The Rich Boys & Friends

If we were in command of a sixth-grade class, this Saturday show at the Record Bar would easily trump the planetarium when it came time to plan the yearly field trip. It's tragic — kids these days have almost no access to real rock and roll! It's getting to where a child is lucky to have a dad who huffs gasoline and forgets to pick him up from school — as long as the old paterfamilias listens to the Stooges, the New York Dolls and the MC5. That may have been the case with the Rich Boys' upbringing in Smithville, Missouri. Now living the high life in Westport, these young dudes (only two are old enough to buy beer) look straight off the cover of Marquee Moon and sound straight out of an abandoned mechanic-shop practice space downtown — despite having been together only six months. Sharing the bill is Wichita's Black Gasoline, which favors sludge and engine rattle over pomp and sass, and local favorite the Last of the V8s, which tears up the stage with flaming guitar, hard-soled shoes, spewed beer and all-around rock debauchery. If only these bastards had been around when we were kids. — Jason Harper