[saturday in allston] Tijuana Sweetheart go "Under the Gun" @ Great Scott

Published Feb 15 2012, 10:46 AM by Barry Thompson

At every crappy punk show I've ever been to, at least one band dialed a Misfits cover in for some easy audience approval. I really hate it when that happens. It’s unimaginative, it’s lazy, and over the years these “tributes” to Danzig and the gang have rendered me unable to enjoy the original tracks. No exaggeration -- About two months ago, I stormed out of the Midway in JP when some ragtag cluster of amateurs opened their set with “Last Caress.” I had something to say too. It was "Fuck this. I'm going home."

The slow-dance-at-a-sock-hop version of “Astro Zombies” that closes out Under the Gun, the latest from TIJUANA SWEETHEART, compensates for at least a-dozen-or-so of the hundreds of shitacular Misfits interpretations I’ve endured over the years. It’s right up there with Evan Dando’s gloomy spin on “Skulls” on the list of recordings that let me hope, someday, I’ll be able to like the Misfits again.

Under the Gun officially drops Saturday night at Allston's Great Scott -- the first of THE DUCKY BOYS’ double-night unveiling of their victorious return to form, Chasing the Ghost. The bill rounded out by HUDSON FALCONS and ENERGY shall more-than-probably exemplify of the opposite of a crappy punk show.

The artists formerly known as VAGIANT have wisely retained some of the gleeful juvenility that fostered older songs like “Fuck the Kells” and “No Mercy.” But after seven years and three full-lengths, they’ve outgrown any punky sameness, and Under the Gun smacks with stylistic growth.

There’s poppy sweetness overlaying “Sunday,” and big honkin’ metal breakdowns on tracks such as “E.A.T.”

The latter is a fiery denouncement of a troll who apparently lives under the Tobin Bridge that ends with the proclamation, “We’re Tijuana Sweetheart and this troll can suck our dicks!”

If you’re thinking, “That lyric doesn’t make sense. Tijuana Sweetheart don’t have dicks,” then you’re encouraged to lick my pussy.