On Friday, November 21, with Cynics, Boss Martians, Sons of Hercules and Gentlemen Callers and Saturday, November 22, Thee Fine Lines, Litigators, Hefners, They Were Expendable, Knuckle Dragger and Royal Nonesuch at El Torreon, and Sunday, November 23, Lust-R Tones and Mondo Topless at Fred P. Ott's
Psychedelic, R&B-flavored garage-punk might seem like a pretty narrow niche, but by casting a net from Seattle to Philly, FuzzFest's organizers have found enough purveyors of that flashback microgenre to justify a three-day extravaganza. Local luminaries include the Litigators, whose sweat-soaked shows rank among the region's rowdiest revivals; Lust-R-Tones, who emphasize crystalline sound quality without sacrificing energy; and the Hefners (pictured), who, like Hugh himself, remain boisterous at an advanced age. (In Lawrence, where band lifespans can be measured in blinks, sticking around for more than a decade qualifies groups for a senior-citizen discount.) The names Mondo Topless, Cynics and Boss Martians might not ring a bell with most music fans -- at least those without grease liberally applied to their heads and shirts -- but these bands' catchy, gritty, fizz-pop songs will sound strangely familiar to anyone who has ever listened to a Nuggets collection or watched a '60s documentary.
