Cave Bees And Black Rabbit At Manhattan Pizza December 5, 2014

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a great time seeing music on December 5th. Work was really intense and I had been putting in 10 hour jam packed days. I did the radio show Thursday night, did not get much sleep and the long work day just about put me down. There was lots of great music happening that night. Dino Bravo VT and Crazyhearse were at The Monkey House, ROUGH FRANCIS were celebrating their birthday at Radio Bean with Blue Button and 4-5 other bands. I got out too late to make the Winooskishow and did not have a few hours of rock in me. I wanted to go nowhere but though I might possibly be able to handle seeing two bands at Manhattan Pizza and Pub. I yanked my face out of my hands and forced myself out the door.

It was a warm night and an easy walk and I arrived just as the bands were figuring out how to turn on the new sound system at the rock club pizza joint. I ran into Ted Pappadopoulos and chatted for a bit until the Cave Bees hit the stage. They lit into the set with a roar and I was home. They sounded great, were completely locked in, and let their songs buzz and growl. The set was most, if not all, of their album plus two newer songs. There were a couple of sound issues, when Creston Lea seemed to loose a pedal and on one song Rebekah Whitehurst lost the bass. Darlene Scarano jumped in and lent hers, and the bees just kept on chugging. They played a great set and my poor tired sad mind had done a complete 180 and I was blissfully happy.

After they wrapped up, it was a short break until Black Rabbit hit the stage. They were perfect from first note to last and the energy was fantastic. Marc Scaranosings with abandon and throws everything he has into the guitar playing. Jane Boxall Percussion just attacks the drums with a magnificent precision that pushes the songs into a beautiful place. It seems like there must be a lot of pressure on Darlene to hold it all together but she has that super cool look, like she’s hardly doing anything, yet glues the songs together stunningly. They played all of the first EP, everything from Lipstick And Dynamite, a few yet to be recorded songs and a couple of fun covers. They were absolutely brilliant and everything a rock fan could hope for. It was really hard to make it out to the show, but I’m so glad that I did.

Thanks to Jane, here is the full set list:

Black Cat Tibbar Tibbar Rejected Hey Nicky Says It’s Cold Original Eighty Nine Invisibles Whatever Happened to? (Buzzcocks) Neighborhood Double Line Neutrino Sayonara Things Change Alienation Isolation Mark My Words Carnage

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