A band that may have been named after a not-so-well-known Bob Dylan song (you will have to ask them to know for sure), a dark pirate-theme bar named after a Californian National forest, and some dynamic live music punctuated with humor and a badass attitude, the Neighborhood Bullys definitively played a fun set of big-time rock’ n’ roll at the Redwood bar downtown Los Angeles on Friday night.
The quartet rocked, and rhythm-&-blues-ed the place with loud guitars, while injecting some punk riffs as well as a few jokes here and there. I just listened to one of their interviews and they said they were a cross between Ike and Tina Turner,… funny and revealing about their rocking strong roots, but what else do they like? Let’s see, David Bowie, the Black Keys, Al Green, Howlin Wolf, AC/DC, Muddy Waters, Sam Cook, MC5, Elvis Costello, The Stones, Blondie, BRMC to name a few, and their hard rocking numbers alternating with slower songs had obviously a little bit of all this,… but may I also add T-Rex? That’s the trick with music, everything you have heard and liked in the past, from hard to glam rock, may jump at your head when you listen to a band like the Neighborhood Bullys,… and this is definitively a good thing when songs are written with such craft and punch and played with such passion and energy.
One of the most noticeable aspects of their sound was singer/bassist Davey Meshell’s voice, which could effortlessly reach highs, and if hard rock was the first thing that came to my mind, some songs, like ‘Alive’ which was showcasing his vocal range, was so soulful that it was bringing a sort of David-Bowie-covers-Al-Green in this power rock recipe… So how would I pigeon-hole their music? I probably wouldn’t want to, the songs they played were all over the spectrum while keeping a real uniformity of exuberant punk-glam-rock-soul, as if the Stones were covering the Ramones in some parallel universe fantasy,… anyway it was always rock’ n’ roll no matter what.
They said they were playing quite a few songs from an upcoming EP, and were alternating between punk energy, nice harmonies and even an occasional gospelic vibe, like for ‘Love Goes to Hell’. Davey Meshell was obviously the one doing the talking at the top of his double singing-bass-playing task, but the chemistry with the other members of the band, guitarists Sam Park and Greg West and drummer Bryan Head, was palpable.
‘This is for the ladies’, said Meshell before one of their songs, it may have been before ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ – at least it would have made sense – and many of their tunes, fueled with a joyful energy and hooky melodies, seemed to have this humorous boy-girl theme with titles such as ‘Fighter not a lover’, ‘Do you have a Boyfriend’, ‘Let Me Be Me’, ‘Lead with your Lips’, ‘I’m Bored, Let’s Fight’, ‘Kissin Tells’… which could reflect any moody phase of a relationship. Their straightforward style mixed with their eclectic range and combined with a laid back attitude was all about the essence of rock’ n’ roll, they were kicking ass and people having a drink or a burger at the Redwood bar became well aware of it.
The band seemed excited as if they were playing for the first time, or as if they had been having the rock’ n’ roll energy drink since birth, the songs were short – something Meshell made us notice a few times – and were delivered with a punch coming from an authentic side,… so if you have the chance to catch them in concert, just have a drink, relax, and enjoy the smoking ride!