there was warren terror. Another Iowa City band. I
liked them. They were loud and kind of grungy. I wrote about them while they
were playing, but I’m going to have to edit the hell out of that before I post
it. I definitely was not concentrating on what I was hearing during that set.
Kitten Crisis from Illinois was a whole lot of fun. Actually,
both out of state bands killed it and fit in perfectly with the overall feeling
and sound of the night. Benny the Jet Rodriguez was way awesome. I’m not going
to lie to you, peeps, I was a tad inebriated having spent a few hours at the
Deadwood before even heading to the Open Mic. I mostly was just dancing and
head bob/banging instead of thinking about serious reviewing. Both bands were
kind of poppy, really catchy, and had really great energy. Check out the links
above to find their FB pages. Kitten Crisis doesn’t really have a ton of info,
but Benny has a link to their bandcamp and some really fun other stuff (the
bio is awesome) and I love their description of the band as “pot punk, garage
pop, queer punk, baseball lovecore”. Yeah, dude.
Rational Anthem was really great. I have missed them twice
in the past few months and once I was a mere 20 feet away, distracted by
something silly someone beautiful was saying, no doubt. I will not, however, be
missing them ever again. Until they go on tour out west, that is. I’ve never
understood how people from places like Florida and California and anywhere near
the ocean end up land locked in Iowa City, but I am super glad these folks are
here now. Check them out. Do it. I couldn’t find any info on upcoming shows in the area,
but listen here.
And lastly, Lipstick Homicide…what can I say? Always
amaze-balls. The last time I got to the see them was upstairs, for free, when
Pizza on Dubuque was still a thing. Like an idiot, I went on a cleaning spree
before their last show at Trumpet Blossom and ended up falling asleep with
yellow rubber gloves on. I missed the whole thing. You have to see to them. I will be posting when I hear about shows. Until then, listen here.
FYI:
Crystal City is playing tonight at The Mill. I haven’t seen
or heard of the other bands playing tonight, but Crystal City is always really good. I can’t go
tonight, so please go for me. Order the frickles. Crystal City have a lot of
gigs coming up and I highly recommend all of them, but I must insist you all go
the ICYC on June 20th. You’ll cry forever if you miss that show.
Tomorrow night (6/12) Closet Witch is playing at Gabe’s. I’ve
been looking forward to seeing them for a very long time. You like punk, punk?
Be at this show!
See ya around ~mandab
