The Anchor, Kingston NY 12/30/13 NCM / The Swamps! / The Fly & His One Man Garbage / Pitchfork Militia

"One Night Only!  Two bands live from Japan!"  On a Monday night in Kingston and I got the next day off?  Yep, I'll check it out.

This was a cool four band show at the Anchor with the two bands from the far away land sandwiched between two locals.

NCM were scheduled to open, but the whole band couldn't make it so singer/guitarist Pete Crotty did a solo opening set to start off the festivities around nine.  I'm afraid I got no shots of Pete as I was concentrating on ordering and then drinking some vanilla porter, but it was a nice solid set that went down smooth like my brew.

Next up were The Swamps! 

Imagine a band with Moe Tucker of the Velvet Underground on drums, Chuck Berry/Johnny Ramone on rhythm guitar and Link Wray on an acid trip on lead guitar.  Bass?  They don't need no stinking bass.  Vocally many of the tunes were a mix of Lux Interior of the Cramps meets Cookie Monster (especially when the vocals were done through the guitar's pickups as they were on many of the tunes).  

At times it was noise trash rock and at others they locked into a serious rock rhythm.

Next up was The Fly & His One Man Garbage.  Who brought some class to the occassion, taking the stage dressed to the nines.  

He ripped right into a righteous set of blues with killer licks and some great slide work.

I think many, including myself, were up front at first to check out the gimmick, but it was the music that kept us there and brought those sitting at the bar up as the crowd grew along with the applause throughout the set!

The Fly came back for an encore with his buddy from the Swamps!  The only problem in the set was his kick snare stand broke, but there was always someone to jump in quick to fix it (or simply hold it in place as was done here) so the rock could continue.  A great set!

Closing out the night were Pitchfork Militia who did a great set of their country/punk/funk/rock mix of music with songs about their chainsaw and crack pipes alongside some stellar covers like Tom Waits' "Way Down In The Hole" (The theme song from "The Wire") and ending with Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile"

Four Bands + Five Bucks + Great Venue + Cool Staff and Owner = Good times indeed!