Blue Skies & Bad Salads: Pugwash's 1st US gig before Adoring Crowd in Hamden Ct.

I don't know for sure, but I would guess that most people reading this post are familiar with the legendary gig of the Sex Pistols at Manchester. They say that of the 50 people in attendance, most were inspired enough by the show to form bands of their own. The concert was lovingly re-enacted in the wonderful Tony Wilson/Factory records bioflick 24 Hour Party People. (If you haven't seen this movie go see it now.) Cut to decades later, and a running joke is that if you added up all the kids that claimed to have been there that night, there would have been enough people to fill a soccer stadium!

Anyway, if the Irish Pop geniuses Pugwash go platinum or viral, or they wind up with the first track on a Hunger Games or Transformers soundtrack, I just wanted you to know that I was there before the levees broke. This past Sunday evening. I was in attendance for their first US show at the Outer Space in Hamden, Ct.! One of the lucky 50 in attendance, in other words. It was a bit of a haul to drive from NY across the Nutmeg State, but I'm glad that I did. It was my first visit to the Outer Space, but I'm pretty sure it won't be my last. I think they could become my new Maxwell's. Good bands, nice varied craft beer selection, and they serve up food (which at least looked pretty good) from the kitchen.

If you are not familiar with Pugwash, they are a pop band from Ireland led by Thomas Walsh. They have pout a number of albums out, which are mostly hard/expensive to obtain, at least in the U.S (until now, anyway--I'll elaborate later). Their music is influenced greatly by the classic pop acts of the sixties and seventies, like Beatles, ELO, Move, Idle Race, Beatles, and more recent artists like Swindon's finest, XTC. But I do believe they do navigate their way in the pop world in their own distinct way. Live they reminded me a little of The Smithereens, sort of an updated more guitar-centric version of the aforementioned artists.

I have found in my experience with live shows, that bands are rarely funny. And sometimes the moments of humor are entirely unintentional. Exceptions to this are bands like Mekons, and the amazing Billy Bragg, whose between song patter is at times superior to the music. I'm mentioning this now because Pugwash is a band that likes to horse around a bit on stage. I know that national stereotypes can at times be hurtful, but Thomas Walsh has a bit of that gift of gab we've heard so much about. Of course with the brogue, the entertainers and audience seemed equally baffled more than once.

It goes beyond saying Tink and Tanks instead of Think and Thanks. Walsh said "this next song is off our Forest album". ?. It took a few seconds for me to realize he said 1st album.

For example: guy next to me keeps shouting out for some reason "play Christy Moore"! Finally Walsh responds. "We're not playing Christy Moore, because noone plays a Christy Moore song better
than Christy Moore! Next time you go see Christy Moore, ask him to play one of ours and see how he does. And you know I know him. I ran into him once when he was putting out his garbage bins one morning. These things do happen you know.........

Another guy wanted them to perform Mayor of Simpleton. But no. According to Walsh, "you know Partridge stole all the good bits from me....."

They liked to take the piss between their songs also, playing little jokey snippets of covers, like
the soft-rock classic Mandy, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love, and Sgt. Peppers LHCB. The ultimate of course was their little run through the theme song of "King of Queens". I think they were a little disappointed they didn't get a bigger response from the audience, because I bet they practiced this one in anticipation of America.

USA, USA!!!!

Getting back to originals, you should know that in conjunction with Pugwash's US tour, Omnivore Recordings has released a career-wide anthology of their music "Rose in a Garden of Weeds", the first North American release of their music. And if you enjoy a well-crafted rock tune, you really can't go wrong with this. And if you manage to see Pugwash live, the nice gentleman at the merch table will happily assist you in selecting repressings of Pugwash's ultra scarce first two albums, Almond Tea and Almanac, and their latest full length album, Olympus Sound (which was nominated for a Meteor Choice Award for best Irish album). Or a T-shirt or two. If you can't get to a gig, maybe you should check out Facebook.....




So in conjunction with the compilation record, Pugwash performed songs from their early days to now. Songs like Apples, or Be My Friend (Jeff Lynne's favorite), Take Me Away. They did It's Nice to Be Nice, from their Jollity album. They performed their contribution to Colin Farrell's movie "Pride and Glory", Anyone Who Asks. Nice. They finally did bow to pressure and played a cover, a bangup version of ELO's Mr. Blue Sky. And to fully explain the title of this post, Pugwash sang Dear Belinda, a Sad Ballad--or Bad Salad.........




Pugwash are probably completing their NY show as I type, but they will be playing other select venues in the States. I really enjoyed myself that night. They are definitely worth seeing live.

And before Pugwash came on stage I got to hear 2 Balkan Brass bands, two more than I have ever heard live before. While I didn't come to the Outer Space for this reason, I enjoyed listening to them. One was a local group & the other was a group from Boston, Cocek! Brass Band, who actually wrote their own original songs. They were a lot of fun to hear, and the elaborate interweaving stuttery horn parts were amazing. And it was fun watching the people who came to see these bands, because this music was in their DNA, and they were dancing around, really enjoying themselves, which is a beautiful thing. One of the principles I adhere to when I go see a show, is never write another band off. Opening bands are sometimes brilliant, often interesting--which is one of my favorite kind of surprise! And I like to be polite, I suppose.




So, now that Pugwash has visited the States, can the Duckworth-Lewis Method be far behind?
Come on, you aficionados of Rounders, surely you must know of Walsh's Cricket-themed side band with Neil Hannon! They recently released their 2nd album!