march3review

Before the show I got to sit down with guitarist Colin Clive of Mustard Plug for a great interview. Colin is the most down-to-earth guy I've ever met and he was great to talk to. The interview will appear in the second issue.

Captain Salisbury and the Mystery Meats were up first. They played their best set yet and had a lot of fans there. If you've never seen or heard CSMM they are a 10-piece ska band including 6 horns (singer Max Wadsworth plays trumpet once in a while) and an official skanker. They are very talented young artists and they really pump out the songs (8 originals since they formed in September of 2000). They played each of the eight plus a great cover of Slapstick's "Almost Punk Enough." Among the eight played were "Nickel Nights," "Susie," and their newest song "Underachiever." They are also working on recording "Adventures With Tommy," their longest song by far.

Second to play were The Straight Edge Crack Whores (SECW), the 6-piece ska/punk band from Hartford, playing their last show ever. Since it was their last show, I figured they would play their best and they did exactly that. They played better than the show in December (not to say they weren't great then). They played all of their best songs from past, "Throw Away" and "Strictly From Da Islands," and present, "One and Only" and "Ohio." Their set was highlighted by the sudden stage dive by trombone player Marc Kuntz, who is a rather large man, but the stoked crowd handled him well. They played absolutely great and they really worked hard at recording the songs before they parted so check them out on mp3.com. I hate to see these guys split up because they make great music and it sucks that they won't be making anymore.

The third and last band was, of course, Mustard Plug. These guys played excellent. They were really interactive with the crowd. The Plug didn't seem to be phased by the steady stream of people climbing on stage and stage-diving. They handled it well and CSMM's Johnny Rockwater, who booked the show, finally stopped the onrush of crowd members which was much needed. Mustard Plug played mostly all of their greatest songs including "Box," "Beer," and "Mr. Smiley." In my opinion, they played better than when I saw them in November of last year, but this may have been because it was in my hometown. If you ever get to see these guys live, see them, they will amaze you!