After recently releasing their latest album, Calling Out, Bunny’s A Swine set out to promote their tunes, and if the show on Thursday, June 28 sponsored by Eye Design at Great Scott was any indication, their record will have to be placed on back-order pretty soon. By the time the band took the stage, a sizeable crowd had gathered–apparently the fact that Bunny’s A Swine plays kickass rock n’ roll is not a secret to the people of Allston. From the first distorted chord to the last lyric, it was evident the band really enjoys being on stage and can really take over with their on-stage presence. While Calling Out is slightly more reserved, their live performance is anything but that. Drummer Dustin Cote was perhaps the most animated member of the band, flailing his arms and smashing drums in a blur of wooden sticks and cymbal crashes. The band played a lot of stuff from the new record, including “Lasalle” (the song highlighted in my preview of this show). “Lasalle” seemed to take on a new life when performed live–louder, more rowdy–with a great PIxies feel to the vocal combo of lead singer Emerson Stevens and guitarist Candace Clement. In addition to the impeccable performance by Bunny’s A Swine, I was also impressed by the rest of the line-up that night. The opening band, Fax Holiday, brought this great brand of grunge/stoner rock that was really incredible hear. Two things really stood out to me from their performance: their use of a guitar dropped several steps instead of a bass, and the fact that they used an electric auto-harp. Yes, that’s right: electric auto-harp. In case you’ve never heard one before, it sounds freakin’ cool. I’d highly recommend checking out some of Fax Holiday’s material–specifically the track “Lots of Glass”. The lead singer kept reiterating during the course of their set that a new record was in the works, but apparently there are no immediate plans for a release date. Jamaica Plain all-girl punk rockers Shepherdess lit up the stage with some gnarly punk riffs. Several times throughout their set, their lead singer got so into the songs, she knocked over the mic stand and would just move around the stage screaming her face off–rock n’ roll. Closing out the night was Boston-based Pile. These guys played some loud, dark and heavy stuff. They kind of sounded like a nascent QOTSA. A lofty comparison, I know, but check out one of their shows and tell me I’m wrong. The entire night was full of great rock n’ roll, restoring my faith in the Boston music scene that it isn’t all full of trendy shoe-graze, synth-pop junk. Thank God for that. -Dan McMahon (@dmcmhn)
