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Concert reviews Music

Gaza Strippers blow up at El Mo

WHEN/WHERE

INTERNATIONAL BARRAGE ROCK FESTIVAL, with the GAZA STRIPPERS, BOULDER, TEEN CRUD COMBO and PHANTOM SHIFTERS, at the El Mocambo, May 19. Tickets: $8.50. Attendance: 120. Rating: NNNN


Barrage schmarrage. The minute phony-moustached Teen Crud Combo frontman Nick Crud dove chin first onto a table full of drinks, it was clear that this was rock and roll. By the third thrash, his white Killer Elite T-shirt was splattered red, and half the people in front of the stage were covered in silly string.

Just then, a thought-bubble appeared over the head of poker-faced Rick Sims of the headlining Gaza Strippers that read, “I’m gonna need more than my fancy red bowler to top these wackos.”

Fortuitously enough, Aurora, Ohio, metalheads Boulder provided a buffer zone by blowing fuses with their monolithic twin Marshall towers just over 10 minutes into their quaking shakedown. The Boulder boys took the stage-light shutdown as their cue to exit, making way for the Gaza Strippers to move in and play heroes for the night.

Riff machine Sims clearly relished his role as rock and roll saviour, and paused briefly between slashing hooks to strike guitar-god poses.

Club booker Dan Burke could be seen teetering on a chair shouting, “C’mon, Rick, kick these muthafuckas’ asses!” — but the Strippers needed no such goading to bash with intensity. Ever the showman, Sims straddled his badass black Gibson SG on the carpet and proceeded to hump a cloud of distortion out of the instrument as a closer. TP

Barrage schmarrage. The minute phony-moustached Teen Crud Combo frontman Nick Crud dove chin first onto a table full of drinks, it was clear that this was rock and roll. By the third thrash, his white Killer Elite T-shirt was splattered red, and half the people in front of the stage were covered in silly string.

Just then, a thought-bubble appeared over the head of poker-faced Rick Sims of the headlining Gaza Strippers that read, “I’m gonna need more than my fancy red bowler to top these wackos.”

Fortuitously enough, Aurora, Ohio, metalheads Boulder provided a buffer zone by blowing fuses with their monolithic twin Marshall towers just over 10 minutes into their quaking shakedown. The Boulder boys took the stage-light shutdown as their cue to exit, making way for the Gaza Strippers to move in and play heroes for the night.

Riff machine Sims clearly relished his role as rock and roll saviour, and paused briefly between slashing hooks to strike guitar-god poses.

Club booker Dan Burke could be seen teetering on a chair shouting, “C’mon, Rick, kick these muthafuckas’ asses!” — but the Strippers needed no such goading to bash with intensity. Ever the showman, Sims straddled his badass black Gibson SG on the carpet and proceeded to hump a cloud of distortion out of the instrument as a closer. TP

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