Hi there fellow musical aficionados, it’s your friendly music slut, Medea Hoar, bouncing from borough to borough to bring you the muse-ical highlights as seen by a lowlife. This month your purveyor of prose will be sharing with you her adventures in Manhattan, just a hop, skip and swim across the water from all points east. Now I normally (as if there’s anything normal about yours truly) focus my monthly musical adventures column, Tits Up Brooklyn!, on…well… Brooklyn, but having been asked to bring my many talents to Manhattan, we shall call this “Tits Up Big Apple!”, because the muse-ic scene is just too entertaining for one column to capture it all.
Friday nights in New York City are always a hoot, but Friday’s 11/15/24 show at the Bowery Electric was off the hook! The venue opened its doors for an early show (thank goodness for early bird specials) for the stylings of local favorites Steve Krebs & the Maynard G’s, followed by none other than Steve Conte NYC. Some may remember local guy Steve Conte as a former singer with the New York Dolls, but he’s so much more. The Mommyheads were scheduled for the sweet second slot that night but had to cancel at the last minute due to illness. We send our good vibes to the band and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
No worries though as Krebs and his crew opened the show and played an extra-long set much to the enjoyment of everyone there. Front man and lead vocalist Steve Krebs and the Maynard G’s (Brian Morgan, Steve Pang, Michael Jung and Marc Rentzer) have been performing in and around Manhattan for-evah and the band is as tight as-evah. You can almost always catch these fellas at Krebs & Simone’s Endless Party at the Parkside Lounge the last Saturday night of every month.
Steve Krebs & the Maynard G’s played a great set of originals including some off their new CD “I Don’t Care” (but they do). Dancers tore up the club floor to the sounds of “I Want Nothing to Do With You”, “Gilligan” and “Deep In My Soul”. They filled out the set with a couple of killers covers: “Too Much Junkie Business” (Johnny Thunders & The Heart Breakers) and “Loose” (Iggy Pop & The Stooges). You can listen to more of the band’s glittering golden sounds at www.stevekrebsthemaynardgs.bandcamp.com
A quick turnover and it was time for rockers the Steve Conte band to tear it up. They played a killer set including “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonight” . Love, love the keyboards on this song and the wicked guitar solos. Oh baby, baby, Steve Conte has got some monster pipes. But the drummer, that man was on fire, beating the skins into submission and holding down the background vocals. I like a man that can multitask while keeping that rhythm steady (wink, wink). One of the best surprises of the night was Kiku, the trumpet player, who join the band for two tunes, “One Last Bell” and “Decomposing a Song For you”. Un-f’ing-believable and I was so grateful to be there.
I gotta let you know, the audience’s ages were 21 – 81 years young and everyone was on their feet. Energy was in the air. If you’ve never been to a club or haven’t in a loooong time, shame! Shame! Shame! You’re never too young or too old to rock n’ roll. This night was totally TUBA (Tits Up Big Apple) approved!
If you want even more fun than you can handle, I suggest you head over to Otto’s Shrunken Head for Apfel/Krebs/Simone Presents: Flip Flop & Fly the first Friday of every month. No cover, tiki drinks and a full night of toe tappin’ tasty tunes performed live and local for your listening pleasure.
With that, I leave you, my lovelies. Until we meet again on the streets of NYC, I shall remain your wordsmith muse, Medea Hoar.
#bkmuses
Parkside Lounge, 317 E. Houston, LES/NYC
Otto’s Shrunken Head, 538 E. 14th Street, NYC
Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery, NYC, NY
