DMV Music 2016
Neon Alley
Boston trio light their fire to color the night and rock it away.
To know how to gracefully digress from your own template is an art, and this Massachusetts band mastered it nicely. But then, David Vaccaro has spent enough time in Tinseltown, where the singing guitarist worked with a few famous pairs of pipes, to want to strip the glamor and back down to where he once belonged. Such a natural approach may explain the sense of freedom oozing out of his new group’s riffs-to-the-fore take on “Jailhouse Rock” or the perky demand of “Piece Of The Pie” which reveals the trio’s appetite for a catchy chorus, yet there’s more strings to their glow than a simple hard ‘n’ heavy punch.
Although simplicity is set within opener “That’s How It Is” – a buzzing slab of bluesy swagger – and mandolins drive “I Only Want To Be With You” home, the rock ‘n’ roll licks in the heart “‘Til I’m Done” and “All I Want” spice up the pieces’ AOR slant. And if the slider-kissed glam of “Let Your Lovin’ Come Down” can’t shine bright enough for nocturnal creatures to crawl out and have a stomping party, propelled by Mike McDonald’s bass and Scott Marion’s drums, the frenetic “Got To Rock” can. It’s a flickering light, though, the album’s being brief and to the point, and that’s exactly what is needed for an urban kind of excitement.
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