Last Thursday, after Oak City 7, I met up with my friend Gary downtown in Raleigh. Gary knows everyone, heck, YOU probably know Gary, if you've ever had a drink at the Landmark. One thing led to another during our drinking on Thursday, and somehow, my boyfriend and I ended up at Slim's on Wilmington Street, to see this "band of kids" from Annapolis, MD, that "used to open up" for Gary and his former band. Apparently, the story goes, this band--The Dirty Names--opened for Gary back when they would tour all over and Dirty Names was just a group of 16 year old kids. Now, they are still together, out on their own, and are apparently, judging from their show, experts at time travel.
For "kids" (they are so NOT kids anymore), I have never been so impressed. The band looked like 1972; I felt like I was watching a house band play the Moon Tower Party during Dazed and Confused: boots, bell-bottomed jeans. The lead singer, Harrison has a 'fro and his shirt unbuttoned ala Robert Plant. The lead guitarist is cool as a cucumber in his fedora getting ready to showcase how you really play rock and roll guitar. But it didn't matter after 2 measures of music WHAT they looked like. My mind was blown away.
The Dirty Names are a cross between Led Zeppelin and ZZ Top, with some Wilson Pickett and even some Johnny Cash thrown in for good measure. They slink and slide and control their stage space with ease, pulling you into each original song so that you want more, more, more. I couldn't believe that these were people in their early 20s; songs so tightly woven together, you feel like they were written by old men who were trying to break free from these young bodies. It was electric. I don't use that phrase about every band I see; "electricity" is either something you have, or something you don't. The Dirty Names are electric. Someone, somewhere needs to manage them (hello, Gary! Get on it!) and put them in front of someone who can make them rock and roll stars. Not only have they earned it, but they deserve it.
Keep this in mind when thinking about trying out the Dirty Names. Only once in my entire career, have I gone to see a band and came away from the opening band thinking, "I WANT to see that band again. I MUST see that band again." I felt that way after seeing the Dirty Names open at Slim's the other night. (By the way, the only other band I ever felt that way about before was Fitz and The Tantrums. I've now seen them three times.)
Check out both of The Dirty Names EPs by clicking here.
Link to The Dirty Names on Facebook, here.
Plan where you'll see them next here.
Alli
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