Though performance skill can certainly be hit or miss from one set to the next, suffering an occasional stifled groan is always worth the effort to support neighborhood art in action and learn the newest beat on the street. I find the trip particularly worthwhile when a band or musician with astonishing talent is booked for a North End basement: I imagine how in ten or twenty years, when the artist is internationally adored, I will boast about seeing him, her or them play at a friend’s house in my neighborhood. I will certainly relish those unique bragging rights if and when I get the chance, however selfish the perspective.
Autumn and spring are sweet seasons for basement shows. Temperatures are cool enough to seek comfy indoor weather, not too chilly to avoid leaving home and the school semester is a great excuse for a music break. Some breathtaking house show surprises have popped up recently in fall or spring (such as Paleo and Johanna Kunin). Be on the look out for crude promos on black-and-white coffee card flyers, for they may offer artistic gold.
One delightful quality about With Child is how frequently they go out of their way to encourage audience participation. Tonight, amongst high school students and equally insecure, bar-aged folk, Elijah (on classical Spanish guitar) immediately puts everyone on the same level by inviting us to stand closer to 
the band. The argument “I just think it would be really cool to feel your guys’ breath,” is too convincing to refuse, so we all shuffle up inches away from his and Andrew’s frets and feet.
Their experimental-grunge-folk sound has wild energy tonight, creating a fireplace and hot cocoa that sparks the dark basement in perfect timing for a drizzly night. Otis shoots a few clickity-clack-joyful-train beats into the initial measures, making the set decidedly beaming from that moment on. As always, their impressive lyrics are childlike in the best meaning of the word. Added reverb and rock helps With Child aim higher and deeper, so even embittered adults can appreciate their great wisdom. “Unbound and unbridled, eternally lightly moving along” and “No song of mine can change the world but it can surely change me” are two of my favorite With Child poetry tidbits. The lyrics are voracious and hungry for a better world. The band focuses their appetite with practical insight usually seen at playgrounds, not political demonstrations. With Child is the J.M. Barrie of contemporary music and the band’s potential for influence is just that strong.
Cat Crap
Unfortunately, Cat Crap’s musical value does not yet reach beyond the polluted substance that shares their name. This guitar and drums duo is heavily clad in a skull-p
atch-on-black-leather dress code, industrial distortion and ordinary repetition. As soon as the first few notes blare, the basement’s anger level already meters past red and Cat Crap slips blood lust into the crowd.
With songs like Teriyaki Butt Lady, this band is thirsty for violence with no cause to justify and leaves little space for humanity. Their hostile, primal screams may satisfy the younger Lost Boy Generation in Boise, all hunting for shocked reactions to their savage appearances bought with hard-earned allowance money. Though I can appreciate revolutions, cause-less rebellion is counter-intuitive. So I am just disappointed. Patience is a hard pursuit in a crowd that chooses nasty, unnecessary rowdiness when meaningful music is on the line.
From Michigan, this three set of guitar, drums and base make their instrumentals thick and raw enough to get soothed by their guitarist’s deep, friendly vocals. Awesome Color sounds like a gentle giant taming a ferocious dragon into domestication. The crowd gets offered a blitzkrieg of riffs picked strong and heavy with an essential dose of sensitivity at the core and soon is done with needless violence for the night.
Bubbly feelings reborn in this crowded basement, the audience gratefully receives these three musicians who know their craft. In moments like this especially, I wonder about the house show artists’ futures. In early underground shows years and years ago, did certain audience imagine fame possible for The Cure, Sonic Youth or Joy Division in a similar fashion? Could Awesome Color have potential realized to that degree?
Whatever the answer, just the question is a nice bit of inspiration easily found at basement shows that keeps me returning every chance I get. Keep listening for the next house show; they are special events.
