Man...or Astro-Man?, The Henchmen, The Itchies

Met Cafe, Providence, RI

Providence locals The Itchies have evolved a LOT since the last time I've seen them. Before they were kind of a mellow, country-rock four piece with female vocals. They came on — sans singer and with an additional guitarist — and totally impressed me. Their style has changed some and they played several real cool surf instrumentals. Then their singer joined them on stage to sing, and unfortunately things went down from there. To keep up with The Itchies' new, faster style, she seemed to emulate King Kendall (of the Amazing Royal Crowns) a little too much.

The Henchmen are a garage band from (if memory serves) Michigan. An organist, drummer, and nerdy guitarist make up this band. It wasn't great, but I thought it was pretty good...different at the very least.

Man...or Astro-Man? was one of the best shows I've seen...ever. It was fun, it was entertaining, they sounded great — what more could you want? The stage was covered with weird electronic devices and wires, while a projector showed film of rockets, Earth, the moon, and other miscellaneous space-related footage. MOAM wore homemade space suits (apparantly theirs were destroyed when they crashed on Earth...) and performed a ton of songs from practically all their releases, all played with a lot of energy and a little choreography. Star Crunch continued the nerdy guitarist theme for the night, playing fast and flawless. The time between songs was peppered with drummer Birdstuff hurling Little Debbie snacks at everyone, and Coco's comments and antics (including one time when he ran to the club next door where Prong was playing — dressed in his orange duct tape-covered jumpsuit — and came back saying "I fit right in over there!"). Who could forget Coco running around the stage with a flaming TV on his head? But I found Dexter X (in photo) the most bizarre, staring unblinking around the room and playing with robotic body motions. Space has done them good; see them next time they land in your town.