BORN LOOSE?

The Candy Snatchers are one of my all-time favorite bands. Desperate, insane, balls out punk rock; they put on some of the greatest live shows I've ever seen. Just under a year ago we lost Snatcher's legendary guitarist Matthew Odietus. Now the Snatcher's just as legendary front man Larry May is back where he was born to be - on stage leading a raging band. They are Born Loose, though I wonder if they ever considered being The Born Loose. I wonder if there is a band called The Born Losers, named after the Tom "Billy Jack" Laughlin biker movie. Digressions aside, the band was part of Dean Rispler's latest great rock show at The Trash Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Unfortunately I missed The Mess Around, who friends said were tight and rocked the power chords. I went in as Larry was taking the stage with band beers in hand. The band includes Suke, a great guitarist who played second guitar with the Snatchers at some point, not sure how many gigs. He is a confident player and must have listened to lots of hard rock and metal judging by his screaming solos. The rhythm section were in a band called Nova Express that I'm not familiar with, but based on their heavy hammer style of playing they're obviously right for the part. They both looked pretty jovial. The drummer sported a Two Thousand Manics t-shirt and the bass player's hair sort of reminded me of Pedro Ramone's - in a good way. As the band finished tuning up and making the appropriate pre-set instrument noises Larry started to tell this story about his old friend Chris Kuchar (sp? I don't think the guy's name is really the same as that of the incredible Kuchar Brothers). Seems ol' pessimistic Chris once retorted to Larry's casual 'What a nice day' comment by saying 'Larry, if it's so nice, why don't you fuck the day.' Larry told the story in the way that only Larry can. He had a few drinks but was rather lucid at this point, yet still managed to elongate the simple tale in an amusing manner. At one point Dean yelled from the sound booth 'Hey Larry, that's really interesting. Tell us more.' A frustrated Larry responded to Dean by inserting the words god damn and fucking into a phrase of gratitude, then they launched into a great, straight-ahead uptempo number. The first song was a good indication that Born Loose retains the Candy Snatchers penchant for high octane music, but also showed a little more influence of 70's rock. I suppose The Faces are the source of some inspiration. They don't sound like Stewart and co. per se but did have plenty of breakdown parts that allowed songs to coast for a while with some guitar licks and calmer vocals and then explode once again in a rave-up ending. Not nearly as wild as a vintage Snatchers show of course, but they did keep the energy high and did too well picked Snatchers songs: I'm a Bastard, and Doin' Time (With you). As the show went on Larry's between song banter became more and more like that of James Brown. Apparently down in Larry's home town of Virginia Beach, when you're fucked-up and rambling on uninteligibly they call it 'speaking mayonnaise.' In any case, Larry Mayo rules. After the show I found out they'd only practiced five times before this impressive first gig. I look forward to more Born Loose.