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Last year’s Killing Horse Records Anniversary party made the Kearny-based record company a household name for the New Jersey underground scene. After a full two years of hooting, hollering, rocking and rolling, Killing Horse founders Mike Sylvia and Ryan Gross are still going strong. And when they informed me that they were having their two-year show at Maxwell’s recently, I knew I had to be there. I was looking forward to it more than Christmas or New Year’s. “It’s our birthday party!” Mike told me, and it felt like a birthday party to me.

With the ink still fresh on the signing on of New Brunswick’s Nico Blues for their re-release of Blame the Boredom, Blame the Basements, there was a lot of excitement in the crowd at the Jan. 6 event… not to mention a lot of new faces. All five bands on their roster are heavy hitters in the Tiny Giants Collective, an indie rock support and networking group making waves from Philly to New York and ever expanding. With Jersey City’s Cicada Radio and No Pasaran, Kearny’s Secret Country and Invisible Lines and now New Brunswick’s Nico Blues, the lineup was a rogue’s gallery of the Hudson County music scene.

I got to Maxwell’s around 8 pm for some food with my friends Billy Gray of Bomb’s Away (ex Ben Franklin) Gönul Aksoy (Gönul and What Army) and Jameson Edwards (I Am The Heat). The bar was filled with familiar faces from the local scene, members of They Had Faces Then, Meet Pause, Holy City Zoo, SpillPeak Media, photographer James Damian… You get the picture — the place was packed with great people involved heavily in the scene.

Shortly after we arrived, Cicada Radio took the stage. Pat Keefe, Chris D’Ambrosio, Mike Kundrath and Mike Keefe form Cicada Radio, a band whose urgent guitar-forward sound is a mix of hardcore with upbeat breakdowns that made for a great beginning to the night. Killing Horse released the band’s EP Imposter on CD last year, and I can’t wait to see what they have in mind for a longer album.

Then Reed Adler, Skylar Adler, Evan Campbell, Eric Goldberg and Danny Goldberg of the Nico Blues took the stage. The crowd was loosening up a bit and the venue section of Maxwell’s was beginning to fill out. The band played some tracks off Blame the Boredowm, Blame the Basements, including one of my favorites, Unprofessional. Harkening to late-90s alternative rock and updating the grunge sound, they offer a new take on a familiar recipe. There was a little bit of shimmying and shaking during the performance but no out and out dancing just yet.

Invisible Lines’ big piece of news for the night was that they were playing their first show with new guitarist Geoff Bennington. Alan Gomez, Mike Clifford, Lucas Gonzalez and Will Acevedo make up the rest of the band. You could see they were excited to get up on stage — this was the first show since their car accident in late fall. Thankfully, everyone was ok aside from a few bumps and scrapes.

The Wise Up EP came out in 2009 and since then the Lines have changed their lineup. Their sound is aging nicely, the road rock sound giving way to a more 70s guitar-rock sound, vocals taking a back seat to the band’s technical proficiency with their instruments. Fans came out massively for them. The band played a couple new songs too, but all too soon they were finished — with five bands, you’ve got to keep these things moving.

No Pasaran came on shortly after. Eric Mason, Romel Espinel and Tom Barrett are Jersey’s post-rock trio. During the set they added Tom Unish on guitar for a few songs, and Michael Venutolo-Mantovani of the Everymen came on to sing for one song. No Pasaran’s set was notable for a few reasons: the addition of a couple of friends for the night and because they are taking a hiatus from playing shows for a while. They will certainly be missed — there’s an energy to their music that personifies the rock scene here, and they certainly renewed my fervor for reporting on these shows. Come back soon, guys.

Secret Country had a couple announcements to make. Katie Siegal and Killing Horse’s own Ryan Gross have been added to roster. Eric Mason, Jay Monaco, Joe Hart, Matt Siegal, Tim Siegal and Yan Izquierdo are the rest of the Secret Country army. By now everyone was ready to dance it out. Square dancing, line dancing, good old-fashioned two stepping — you name it, people were doing it. Whiskey drenched as well as sweat soaked, we all go down. This is the next logical step in country music — it’s fun, unashamed and just out to make you dance and laugh.

After the show I stuck around with Mike and Ryan. They talked about another big announcement coming soon: they will be working with the Jersey City band Cold Fur on a project. It looks like they have a lot in store this year for themselves. I for one welcome our Killing Horse overlords.

Photos by Zac Clark