Boneske, Honorary Girl, and Peak

I found myself drawn once again to the Taphouse in Ghent for a 3 act show that I was certain would deliver the goods.  I have played shows with Boneske a number of times, and had seen a brief set by Honorary Girl in "The Kitchen" during their YourMusicShow performance.  Those two were enough to sell me on the show, and the third band, Peak, definitely piqued my interest so I drove over to Norfolk at 10pm to see what it was all about.  I am glad I attended, although the end of the night left me scratching my head with mixed feelings about whether to laugh or be disappointed.  More on that later.

The show began with Peak, a power/punk rock four piece who was performing for their second show ever.  They introduced themselves as not being a local band but rather a band from Outer Space, and proceeded to hammer out tight 4 chord power rock that I can best equate to late 80's early 90's Lookout Records pop punk (my personal coming of age soundtrack).  The vocals by Rob Ulsh Jr., formerly of The Super Vacations, were reminiscent of classic bands like The Queers, and to me bore a striking resemblance to a lesser known Lookout band called Juke.  On top of the power chord jams, a cock-rocking lead guitarist added the essential gritty rockabilly meets Maiden style runs, and let me tell you - this guy manhandled his Gibson cutaway.  He is a bigger dude and played a tiny small scale model that looked like a toy on him, but his solos shredded fast and fearless, bendy and far from childish.  The floor was packed with a receptive, let-it-hang-out dancing audience, and Peak plummeted through their set with energy that never slowed.  For their second show, the band seemed pleased with themselves, Ulsh thanked the crowd, commenting "We finally got to play the Taphouse, it's our dream come true!"

Next up was Honorary Girl, an enjoyable trio who's sound and attitude is difficult to nail with words.  The main configuration has Will Huberdeau (formerly of Digging up Virgins) on guitar and lead vox, Sean Collins on bass, and Logan Laurent (Hissy Fits, Karacell) on Drums.  On the surface, yes, they are a punk trio and subscribe to in your face changes of feel, raw and sometimes loose-in-a-good-way jangly riffs, and appropriate cuts and stops.  Laurent's drumming is especially energetic and she is a monster when it comes to double-sticking that hi-hat funk-style punk.  But there is something humorous and playful about many of the choice of chords and bouncy riffs in Honorary Girls' sound.  Think about the weirder side of Weezer in their Blue Album/Pinkerton era, but ramp up the tempo and add a lot more stops and oddball non-radio friendly hooks. Huberdeau's vocals stay interesting as well.  He delivers what are obviously heartfelt but humorous lyrics in a style that tells the world that he just doesn't really give a shit.  I'm not sure that deadbeat is the word, but if it is possible to sing beautiful high pitched moving melodies in a manner that sounds like you are ready to lock your bedroom door and go to sleep, Huberdeau is the man to do it.  A few songs into the set, Collins switched over to guitar and lead vocals and proceeded into "Youth Group," a very short ditty about how his church youth group taught him how to play guitar.  It sounded like it was straight off a Dead Milkmen album and the next few songs followed suit before switching back to the original lineup.  For their final upbeat song, Huberdeau's lyrics repeated continuously "I don't wanna eat, I don't wanna sleep, I don't wanna ... (whatever, insert your own basic needs here)" before busting out a reggae-punk style finale, singing repeatedly "All I wanna do is sleep with you!"  Classic, perfect, and a definite crowd pleaser.

As if the first two acts were not interesting enough, Boneske finally took the stage for what would be a baffling half-performance, and possibly their unanticipated final performance.  I admire this four-piece for many reasons.  They seem to be completely uninfluenced by any musical convention and throw all ideas of accessibility or pop-sense out the window.  They create a strange off-time groove among themselves that can be nearly impossible for anyone off the stage to follow or predict.  I would best describe their sound as jazz, but any dead jazz greats might roll over in their celebrated caskets to hear that. Aside from the drummer, they play largely with their backs to the audience and vocals are scarce.  Their orator, Aaron Burgess, often takes on a controversial alter-ego persona for rants in between songs (for the previous Boneske set I saw, he took on the role of a family man who had taken his wife and kids to the zoo and was very offended that the zoo allowed homosexuals because his children and the animals should not be exposed to that).  The riffs are largely discordant, muted and accented loops that travel from one weird time signature to the next and (maybe) back again.  It feels like a madman running around in circles with two guitars and a bass while drummer Bobby Rangel eggs him on with off time fills that might last as long as half the song.

All this stuff I love, and I was enjoying the puzzling and unpredictable sounds as much as the rest of the packed house for about 15 minutes.  Then things actually started getting confusing.  From the best I could gather, a song may have been started too fast, so Burgess abruptly stopped the song and said he wouldn't start it again, to move on to the next song.  The following song was probably cut short as well, based on Burgess' comments that the band likes to stop before the song is over, whenever they feel like it.  Obviously there was some sort of discontent on stage, but as an audience member I heard nothing wrong the performance.  If something was too fast or too short, I would have never known.  About a minute into the next song, Burgess put his guitar down and started singing in and out of a falsetto voice something akin to "Don't fuck with my song, la la la la la, Don't fuck with my beat, la la la," (etc. etc. with many profanities and unintelligible mocking.)  At this point, bassist Blair Munden took his bass off his back, threw it to the ground and walked right out the door and out of sight somewhere down 21st street.  Second guitarist Mark Perron stopped playing and everyone in the room looked confused as the song came to a halt.  "I think we've played this room one too many times" muttered Rangel as he got up and followed suit out the door.  Burgess continued "I think Boneske just broke up, folks," and then picked his guitar back up and continued playing and singing a couple Boneske songs by himself.

Not sure where to go from here, magically a hip-hop beat came from the PA and Burgess began his infamous freestyle rapping which I'd seen on one occasion before.  Included in this free-form were plenty of jabs (on his band?), general flowing of how great of a flow-er his is, and a reference to his pubes complete with flashing of said pubes and a portion of what lies below them.  As I said in the intro, I  was confused, entertained, somewhat amused, and disappointed all at the same time.  Part of me wondered if it had all been staged. I definitely hoped that was the case.  But the rest of Boneske never showed back up, at least not as long as I was there.  Before this incident, my one complaint about Boneske was that they do not have any recorded music available (POST UPDATE: I was wrong, see link below), but I was happy to hear the news earlier that night that they planned a recording session in New York City later this very month.  Will that happen?  I hope so.  Is Boneske over?  Please don't let it be.  I hope these guys can work out whatever their problems are, get that recording done, and return to the stage.  Also guys, more than one single song would be fantastic, if you can manage.  You are one of the most truly original and carefree bands in the area and although you may not be the world's most accessible cup of tea, you score high for many fans here in the 757.

Check out the music:
Peak: https://soundcloud.com/peakmusic-2
Honorary Girl: http://honorarygirl.bandcamp.com/
Boneske: http://www.boneske.com  (thanks Bobby for sending this link, I wasn't aware of the Magnets EP that is available on the website)