Flesh Lights Credit: Photo by Shelley Hiam

Dikes of Holland, Not in the Face, Flesh Lights

Red 7, Jan. 6

Step inside Red 7, under corporate sponsorship through March, and the walls are now as gray as a Massachusetts winter, but the bathrooms still lack for toilet paper and soap. Psych-blues banshees Dikes of Holland wasted no time raising hell, shooting from the hip and everywhere else with 30 minutes of mayhem off last winter’s self-titled debut. Stampeding to the beat of rah-rah rioter Elizabeth Herrera, the local fivepiece proved themselves worthy of the swelling crowds even when there’s a cover. Same for junkyard choogaloo duo Not in the Face, whose Jonathan Terrell sings like the bastard son of Bob Seger and has the aesthetic to match. His mutton chops and sweat-stained mullet getup shook with nasty Thickfreakness on set closer “Brass Tacks.” Instrumental metallurgists Wood Grain and Eagle Claw both did their parts keeping levels at 11, but Friday belonged to the howlers. And who’s howling harder these days than Flesh Lights singer Max Vandever? Flexing enough of this summer’s Muscle Pop to make your muscles pop, the local power trio cleaned clocks with guitar opus “The Biggest Mistake” before wiping floors with a triumphant cover of Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me.”

This article appears in January 13 • 2012.

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