(June 15, 2019)
- Go Dog Go were Top of the Pops tonight! Amy and I loved seeing
& hearing this live streaming show at WTMD (89.7 FM)'s funtastic
Baltimore Block Party fundraiser at their Towson performance studio, where 11 bands competed to win a spot in September's First Thursday Festival and a $2,500 cash prize for best performance of the night. OK, Go Dog Go didn't tally enough ballots to finish first in fundraising for TMD (that honor went to a band named
Reality Jones), but they were A-1 on our jukebox as far as we were concerned, with an energetic set that saw keyboard chanteuse
Julie Smith give a special shout-out to the ghosts of Towson's
live music past (Oddfellows Hall, The Dulaney Inn, An Die Musik) and guitarist
Tom Cohan (cranking his Marshall amp past 11 into overdrive) never sounded
better as he showed Today's Youth how it's done.
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| Go Dog Go (l-r): Tom Cohan, Greg Breazeale, Brandon Breazeale, Julie Smith |
Besides their familiar
setlist, bassist
Greg Breazeale unveiled a new tune ("Remember
When"?), and Julie rescued Gary Cartwright's "Stop and Think It
Over" from obscurity with a version that surpassed that of Cartwright's
Compulsive Gamblers'
original that appeared on their
Crystal Gazing Luck Amazing EP.
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| Compulsive Gamblers EP |
When I complimented Julie on the lyrical
gender-flipping, she said that actually came courtesy of
Mary Weiss, the former
Shangri-Las singer and Leader of the Pack, who released a cover version backed
by the Reigning Sound on her 2007 Norton Records release:
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| Mary Weiss - "Stop and Think It Over" 45 (Norton Records, 2007) |
We timed our appearance to be fashionably late and were rewarded by catching the two best Baby Boomer
bands of the day (our contemporaries!), as the following act was
Vagabond
Motel, featuring former Industrial Dance Band mates
Natasha Ramirez Farr and
Mikel Gehl and crack lead guitarist
Ralph Reinoldi (whose enviable axe arsenal included
a gorgeous-sounding mando-guitar).
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| Acoustic troubadours Vagabond Hotel |
We enjoyed all the bands we heard, and what a treat to get a selfie (along with Go Dog Go fanboys Greg Breazeale and Tom Cohan) with the cool dudes from vintage garage rock revivalists
Strawberry Sleepover. We missed their set, but I had heard their music on TMD before and thought they were a '60s band. Talk about verisimilitude! These young guys sound like they were weaned on a steady diet of
Nuggets (Lenny Kaye's, that is, not McDonald's).
 |
| Strawberry Sleepover with fanboys |
One of the young bands we discovered this night was an Annapolitan power trio called
Mojo Bozo's Electric Circus, which sounds like a '60s Haight-Ashbury hippie head shop. Comprised of brothers Ryan (guitar) and Shane Walsh (drums) and bassist Jeremy Hayes, they list their influences as surf rock, psychedelic rock, and progressive rock - in other words, an eclectic mixed bag. The psychedelic vibe came through most to my ears, as well as my eyes - they performed in front of a video projected backdrop of crazy clips tailored specifically for each song and ranging from
The Wizard of Oz to
Forbidden Planet - though their three-piece lineup suggested Cream and muscular guitarist Ryan reminded me of none other than Spirit's Randy California.
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| Surrender Dorothy! Mojo Bozo's Electric Circus kick out the jams |
All in all, a great night out, and it was great to see old friends on hand like
Saxton
White and ageless beauties
Sue Borchardt and
Aziza Doumani making the scene as well!
