Music Blog

Rochester guitarist Brian Lindsay dug into his influences during Happy Hour at Johnny’s Irish Pub on Friday, October 25, and kept it in the pocket. It was a beer-guzzlin’ groove, and the suds went down easy to songs by The Beatles, The Stones, Petty, Lowe and Young. This note’s for you, Mr. Lindsay.

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I and I tripped the light fandango, amidst the prevailing inclement weather, down to the Historic German House in the Wedge later that evening. The Televisionaries were onstage, peeling paint and loosening ceiling tiles as I darkened the doorway. In matching velour dinner jackets, the three Lake brothers who make up the band played as if they’d beaten the real band up, stolen their instruments — and matching jackets — and played like it was a black market prom. The brothers bashed out an astounding set and set the crowd to howling.

The howling continued as swingin’ surf sophisticates Los Straitjackets took the stage with a one and a two and a —. It was at least 90 minutes of bangin’ on their DiPinto guitars before they were done, their luchador masks glued to their sweaty mugs. I’ve seen the band at least a dozen times, and I have to say this was a louder, more aggressive Straitjackets. The night was brought to a climax when lead guitarist Eddie Angel mixed a two-handed, doggy-paddle strum along with some B-bender stunts that sounded like a fight on “Batman.”

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From matching velour dinner jackets to luchadors to bats, I rounded out this week with legendary 70’s doom metal pioneers Pentagram, who entertained a modest crowd of black-clad headbangers at The Montage Music Hall, the Tuesday night before Halloween. The band features singer Bobby Liebling, the only original member (he has returned to the group after serving an 18-month prison sentence for the "Abuse and Neglect of a Vulnerable Adult Custodian"). Liebling's voice sounded amazing, despite the fact that he looked like a witch that had been set on fire.

Frank De Blase is CITY's staff music writer. He can be reached at [email protected].