“Unless you’re alive,” yells Rutger Hauer as he’s chasing down Harrison Ford in the final scene of Blade Runner, “you can’t play!”
See, there’s this thing that’s been in short supply lately. It involves you, standing down front in a small, dimly lit club, next to a low stage. On the edge of that stage is a guy or girl running around and hollering words you can’t quite make out. Why can’t you make them out? Because there’s someone standing next to the hollering person playing fast, distorted, and REALLY LOUD Chuck Berry riffs on the guitar and kicking over any beers left unattended, all the while giving you the feeling that if you get just a hair closer you might end up with a bloody nose. In other words, it’s the stuff that makes you feel alive: rockandfugginroll! (No, rock ‘n’ roll’s not the only kind of music that makes one feel alive—this boy cannot live by rock alone—but it has a certain highly idiosyncratic joie de vivre not found elsewhere.) And such stuff will be in abundance this Saturday when New York punkers Born Loose headline the seventh installment of SmashCrashBash!!, a monthly rock ’n’ roll-themed party in Hudson, New York.
Born Loose, who feature unhinged front man Larry May (ex-Candy Snatchers), play it like they mean it. And they play it mean. Just check out this live vid:
SmashCrashBash!!#7 with Born Loose, the Jacked Bennies, and DJs Sean McDevitt and Peter Aaron, takes place May 3 at 9pm at the Half Moon in Hudson. Admission is $6. For more information, visit http://thehalfmoonhudson.com/.
This article appears in April 2014.
