Fear Wears A Suit

It occurred to me that I should make some sort of explicit statement about this blog; what it will be about and how I intend to run it.

Later.

For now, you gotta go read this — Knocking the exuberance out of employees.

Brilliant.

Future Rock Goddesses

In alphabetical order:

Sora An – Guitar and Vocals
Rachael Cornick – Keyboard and Vocals
Hannah Fairlight – Guitar and Vocals
Caitlin Gray – Bass and Vocal
Liz Kelly – Drums and Vocals

Wednesday evening, I went to the legendary rock club, The Bitter End, which has been the launching pad for artists who have gone onto spectacular stardom. I’d never been there; never been to anything remotely like it, in fact. More than that, there have probably been artists I like who have played there, but none of them ever motivated me to go to such an unfamiliar place.

So you can bet that to get me there, at The Bitter End, it had to have been for something not just special, but damned spectacular!

The five ladies listed at the start of this piece are damned spectacular. Together they form the fantastic band, Girls Don’t Cry.

I first heard of them when they were guests on the local New York City hour of the weeknightly nationwide Joey Reynolds Show. Their music — Joey played two songs — stuck in my head. Luckily, it was an hour Joey chose to put online as an MP3 file. I was able to hear the songs over and over.

Given the huge future I believe this band will have, this hour will be passed around on P2P nets and swapped on social music players such as the forthcoming Microsoft Zune for years to come. If you’re wise, you’ll hop over to here and scroll down for Joey Reynolds – July 21, 2006 – Hour 1, Girls Don’t Cry.

Joey had them on his show again, so also look for Joey Reynolds – September 16, 2006, Girls Don’t Cry. You should especially grab these if you plan to get a Zune; they are the perfect “Ya Gotta Hear This!!” files. (Poor deprived iPod owners!)

My first surprise on entering The Bitter End was Caitlin near the door, greeting those who entered and passing out cards that contained their future playdates.

My second surprise was Hannah chatting up someone at the bar.

Once I was seated, Liz, Sora, and Rachael milled about, doing this and that, and greeting people they knew.

All I could think, sitting there, was, “How soon will it be before they can’t do this anymore? How soon before they are surrounded by managers, publicists, advisors, bodyguards, et al?” That’s guaranteed to happen. Will they look on this night at The Bitter End with fond nostalgia? Will they come back to play there after becoming Huge? (Probably not; the NYPD would shut the place down due to the crowds!)

Then it was showtime.

How good are they?

Well, here’s my confession and an indication of just how damned good they are: It was my third time seeing them!

The first time I saw them was at a free concert at McCarren Park in Brooklyn. The second time was a set of four songs, again performed free, at the Staten Island Mall during a special fashion event.

OK, it’s just not that going to The Bitter End was my third time seeing them. The point is, having seen them twice before — for free! — this time I paid to see them. That is how damned good they are.

I will be writing more about this band. For now, hop over to their myspace site and get to know them. And check the dates of their upcoming shows. It’s a very rare thing to be able to get close to a band that is bound to be known nationally very soon. Don’t waste the chance!