In the Davis Square Ska-tacombs
The New Limits at The RockwellThe New Limits add a trumpet at Rockwell Theatre on Sunday, 18 February 2024.
Lady Pills makes Indoor Friends with Trash Rabbit on the four-stack bill in the wake of Valentine’s Day.
All the candy is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Is it true that Valentine’s Day candy is discounted after the holiday has passed?
There were candy bowls aplenty at Cheap Chocolate Day 2024 in the Rockwell Theatre. So maybe someone got a deal?
Late capitalism is such a deranged landscape that who would be surprised if the excess inventory was systematically collected by the distributor to be pulverized, incinerated, and trash compacted…
Who would do such a wasteful thing? Corporations decide to do these thighs all the time in order to maintain artificially high prices and perceived value in their product lines. Luxury brands are some of the most brazen offenders, taking switchblades to unpurchased merchandise and dumping the otherwise mint condition shoes, and purses, and blouses, and coats, and pants, and scarves into the garbage.
Google it. People regularly discover garbage bags full of name brand merchandise vandalized and abandoned in dumpsters.
Inside sources report the practice happens extensively at general goods stores (Sur La Table, for example) that offer “seasonal” products. You know, all the regular shit, except a cartoon sun printed on the shit if it’s summer, a snowflake printed on the shit if it’s winter, and so on.
Rather than donate the products to somebody who can use them, the order from the executive suite is to throw it all in the trash. There’s no economic incentive to be more circumspect about how much “seasonal” merchandise to pump out next year because the economic engine of capitalism is so unhinged from political concern for the common good.
It’s cheap for corporations to borrow money, to grow their business at unsustainable rates, until they’re eaten by an even bigger fish, declare bankruptcy, slough off financial debts via limited liability rules, and start the process all over.
Who cares how many resources you’re burning through or how much waste you're dumping into the landfills? The focus is next quarter’s earnings report. Done & dusted.
Fuck these people, for real.
Indoor Friends
That’s not a child’s guitar, that’s an electric ukulele in the hands of one of the Indoor Friends. OK, fair enough, it’s got the profile of a Stratocaster and the four-string complement (and the GCEA tuning?) of a typical uke. This is a badass motherfucker uke!
Trash Rabbit
Maybe the standout moment of the evening was Trash Rabbit’s rendition of “Scuba Queen.” The four-piece band has got the drill down for this song. It’s a “Shout” drill a la the Isley Brothers. You know, “a little bit softer now” and a “little bit louder now” until the whole room explodes in the crescendo? That’s “Scuba Queen.”
Extra points for the drummer doing vocals duty, which he usually does on the song while playing guitar or bass or something. A temporary fill-in at bass (the regular bassist is in New York “doing some jazz thing”) required him to keep his station. No fuss, no muss.
Lady Pills
The first gig of the year for Lady Pills. Happy New Year!
The New Limits
No other ska bands on the bill? The New Limits has all the ska you need and more. Having said that, the six- or seven-piece band keeps a pretty low-profile as far as ska bands go. No newsie caps, no checkered black & white apparel, no English bulldog lapping at a bowl of beer offstage. But they’ve got the horn section, and that’s one of the most important elements.
Horn section, plus one. Along with the trombone and saxophone, the Boston-based outfit added a trumpeter. Possibly the trumpeter from Magnificent Danger? Bet on it.
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