Forget the band - I'm a fan first. I was pumped for the Nervous Jerks/Tay-Sachs/Zhopa Mira show at U-Pie.. University Pizzeria in Youngstown like a northern pioneer outpost with campfire out front and those faces looking up at you, the wander down the long entrance and the big dark red music room in back with exotic girls bright as birds and wanting to be seen.
Ordinarily when seeing shows alone I show up right on time, nervously pacing about, checking my watch.. And several hours later am sleeping in the corner waiting for someone to pick up a piece of wood and make some ^%&#**ing music with it... This time all of us but Matt went down to U-Pie around 10:30 pm or so.. I was sure we'd missed the Jerks and that everything was destroyed.. But right when we got there they'd just started suiting up and getting ready. Perfect timing for us - Chris Wetzl - logistical genius.
So the Nervous Jerks rip into it, minus Dan Frankland (who had a last minute work committment), and it's amazing - somehow between Devon using a fuzz pedal and Mat's superior guitar skills they fill up Dan's absence as best they can. Mat does a thousand things with only 4 fingers and it seems like more sound than possible sails out of his amp. He never even looks at the guitar neck, he knows right where he is. He stares menacingly at Sarge and Devon and then everything serious dissolves into smiles and laughter. Sarge is always an inspiration on drums, lost in the music, eyes closed, with the perfect fills and timing. Devon is solid as hell on bass - Chris just commented how he liked her work - a real strong presence, the root notes, the fifths. Keep in mind I've been literally dousing my ears all day long in Spader, Under the Rainbow and Gettin It Done at work for weeks - so all of a sudden I'm hearing all those tunes blaze into light and sound right in front of me. Awesome. There's nothing like hearing the opening chords of a song like "Double Nothing" - definitely guaranteed to make you smile.
I knew nothing about the band Tay-Sachs except someone named Baker wouldn't be around for awhile so this was their last show.. The Nervous Jerks broke their equipment down and a wild band of younger guys were suddenly jumping around with a mad grinning guitarist who looked like Ethan Hawke's younger brother. Suffice to say their songs were short and brutal - Scott complimented that they were "concise". They did a song about Limp Bizkit, or maybe it was a cover - that lasted exactly one second or maybe two beats. Hilarious. Quite a following, too, with the singer disappearing into the crowd to scream.
I'd been burning to see Zhopa Mira - a newer Y-Town band - someone threw a red hot piece of metal at the ground and it burst up and became a delicious thrashing band with a singer who almost speaks the words casually, yet they hang like fire in the rain. The tracks on their facebook page smoke with slamming, panicked drums and bass and frenetic, absolute universe-bending guitar mixed with Christina Porcase's casual, understated vocals that call to mind San Francisco's Rykarda Parasol in a psycho-delic speed thrashtrip. They did not disappoint - wild, flanged-out tones screamed out from the stage. I don't know how to describe the perfect amalgamation of distorted bluesy licks in a song like "Beastly Savagely" with the searing smolder of the low string drone calling you into the feeling perfectly. If you want to see the next brilliant burning star soar out of Youngstown, just listen to "Crowns" at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ZHOPA-MIRA/111322515553415. Something incredible is happening.
- Kohler
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