Swale And Rough Francis At Radio Bean March 8, 2014

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a pretty good time seeing music at Radio Bean last night. A last minute time change said Swale were going on at 10:30 (previously 11) and ROUGH FRANCISat 12, so I walked in the door just before 10. Swale’s gear filled the stage, so I hoped they would be on soon. A trumpet played, then another, then the 30 (or so) members of Brass Blannagan made their way through the crowd, and assembled on and around the stage to the right. Their gypsy jazz was fun for a few songs, and had people dancing. After a bit the repetitiveness of the songs started to get to me, and I found a spot in the back to hang out. They played for just over an hour, and their last song had a very different sound. I think it was the guitar and keys of Swale starting up that turned me into a happy music fan. They played the first song with the brass band then let it flow into Waterlnading. The brass band added some nice accents, then played their way out when the song was done. Swell, a loving tribute to Swale, I mean Swale said they were going to cover a full album. They played the new Swale album, The Next Instead, in it’s entirety. If you are curious. It starts rocking, eases off a bit, goes through 3 slow songs, then rocks for the second half. I knew all of the songs and really like them. I’m very excited for the album to come out. After that they played the version of War Pigs with the Get out the way, bitch, parts and let it go into Runaway (a toast for the scumbags….). They followed with a blistering rocker that had Amanda screaming the lyrics, and closed with a killer Now I Wanna Be Your Dog. Wow, just wow. Rough Francis did a pretty quick turnaround, but hit the stage at 10 of 1. Unfortunately, considering the time change, it was really 10 of 2, which did not bode well for those of us who work in the morning. I did not know the first few songs, they might have been Death songs. It didn’t matter, they rocked hard and were lots of fun. I got up close to rock out to Ruffians, but after that it was just too late and I had to go. I really wanted to stick it out, but had nothing left on my Tuesday night. If the whole thing had started earlier, or the brass band played a few less songs, I would have been OK. If I had known how the timing would work, I would have gone to Manhattan Pizza and Pub to see Wave of the Future for a while, then headed back for Swale. In the end, I made a decision and went with it and had a pretty good time seeing music last night.

This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.