The Men at Saint Vitus (photo by Ray Rusinak)
I came to know of the band The Men via their 2014 album, Tomorrow’s Hits, which I had no idea upon first (or second) listen that the rootsy rock and roll on that album was a complete departure from what the band was known for. But me being me, I soon did a deep dive into The Men’s prior releases and was quickly introduced to the real The Men. Albums like New Moon and Open Your Heart, the two immediate predecessors to Tomorrow’s Hits are loud, noisy, abrasive and wonderful. As it turns out, the group— Nick Chiericozzi, Mark Perro, Kevin Faulkner, and Rich Samis—while certainly garnering success with the rootsy sounds of Tomorrow’s Hits, have always been a dirty and gritty kind of band and all of their subsequent releases since then have more and more reverted back to the noise and anarchy of their earlier works.
And their latest, New York City, released on Friday morning was no exception. Having an opportunity to give the album at least a couple of spins throughout the day, I knew right from the get go that the night’s show was going to be one of epic proportions. The kind of show where if you forget your protective ear plugs, you will have ringing in your ears for quite some time afterwards.
Billed as an early show and with three other bands on the bill, I arrived at Saint Vitus around 7:30pm and was more than happy to find that the room was quite warm and cozy after having just walked down Manhattan Ave in the close to 0 degree temperatures we had on Friday night. The first two bands up were Sugar Milk followed by The Follies. Both bands played short and enjoyable sets. The third band of the evening was Licks who put on a fiery set of unadulterated garage rock. With charismatic lead singer and guitarist, Skunk, the band was a perfect warmup for what was to follow.
Taking the stage just short of 10pm, Nick Chiericozzi and The Men ripped right into “Hard Livin’,” the opening track on the new album. Immediately, you could feel the intense emotion coming out of those amplifiers. Giving “Hard Livin’” a full on Replacements treatment. Only in this case it was The Replacements when they weren’t distracted by being “The Replacements.” Just shear in your face grab you where it hurts rock and roll.
They would keep the pace going with another New York City track, “Peace Of Mind,” before offering up their song “Crime” from 2016’s Devil Music collection. Three songs into their set and the four members of The Men were at full throttle, blowing the doors off of Saint Vitus.
The Men at Saint Vitus
Staying the course, not surprisingly, we would get a steady diet of the new material from New York City mixed with a smattering of older songs throughout the hour and change set. And let me tell you, the new material more than holds up when it comes to presenting a fast paced, full frontal assault on your senses. Granted that there is not a whole lot of degrees of separation between seminal punk rock bands, but throughout their set you could easily close your eyes at various points and imagine the aforementioned Replacements, or The Ramones, Johnny Thunders, The Dead Boys or MC5. The Men managed to bring back the dirty, scuzzy, rat infested New York City of the late 70’s and early 80’s for one frigid night in Greenpoint. Things have changed quite a lot since those salad days (HA HA) of punk rock but fortunately, we still have bands like The Men who can bring that pre-Giuliani feel to the stage.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
SUGAR MILK
THE FOLLIES
LICKS
THE MEN
