JERSEY BEAT'S VIDEO EYES

Monday, February 01, 2010

Hoboken For Haiti Unites Local Musicians For Good Cause

by Jim Testa
On Sunday, January 31, the City of Hoboken, WFMU, and the Guitar Bar helped promote two benefit concerts to aid the people of Haiti. They both took place at Maxwell's, the first in the afternoon for the younger set featuring childrens-music acts like The Fuzzy Lemons, Big Jeff, and the Garden Street Children's Choir.

In the evening, the grownups too over... well, sort of. One of the most impressive performers early in the evening was 'tween rock Jack Skuller, whose rocker dad has been appearing in Jersey Beat reviews since the 80's. Jack looks a bit like a younger Nick Jonas and sings like a mix of Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson. He's got a smooth drummer who can swing, and that counts for a lot; most 15 year old drummers play like robots. Watch for Jack Skuller's debut single this April on Bar None Records.

Regulars from the Hoboken music community - and it really is more of a community than a scene these days - brought their best, from Dave Calamoneri's bluesy folk to Abbe River's chanteuse classic rock, to jaunty western swing from Smokey's Roundup, bedecked in cowboy regalia with a very low-key (but legendary nonetheless) Anton Fier on the drums.

A Brooklyn trio dressed in brown, with the flavorful name of Schocholautte (they also brought yummy chocolate chip cookies for a buck),started out as a pleasant but pretty typical Brooklyn indie pop combo until they cranked it to 11 on the final song and started flailing around stage like the vintage Who on a bad meth trip, bringing a psychedeliccally supercharged proceedings that this old-school concertgoer enjoyed quite a bit. If you wind indie gentility, you've always got Animal Collective. If you're looking for showmanship, tag along with me sometime.

The surprise of seeing Anton Fier at Maxwell at the same time as two Feelies was weird enough; then throw in a surprise appearance by gruff, unkempt, and grumpy-as-ever Bill Ryan, formerly of Hoboken's premier indie record store of the Eighties, Pier Platters, a being as legendary (and as rarely seen) in Hoboken these days as a Sasquatch. The Mayor of Hoboken showed up for a while, as did former reform mayoral candidate Tom Vincent. They didn't seem to speak any more than Fier and Mercer, but it says something that they were at least both at the same event.

Let's share some pictures, and then I'm going to hit you right between the eyes with a video.