Hoboken Rock City - The Official Blog Of DJ Mike C.

So many shows, so little time to write about them...

Smithereens lead singer played a good, if very loose set two Fridays ago to a packed back room at The Goldhawk. His voice has hardly changed since the '80s, and he sounded great belting out "A Girl Like You," "Behind The Wall Of Sleep," and other Smithereens chestnuts while accompanying himself on electric guitar. He closed out with a singalong cover of "Behind Blue Eyes."

The following Wednesday, Freedy Johnston gave the same room a real treat with a two-hour show that touched on songs from his whole career, including faves like "The Lucky One," "The Mortician's Daughter," and his almost-hit "Bad Reputation." The former Hoboken resident charmed the audience with self-deprecating comments about his guitar playing, almost apologizing at one point. "I feel like I should take you all out for ice cream," he said, "or to The Malibu Diner."

Complete, unmitigated insanity followed two days later at Maxwell's, where The High School Sweethearts brought out a great rock & roll crowd for the record release party in celebration of their new Get Hip CD Heels N' Wheels. The Woggles, The Priscillas, and The Ribeye Brothers all delivered ass-kickingly good sets as well. Garage rock maven Little Steven was there enjoying the bands, as were WFMU DJs supreme Joe Belock and Terre T. I saw many old friends and met a ton of cool people, including a Wren and a couple whose wedding I'm DJing in July. It was quite a time to be alive and in Hoboken.