The Rat, Boston - XYZ Affair, Pajama Slave Dancers, Lou Miami and the Kozmetix
I've fallen a bit behind.
By now, I was on a roll with show attendance. In 1986 alone, I saw 127 bands. Here are three of them.
Lou Miami was discussed here. If I'm not mistaken, this was the second and last time I saw Lou and the band.
XYZ Affair were like a bad Mr. Mister. Very wimpy and poppy and commercial. Totally wrong for the grungy ol' Rat. One thing I do remember - one of the band members' dads videotaping the performance. I'm sure it'll be on bootleg DVD real soon. Named after a long-gone scandal.
Speaking of long gone, here are the Pajama Slave Dancers: Daxe Rexford, Dave Montovani, Dirk Futon, Scotty Blood and Steve Westfield.
(The image was "borrowed" from Daxe Rexford's site. He left the band in 1988.)
The PSDs were a "punk" band from western Massachusetts. Actually, they were a bunch of rural kids playing at being punks. But god, they were hilarious and they made a couple of OK albums on the way. The first I read of PSD was in Spin, probably from a Byron Coley column. Not too long after, I found a copy of their first LP, Cheap is real, which featured "Defreeze Walt Disney" and "Farm rap" among others. This store is selling a copy for $75.
Carla and I went to see this show. I was hooked after they opened with "No dick":
Well I'm in love
With the girl next door
Yeah I'm in love
Even though she's a whore
Now I've got problems
That I can't lick
Girls don't like me
'Cause I got no dick
No dick (no dick)
No dick (no dick)
No dick (no dick)
No diiiiiiiiiiiick
Thank you, PSDs, wherever you are. (Probably at a bar in Western Mass.)
Not too much of their work remains available. Here's what GEMM has.
More on the PSDs in future posts. I saw them at least 11 times during my time in Boston. Sounds like a lot, but it's only twice a year.
What PSD were up to in the year 2000.
A review of a demo by PSD follow-up Chupacabra, Jr. (2001)
Another bio here, including Steve Westfield's post-PSD work. It looks like he retired from the biz mid-2005.
So far:
Number of shows seen, January 1986: 5
Number of bands seen, January 1986: 13
Number of shows seen, 1985: 13
Number of bands seen, 1985: 32
Total number of shows: 18
Total number of bands seen: 45