Vic Ruggiero of The Slackers has been hosting a residency at The Grand Victory in Williamsburg all month and for his fourth installment he brought in one of my personal favorite punkers Erik Petersen of Philadelphia-based folk punks Mischief Brew. To be completely honest if Petersen wasn’t on the show I probably wouldn’t have gone, but then I would have really missed out on not only the tremendous talent of Ruggiero but also on the amazing openers he curated for the evening.
The first man on was a Brooklyn native by the name of Vlad “Bizzy” Miroshnikov and unfortunately due to a camera malfunction none of you will be able to see the awesome guitar Bizzy built for himself out of a coffee can, a hockey stick, and some guitar strings. Bizzy’s set oozed of Tom Waits fandom which I am definitely not against in the slightest. He sang in that raspy signature voice with his sunglasses on in the dark Brooklyn night and had a small crowd of folk punks intently watching.
It’s hard to step up on stage solo acoustic when you know the entire crowd is waiting for the next act but Bizzy confidently sat perched upon his stool doling out the folk tracks on his DIY instrument. It was definitely a good night for the young Brooklynite who celebrated his 24th birthday the day before the show.
Following Bizzy Simon Chardiet of Simon and the Bar Sinister took the stage with his fender telecaster. Unfortunately his photos met the same demise as Bizzy’s, but take my word for it he looked great. Before his set Ruggiero gave the old school legend a rousing review saying that Chardiet is “one of the best guitarists in New York City.” That’s no small compliment coming from the lead singer of one of the city’s biggest bands.
Chardiet brought a whole different feel to the show one concert goer even compared his set to the CBGB shows of yorn. The local legend just has a whole different sensibility to his music than the younger punks he was sharing the stage with. Not in a fant “back in my day” sort of way, but there is just a certain New York style authenticity to what Chardiet brought to the stage. Going with the electric definitely gave the guy a bit more energy than Bizzy, and his tunes definitely erred a bit more on the punk side than the 24 year old.
Petersen took the stage next and he was fucking awesome. Erik played a 30 minute set obviously packed with Mischief Brew tracks like “Nomads Revolt,” “Bury Me in Analog,” “The Punx Win,” “Coffee God and Cigarettes, “Every Town Will Celebrate,” and others, but I was too obnoxiously drunk to remember all of them. But drunk or sober many of the Mischief Brew fans in the crowd, self included, sang along the entire set.
With just an acoustic guitar Petersen has the ability to fill up the stage. The music of course packs a bigger punch when it’s being played by the full band, but honestly he doesn’t need them or even an electric guitar to put on a spectacularly electric show. So electric in fact that I felt compelled to start a mosh pit which intermittently sprang back into action throughout the set.
This was the third time I’ve seen him live and whether he’s in a dingy DIY space or under a bridge in Phoenix, Ariz. or playing a dive bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Mischief Brew or Erik Petersen solo is a show worth catching. Petersen will be back in Brooklyn with the whole band on Jan. 30 at The Good Room in Greenpoint.
Vic Ruggiero took the stage last and began his set with just himself, his acoustic, a harmonica. and a kick drum though by the middle of the set he was joined by Chardiet playing some leads and by a drummer on more or less half of a drum kit. For the sake of journalistic integrity I will admit that by the time Ruggiero took the stage I was lit up like the tree in Rockefeller center because I’d been drinking since 3 p.m.
However I was sober enough to know that a good 75 people packed themselves as close to the stage as they possibly could to catch every note of his solo set. The only song I was aware enough to catch was what seemed like a 15 minute improvisational version of “Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer.” It’s not that I didn’t hear or enjoy anything else, I was just way to hammered to know the names of the tunes.
The set was very bluesy and had a lot of roots rock influence to it. He stayed away from Slackers tunes for the most part but he did play a couple of the deep cuts for the hardcore Slackers fans in attendance.
Text, pictures and video from Jeff Schaer-Moses.
