Live in JC: Any Day Parade at IM Automata Chino
By Jim Testa • Mar 30th, 2009 • Category: Arts, Featured
Sometimes it’s the right band in the right place at the right time, and nothing gets better than that.
That was the vibe on Saturday as Jersey City’s red-hot country-punk quintet Any Day Parade made its first appearance at JC’s newest rock venue, IM Automata Chino.
I’d been wanting to check out both the band and the venue for a while, so this show — which also featured J.C. singer/songwriters Alex Brumel & Janel Elizabeth, NYC alt-folkies Average Girl, and a wacky folk-punk duo from Finland called Jaakko & Jay — couldn’t have been more serendipitous.
And there’s good news on two fronts: The band rocks, the venue’s awesome.
As both an audience member and onetime performer at the Iron Monkey — back when the swanky, upscale restaurant hosted live music in its second-floor dining room, but only after all the dinner patrons had left for the night — I couldn’t help but be a bit dubious when I heard that the owners had opened a music venue next door at 99 Greene St. That part of downtown has seen more than its share of gentrification — just that little strip of Greene now boasts a gourmet coffee shop, a boutique fast-food franchise called Philly Pretzel and a brick oven pizzeria (which is closed Saturday nights, suggesting they cater to a well-heeled business lunch crowd from the neighboring financial district.)
None of this augured well for a “rock club” opening on the block.
But boy was I wrong. IM Automata Chino (the IM’s for Iron Monkey, “Chino” honors the space’s past serving Chinese takeout, and nobody seems to know where “Automata” comes from) couldn’t be more punk rock. From an unimposing storefront, you enter a long, narrow room, decorated on one wall with old concert posters, on the other with a blackboard-style listing of drinks (ranging from $3 PBR to $9 top shelf liquors). Old white walls tiles with checkerboarding near the ceiling suggest the place might have once been a diner (or a men’s room). Towards the rear as you walk in, you’ll find a small stage (with a respectable sound system,) a small (but fully stocked) bar with a very friendly bartender, and a single unisex bathroom off to the side. Punk rock, man.
The owners advertise the capacity as 70; my guess is that 50 people might squeeze in there uncomfortably elbow-to-elbow. Either way, Any Day Parade packed the place to the point where I stood literally inches from the band at the front, with bodies stacked all the way to the door at the rear. The audience seemed to be your typical Chilltown hipster crowd — lots of dudes with beards and black-rimmed glasses, lots of PBR sliding down throats, lots of chatter during the acoustic acts — although I suspect if IM-AC continues apace, it’ll soon be turning the old bridge-and-tunnel stereotype on its head, bringing Brooklyn and Manhattan fans over to our side of the river.
Although it was Any Day Parade’s first performance at the venue, it was obvious the group was playing to a hometown crowd — whoops, screams, and song requests punctuated the hour-long set, along with several singalong choruses. The band incorporates all of the warm homey tropes of country music — twangy guitar leads, broad strokes of acoustic rhythm guitar, big catchy choruses — but played with the aggressiveness and intensity of punk.
The pert, perky, pierced and tattooed Tree plays ringleader, with her expressive American Idol-ready pipes, although guitarists Larry Brinkman and J.D. Daly both contribute an occasional lead vocal as well as warm, rich harmonies throughout the set. The band’s punk edge comes from the percussive fury of drummer Chuck Richard, whose snare hits and cymbal crashes keep things flying, while bearded and flannel’d bassist Chuck Daly (J.D.’s brother and the newest member of the band) sways seemingly lost in his own world, laying down a thick, melodic bottom.
The band played tracks from its new four-song EP Where We Fall — the title track, a rollicking honky-stonk stomper, was a highlight of the set — as well as its 2008 5-song demo and a couple of as-yet-unrecorded new tracks.
Any Day Parade will be kicking off the free “Groove On Grove” concert series outside of the Grove Street PATH station in Jersey City on Wednesday, May 6 at 6 pm.
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Jim Testa is the editor of Jersey Beat, an online fanzine that has been covering the local music scene (first in print, now on the web) since 1982. He is also the host of "Rock N Roll Gas Station," a weekly hour-long radio show on BlowupRadio.com and writes regularly for the Star-Ledger, Ghetto Blaster, and other publications.
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