OK, now I know why you take your cell phone to rock concerts… Not so you can take blurry badly lit pictures nobody is ever gonna want to look at… and not so you can request an encore without setting the club on fire with a thousand Zippos… You take your cell phone to rock concerts so the moment you realize your witnessing something amazing you can call all your music-loving friends and say “Get down here now!” That's definitely the situation I was in last night. Sadly, I left my phone in the car. No matter, if I had called you wouldn't have been able to hear me talk anyway…

Last night Little Stephen's Underground Garage Rolling Rock and Roll Show hit the stage at The Black Cat. And what a circus it was too! There were go-go girls in mini-skirts, weird movies projected on the walls and ceiling, lots of black leather and black mascara, and a stack of Marshall amps better suited for a stadium show than a small club. Oh yeah… there was absolutely fucking awesome music too. Five bands in under five hours to be exact and not a single one sucked. One band for every day of the week, in fact.

First up was another band from Washington, DC who I have never heard before. Obviously there is a huge, (underground) garage / R&B scene in town, and my past two trips to the Black Cat seem to have only given me a glimpse of that iceberg's tip. A few weeks ago it was DC's Ambitions opening for The Detroit Cobras, and last night it was The Hall Monitors undertaking the thankless task of opening for The Chesterfield Kings, The Charms, The Supersuckers and The New York Dolls — and doing so with the high energy and panache of seasoned veterans in stylish garage garb. Here's the meager snippet of information on the band I was able to dig up:

On a fall night in a drunk tank in Washington, DC, Sean Crowley, Matt Sullivan and Mike Sullivan first met when Crowley stumbled into an inebriated version of the Standelles' “Dirty Water.” The Sullivans promptly joined in. Unfortunately, only their arresting officer, Ginger Richards, was impressed. The boys were beat to a bloody pulp by a gang of rabid Yankees fans. Having a heart, and seeing potential, Richards released the boys and asked them to start a band with her. Believing her to be the love child of Ginger Baker and Kieth Richards, they agreed.

Obviously nobody in the band takes themselves too seriously either, and all of that—plus some catchy, grungy tunes—made for one hell of an entertaining opening act who I would happily watch headline a show. The Happy Medium Song of the Day is “Give it Up” by The Hall Monitors. (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.)

---