Review of LarkFest Performance
Nippertown, 9/27/2010
The Charlie Watts Riots faced an electrical power problem at the start of their set, but it was quickly remedied, and their potent brand of hook-filled power-pop didn’t suffer from any power shortage.
Best Pop Band (Guitars)
Metroland Magazine, Best of 2010
A long line of great power-pop bands runs through the history of the Albany music scene, and the Charlie Watts Riots are keeping the torch bright. The Riots are everything we look for in a guitar-pop band: Big choruses with melody to spare, guitars that sound like jet engines, a whip-tight rhythm section, and suits fresh from the cleaners. Their Long Story Short album is, like many works of this style, equal parts homage and mission statement—practiced, polished, and with a lot of punch. Just the way we like it.
Review of Tulip Fest performance
From the Albany Times Union online 05/08/2010
There was plenty of great music over on the the Lakehouse Amphitheater stage as well, notably the Charlie Watts Riots, who whipped through a great set of amped-up power-pop. They were celebrating the release of their debut album, “Long Story Short,” and the band – led by guitarist-vocalists Seth Powell and Brendan Pendergast – sounded ready for the big stage next year.
Review of Bread & Jam Cafe performance
Originally Printed in Albany Times Union on 02/15/2010
Moonlight Jamboree @ Bread and Jam – 2/6/2010February 15, 2010 at 12:15 pm by Andrew Gregory
It was a good plan to head out early to the Bread & Jam Café on Saturday, the 6th of February for the Moonlight Jamboree, the monthly roots music revue hosted by local alt-rock band Tern Rounders.
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In stage attire of black Converses; slightly disheveled, (nearly) matching suits with white shirt & skinny ties; and TV Yellow finished guitars, The Charlie Watts Riots cracked open a set of ultra catchy power pop songs with big melodies, big hooks, and killer 2 and 3-part harmonies to a standing room only audience.
Indeed, if we were to pop this band into the wayback machine, then drop them into the midst of the 1960’s British Invasion mania, they could have gave that Liverpool quartet of moptops a run.
Well, perhaps that’s sending them a bit too far back in time. The Charlie Watts Riots have successfully blended elements of those that have come before, graduates of the (early) Beatles School of Rock, bringing to mind The Knack’s “retro” 60’s look and slightly snotty but fun loving attitude; The Romantic’s catchy, energetic pop-oriented punk songs; and Fountains of Wayne’s witty lyrics and smartly crafted songs about life events, real or imagined. For a bit of added flavoring, throw in the Gin Blossom’s morose jangle pop and the Raspberries crisply produced wall of sound.
These guys didn’t just fall out of the tour bus for the first time, either. The front line trio of the Riots are slightly aged and wizened veterans of past popular, acclaimed local bands The Wait, Lughead, Bloom, Vodkasonics, The Day Jobs, and Coal Palace Kings. Together for about two years now, Mike Pauley (lefty Bass,Vox); Brendan Pendergast (Guitar,Vox); and Seth Powell (Guitar, Vox) include local photographer Joe Putrock on drums to form a band that, in a just world, would create a much longer lasting buzz and excitement than The Wonders did in Tom Hank’s movie “That Thing You Do!”
Looking over the slightly beer soaked set list provided to me by the band, a thought struck me – it reads like a 10 song -plus run-through of greatest hits! Unfortunately, recorded versions of some of those songs are only available in demo form on their various MySpace, YouTube and FaceBook sites. But the guys assured me after their set that they’ve been hard at work, when time permits, writing and recording and hope to have a disc available by the time warm weather returns.
So when that first cd is released, I for one will crank windows down and blast the Charlie Watts Riots into that warm summer day, for all those within earshot need to hear America’s next perfect power pop-rock band to go gaga over…and former teenyboppers and their daughters will understand.
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Alas, I didn’t grab any pics of the Moonlight Jamboree host band, the Tern Rounders. Moral of that story is never show up to a gunfight show without a fully chambered round fully charged battery pack. Pictures would have shown that Rick Morse, of Red Haired Strangers, sat in on pedal steel, adding a bluesy twang of licks to their set.
Room capacity had barely shrunk as they turned in an energized set of covers, new songs, and favorite selections from the first cd “A Different Land” – including a steaming version of “Black Train” with a swirling psychedelic guitar & pedal steel break. Joined by Eric and members of Charlie Watts Riots, they closed with an extended jam on the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, with bits of “We Are The World”, Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” (with Seth and Brendan adding just right ‘doot, doot-doot’s) and “Sweet Jane” mixed in.
Jamboree takes a one month hiatus until April.