The Delta Bombers, the Sewer Rats at Bar 702 Jan 19, 2014

Haven't caught the Bombers in quite a while so, seeing that this was a three day weekend, I made it out to Bar 702 on a Sunday to check 'em out again. This blues-based rockabilly quartet just keep getting better and with singer Chris Moinichen's stage presence, they put on a fun, energetic show.

Their continual travels (they just came back from trips to Russia and Brooklyn!) seems to be doing them good as they were tighter than ever, though they did loosen up as Chris shared his bottle of whiskey with the boys - and the audience! Guitarist Andrew Himmler's tone was especially good this night, with crisp, stinging leads and varied rhythm tones, while bassist  Gregorio Garcia and drummer Jesse Alonzo held down the fort. I don't know many of the song titles, but the have a cool, Bo Diddley sing-along number, a tune about Marie Laveau, a crazy waltz-time, Tom Waits-y song that has Chris singing through a megaphone and prowling the audience, and lots more!

As usual, the audience was eating it up, bouncing around, forming a friendly slam pit, jumping on stage and generally going a bit nutz! The set ended first with a wild, uptempo number (whose title I missed) where, on cue, the front guys fell to their knees as drummer Jesse stood up to play and then they polished it all off with a bit of Son House's "Grinning in Your Face" before moving into their classic take on "Smokestack Lightning", with Chris, by now pretty toasted from the whiskey, getting into the crowd's faces and howling. Fine time!

Closing the night (I got there late and missed the openers) were the Sewer Rats from Cologne, Germany. While proclaiming themselves to be a psychobilly band, I found them to be more of a punk group that happened to have a stand-up bass player. Nothing wrong with that, mind you, just not what I think of as psychobilly, though the term may have changed over the decades since it was first coined - well, it certainly has, since Lux first used it to describe the Cramps and it was taken over by others like the Meteors not long after that.

In any case, the audience loved 'em and the place erupted into total chaos during their set with bodies - and microphones - flying everywhere as the band lept around and did their best to hold things together. My fave part was their punk-rock take on the traditional "I Saw the Light", though it seemed that they could do no wrong with the people there! Truly a fun, wild night!