I was nervous only for a second. Some dude swung from the rack of spotlights hanging from the ceiling, then dropped into the crowd squash. Combining fallen electrical junk with sweaty heads would’ve made for a messy scene.
But Stza Crack has had years of practice defusing these situations. “Get the fuck off the stage!! . . . Wait until you play here and it’s You and the Yous, featuring You!!” Several other requests along those lines were firmly, if affectionately, extended by Stza during an immaculate Leftover Crack set at Revere’s Club Lido a week ago Thursday evening. I had to climb atop a speaker to absorb the joyous calamity. The room was half circle pit, half blob of shrieking humanity — and Lido, mind you, is not that small. Or that well ventilated. I got drenched just taking notes.
With an all-star cast of Choking Victim, Morning Glory, and F-Minus alums, NYC’s Leftover Crack have a sometimes problematic knack for jacking adrenaline levels. The Tuesday before at Club Hell in Providence, at yet another spot-on LoC show, I got kicked in the head, and then I uncharacteristically cursed out a dude in a cowboy hat whom I mistook for a bouncer. (Update: cowboy dude and I are now cool.) The band are infamous for fan shenanigans and cop problems, but no such issues arose at Hell or Lido.
It’s about time things went smoothly for LoC, since history may well certify them as one of this decade’s premier punk outfits. Underneath their irreverence and their politics, they’re (usually) pop-punk songsmiths. Practically everyone at Lido remembered the words to practically every song — even “Infested,” a way-old Choking Victim tune, to which a tasteful harmonica solo was added.
Although I was much too dehydrated to make it all the way through “Crack Rock Steady,” the grand finale (and another CV song, from the 1999 classic Hellcat release No Gods, No Managers), I am certain at least one person lost a shoe. I am less certain guitarist Brad Logan peed in a bottle on stage, though it was discussed.
