What’s In The Suitcase?

Gut Health travels heavy at Middle East on Friday, 5 April 2024.

Type 66, Trailer Swift, and JATK sandwich the fourstack bill on the second night of the 2024 Rock N Roll Rumble.

Anngelle Wood of Boston Emissions puts on her emcee hat, emcee jacket, and emcee boots.

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OK, the Rock N Roll Rumble is a competition. How do you win?

Bands perform, judges judge, the highest scoring act makes the next round.

Judging art is not an exact science, but the judges have the following criteria to fall back on:

1. Material: Were songs good, memorable? Did they all sound the same? (possible 1–10 points)

2. Playing Effectiveness: How well did the band play? Were they tight? Intriguing? How did the band represent their genre? (possible 1–10 points)

3. Vocal Effectiveness: How well did vocals (lead & backups) contribute to & enhance band? (possible 1–10 points)

4. Timing: Did band use set time wisely? Did set flow? Did it build in intensity? Did band stop too long? Were they on time? (possible 1–10 points)

5. Stage Presence: How did band present itself? Mannerisms? Banter? Were they fun to watch? Did they interact? Did crowd respond? (possible 1–10 points)

6. Bonus: Category to grant extra points based on any judge's discretion, or the intangibles not covered above; an explanation is requested from the judge. (possible 1–5 points)

Thanks, Wikipedia! A lot of assumptions about what constitutes rock n roll are buried within these criteria. Let’s nitpick!

Does every rock band need vocals? There must be some good rock bands out there that are mostly instrumental. Would they get an automatic zero for ‘vocal effectiveness’? They’d have to, right? That’s too bad.

Also, some of the presumed positives within the ‘Timing’ criterion feel more relevant to what makes a tidy competition schedule rather than a premier rock concert. You know, if Axl Rose needs to hang out backstage a few hours to “get hyped” while the crowd turns into a restless frenzy, maybe that’s part of the magic?

JATK

The five-piece JATK warmed up the crowd in the opening slot. A 9PM start gives everyone enough time to get off work, take a disco nap, shower, primp, perm, squeeze into their Daisy Dukes, and arrive in style. The band affixed a “Shut Up and Be The Light” placard in front of the drum kit. Inspirational, perspirational, and the title of their recent alt rock album.

Emcee Anngelle Wood made hay out of the suitcase hauled onstage by the fronter for Gut Health. “What’s in the suitcase?”

Gut Health

A bunch of electronics, mostly, to filter the lead vocals. The post hardcore four-piece trades in psych-saturated textures, complementing the guitar attack and rhythmic grind with strange sonic colors, and hues, and highlights.

Gut Health rarely travels light. They’ve got stage antics up their sleeve for every gig, and they trotted out the greatest hits on Friday night, including the toilet paper gun and the crowd-surfing dummy (who’s wearing the same kind of sneakers as the lead singer).

During the second half of the set, they distributed placards with self-help slogans and calls to elect Gut Health to critical offices in local government. What’s their platform? Do they support the right to rawk?

Trailer Swift

Heavy rawk, heavy headbanging in the front row for the four-piece Trailer Swift. They should go on tour with Travis Selfie. Big riffs, thunderous percussion, banging bass lines. We likely heard more than a few songs off their latest full-length LP Variant.

Type 66

The first confirmed sighting of the devil horns gesture came from the bassist for the hard rocking four-piece Type 66 in the closing set of the night. Surprised it took that long. Throw ‘em up.

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