carwreck.com: around Boston harbor...

Last night I went to see the Knockout Drops at the Knitting Factory in NY. Opening for them was Mad Larry which is Bill Ryan's band, formerly of the Bogmen. We got there right after the first of four bands played and we listened to a band called Asher Kahn. They were trying pretty hard to be something which they were not and ended up just sounding like a grungy trio with too much screaming.

Several songs into Mad Larry's set Bill Ryan announced that a guest was going to come up and do a few songs with them. Gordon Gano (singer for the Violent Femmes) had been spotted milling about in the crowd and he has performed with the Bogmen and the Knockout Drops in the past so we all assumed it would be him. We were mistaken. Onto the stage marches Billy Campion the singer, and Mark Wike the bassist from the Bogmen! They proceeded to join in on a number of Mad Larry tunes. It was pretty hype. At this point we also realized that Mad Larry's drummer looked familiar. It was PJ O'Connor who used to be the percussionist for the Bogmen.

Mad Larry finished their set and a large projection screen rolled down from the ceiling. They played the Knockout Drops' new video for "Wrong Side of Love" which will be the first single off their new album "Killed by the Lights." The video was hilarious and it appeared as if most of the cast of the video was in attendance at the show.

After the show we were all bouncing off the walls from the music. It was great. I made a point to say hello to PJ and Mark. I told them I hadn't really seen them since back when the Bogmen used to play at Seven Willow Street in Portchester. THAT was a looong time ago. They were really happy to see us.

Top things off with a drunken adventure on the Metro-North train back to Bedford Hills and call it a fantastic day?

hey, i did a search on billy campion/bogmen and came up with your site. i went to highschool with both billy and chris (knockout drops) campion and was curious to find out what they were up to, and here i find a pretty damn decent weblog. i'll visit you again, enjoyed what i've read so far.

cheers, cg