Faced with television cameras, a full house and a sketchy biker bar, Nullset did the only thing they really could: rock.
From the opening notes of “Complacent” to the last crash of closer “Kingpin,” Nullset kept the sweaty crowd packed into the spectacular sketchy hole which is Jarrod’s Place roaring.
The band’s hour-long set featured four songs from their indie album This Is Not a Test, with the rest of the material coming from their to-be-released self-titled major label debut on Grand Royal Records. This didn’t hurt the crowd’s awareness of the material, however; due to demo versions of several songs having been made available through the band’s website and one track, “Smokewood,” being in heavy rotation on WAAF, the crowd was even familiar with the unreleased tracks.
The live performance was typical Nullset (which is a good thing). Singer Ken Smith was all over the stage, lunging into the crowd, jumping onto the backward park benches which serve as a makeshift crowd barrier at Jarrod’s, and just generally lighting up the stage, all without missing a lyric. Bassist Jim Shippey was also in incredible form, with a loud, clear bass that shook the floor and provided the punch to Nullset’s pounding sound, particularly on the insanely energetic “H-Bone,” which stood out like a light among all the songs of the set as the one which got the crowd going the most nuts.
There were a few technical problems, such as the fact that the drum kit kept getting smaller as more and more pieces of it broke, but other than that the set was a flawless example of what’s made Nullset the biggest band on the scene: a non-stop craze of energy with songs that all sound unique and all kick ass.
The bill was put together by radio station WAAF as a taping for their Real Rock TV syndicated show, and as such the undercard was also filled with much of the cream of the Massachusetts rock scene.
Luxx drew a sizeable fan base for their melodic hard-rock sound, mostly composed of women of all ages (despite the fact that it was a supposedly 18+ show) and some truly suspect middle-aged fat men in bondage gear. Judging by the reaction that these very disturbing and sweaty men had to lead singer Katrina (who made equal use of her voice and her thong onstage), their interest in seeing the show did not rely entirely on the musical qualities of the band. However, despite a certain similarity in the sound of their songs, Luxx had stage presence and rock chops enough to entertain and earn the respect of those non-sketchy fans in the audience, and exited the stage to enormous applause.
Powderburnt… well, let’s just say that Powerburnt are exactly the type of band you’d expect to see in a biker bar like Jarrod’s. Harley-Davidson patches, forearm tattoos, and tight ripped jeans only aided the band as they plunged through one speedrock song after another, only pausing one in order to perform a somewhat touching moment of silence for the departed Dale Earnhardt. “Johnny Roxx” is a really fun song, and whatever the band lacked in musicality they made up for in sheer cliche biker-band hilarity.
Sadly misplaced in the opening slot, T-House of the Almighty got the show off to an awesome start with a fast, funky, and utterly entertaining set highlighting mostly songs from their new release Grooveaholic. Vocalist J.J. led the crowd in several sing-alongs and hand-waving chants, including the obligatory House of Pain cover. (Under Massachusetts state law, at every local rock show at least one band must cover “Jump Around,” or all will face the supreme punishment.) An unexpected “One more song!” chant got T-House back onstage one last time to close out their set with an impromptu cover of White Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss ’65,” a fun end to a great set.
