{"id":2732,"date":"2010-09-07T12:08:44","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T19:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2010-09-09T08:27:25","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T15:27:25","slug":"2732","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2010\/09\/07\/2732\/","title":{"rendered":"show review: A Night At The Casbah! THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT & IN THE RED"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Raw Fun of It<\/h2>\n

[In The Red<\/b> as well as the other bands who played that night also have reviews forthcoming. Stayed tuned… ~Ed.]<\/i><\/p>\n

Review By Sean Ross<\/h5>\n

The Casbah, known for its seven-night lineup, pool table benches, and low flying jets, will always remind you that small venues are the best places for viewing shows. Where else can viewers enjoy velociraptic performers stomping and raging with neuroses for art\u2019s sake?\u2014 and not have a mosh pit! (Indeed, punks may be turning poets.) <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, to see THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT at the Casbah is to feel the force of a well-defined band whose power chords and stentorian bass lines thrum alongside sparse, artistic drums, while up front, the mimetic and nimble Ben Johnson (who, at times, resembles Dio with arthritic hands clenching a little ball of air like it\u2019s a fistful of truth) towers with operatic professions, then lurches with osteoporotic decrepitude, as he travels from light to dark, loud to insidious. Johnson, charismatic, leads his eager congregation with wicked smiles, taurine lyricism, and furrowed brows that would give Mr. Heat Meister a run for the money. And to observe the aging, crowd-surfing, cord-wound guru writhing above the heads of his throng whilst he belts altruistic appeal, you cannot help but admire his enthusiasm\u2014and they gently return him to stage! Oh, loyal servants! Fan\u2019s indeed! And rarely do punk singers compose multiple voicings, complete with diametric interludes that could disarm any four-part harmony, and get away with it, but Johnson slides from guttural droning plaints to top-throated distortions with such ease that one must pause to consider whether this Pied Piper isn\u2019t just flouting his thrill so much as personifying his well attuned multiple personalities. <\/p>\n

At a time when so much music is inundated with pastiche and borrowings it\u2019s nice to return to the raw fun of it, and THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT is nothing less. But although these seasoned timekeepers style their mayhem with deep sonorous leads, strong downbeats, and quick shifts to double-time (nothing too complex), some of the progressions didn\u2019t blend well, and the songs that could have led this listener far out of Hamelin, instead, sent me forth wondering where in the hell we are going?<\/p>\n

~RS<\/p>\n

[Photo from Ben Johnson’s Facebook page…]
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Raw Fun of It [In The Red as well as the other bands who played that night also have reviews forthcoming. Stayed tuned… ~Ed.] Review By Sean Ross The Casbah, known for its seven-night lineup, pool table benches, and low flying jets, will always remind you that small venues are the best places for viewing shows. Where else can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[573,582,580],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-nightlife","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12767,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2015\/11\/29\/x-returns-to-the-casbah\/","url_meta":{"origin":2732,"position":0},"title":"X returns to The Casbah","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"November 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The legendary band X returns by Reviewer Rob X opens their show at The Casbah, 11-27-15: this was said to be the first time X had appeared on stage since Billy Zoom had been in chemo treatment. 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It\u2019s been years since I had seen them at the Adams Avenue Theatre, then produced by Casbah owner Tim Maze. Back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image hosted at PICTUB.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/rvur_34\/photos\/2\/battalionofsaints2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2768,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2010\/09\/11\/show-review-in-the-red-casbah-9410\/","url_meta":{"origin":2732,"position":3},"title":"show review: In The Red, Casbah, 9\/4\/10","author":"admin","date":"September 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Casbah\u2019s Back Room Gets In The Red(with The Long and Short of It , Rats Eyes , Terremoto, Gloomsday and Burl) Review and photos by Sean RossIn the days of yore in the land of yon when bands were ushered through the rites of passage amid Christmas lights, low ceilings,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/08\/13\/cashd-out-at-the-casbah\/","url_meta":{"origin":2732,"position":4},"title":"Cash'd Out at the Casbah","author":"admin","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, on July 5th, The Casbah held the Avalon Tattoo 17th Anniversary Party with Cash'd Out, The Scotch Greens, Bartenders Bible, Sultry Savage Burlesque. 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