Little Dickman Records’ Fuzz Fest With Ringo Deathstarr, Dentist, Dinowalrus, Dan Waszay & The Blackouts, And Lunch Ladies
ASBURY PARK, NJ—An airplane recently landed in The Saint, and its name is Ringo Deathstarr.
In 36 years of covering music, I’ve never heard a band play so loudly in such an artistic way. The washes of feedback, distortion, and dissonance atop the moody, heavy of rhythms of vocalist-guitarist Elliott Frazier, vocalist-bassist Alex Gehring, and drummer Daniel Coborn made for an atmospheric thunder that was otherworldly.
Throughout the set, I felt like I was on a motorcycle, but instead of the thunderous feeling of freedom coming from the engine, it was coming from Gehring’s bass. Afterward, my ears were clogged like I really was on an airplane, but it was so worth the experience of the fun, creative sonic blast.
Sharing in the peachiness of Little Dickman Records’ Fuzz Fest were Brooklyn’s glam-sounding Dinowalrus, featuring the inventively talented keyboardist Dan Peskin; the buzzing Long Branch outfit Lunch Ladies, who offered the second best set of the night, and Asbury’s own Dan Waszay & the Blackouts and Dentist. Waszay’s “Riders on the Storm”-meets-“Blue Velvet” eeriness mixed with tinges of The Cramps and Social Distortion would have sounded even better with the spooky bends of a Wurlitzer, but I’m quibbling. Dentist, surprisingly the only Little Dickman recording act on the bill, offered a set of heavy new songs that are much more intense than the quirkiness of their self-titled 2014 debut.
Hats off to Little Dickman’s Amy Earixson and Chris Yaniak for organizing Fuzz Fest’s awesome bill, especially because each band boasts at least one female member, most of whom wholeheartedly rocked.
Show date: April 8, 2016
Bob Makin is the former managing editor of The Aquarian Weekly, to which he has contributed for 28 years. He now is an entertainment writer for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network.
