What To Do?

Last night's happy hour at Dog and Duck gave way to an electric, jam-packed rock show at Trophy's with the Rockland Eagles, the Good Looks, the Black Angels and the John Sparrow.

I wound up missing the always-entertaining Rockland Eagles because the smoke, the pints and the fish and chips were starting to team up on me. It was my first time to see the other three bands. The Good Looks have a commanding stage presence, shaking tambourines and bouncing off of each other. Their style might be described as garage rock meant to be played in big halls. Their first few songs didn't grab me, but the Looks got better as the night progressed. I definitely want to see them again.

The Black Angels sounded like the Velvet Underground mixed with Clinic. I believe they said their bassist was sick, which means this probably wasn't a "normal" set for them. Their sound was intriguing, but frankly, I prefer to wrap my head in this quasi-cerebral drone in a non-club setting. I just heard "Black Grease" on their Myspace.com site and found it to be the perfect soundtrack for a dull, gray Saturday afternoon at home. I mean that as a compliment.

I only saw three or four songs by the John Sparrow. Watching this Houston quintet made me feel like I'd stumbled back in time to 1979 L.A. in the midst of power pop's heyday. I could imagine them playing between the (Paul Collins) Beat and the Last. I wish I'd seen more of their set.

There's too much going on tonight. The Yuppie Pricks are celebrating the release of their Alternative Tentacles CD at Emo's with Young Heart Attack and the Put Downs. America is Waiting and the Arm are at Beerland. Castlesiege, featuring my longtime drummer buddy Lance Farley and Russell Porter from the Fuckemos, is playing at Room 710 with Hunt Sales and Suplecs. The Sapphires are at the Longbranch Inn, Low Line Caller is at the Ritz, and I found out last night that the Ugly Beats are performing "Bad Girl" by Corpus Christi's legendary Zachary Thaks at the Carousel Lounge tonight with that band's lead singer. With so much to choose from, I may wind up just staying home to catch up on my TiVo'ed "Seinfeld" reruns.