'Monsters and Angels': New album and big helping of live shows for 'potent' Nervous Eaters

Summer is the time for big outdoor venues, and since most music fans are feeling like we’re still emerging from lockdown, the concert season seems to be booming. But the club scene is still chugging along, and Friday night Brighton Music Hall hosted Boston punk rock legends The Nervous Eaters, perhaps best known as "the house band" at The Rat, the grubby Kenmore Square joint that was the acknowledged center of Boston’s punk scene.

Actually, it was always a bit of misnomer to call The Nervous Eaters a punk band, since the quartet’s style was more classic garage rock – scruffy and unpretentious, to be sure, but also far more melodic and musically adept than the majority of punk acts. The Eaters began in the mid-1970s and had a peak of about a decade, but since they fell apart around 1985, they’ve reunited for frequent revivals. Back in their heyday, The Cars’ Ric Ocasek produced a set of demos for the band that led to them being signed by Elektra Records. Their most popular tune was probably “Loretta,” originally released in 1976 as a B-side that their fans grew to love in live shows. The Eaters opened for acts such as The Ramones, The Police and Iggy Pop in the mid-1970 to the '80s.

Little Steven Van Zandt has signed the Eaters to his Wicked Cool Records label, and there is a new album, “Monsters and Angels,” due later this year, and already a cool new single and video out for the song “Wild Eyes.” A midtempo sort of tribute to a woman’s multi-faceted personality, the song’s video stars Boston singer Kelly Knapp in a series of Boston locations.

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The Nervous Eaters' current lineup is lead singer/songwriter Steve Cataldo on guitar, Adam Sherman on guitar and vocals, Brad Hallen on bass and David McLean on drums. It is an all-star group. Sherman played with the band Private Lightning, McLean has drummed with Willie “Loco” Alexander and Hallen’s bass has been heard with Ministry, Ocasek and Norwell native Susan Tedeschi’s early work.

Friday night, The Nervous Eaters squeezed 20 songs into their 75-minute set, and the most striking impression was how potent a musical force they still are. Cataldo’s vocals were strong and clear, and his guitar work, along with Sherman on 12-string all night, was nothing short of dazzling. They opened with the new single, and “Wild Eyes” became a little heavier in performance, as the quartet, all dressed in black and all but McLean having ample manes of gray hair, clearly enjoyed their work. Hallen and McLean crafted intense rhythms throughout, but the guitar interplay and the precise arrangements were really effective on numbers including the expansive “Hooked” and the absolute rave-up “On the Avenue.”

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On a tune we’d guess is called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Your Heart,” the guitar dynamics were so potent it reminded us of The Who’s rock operas, condensed to fewer than five minutes. One of the night’s most electrifying songs was “The Girl Next Door,” a midtempo sizzler that dates back to their debut album from 1980. For the big finale of “Loretta,” opening acts Robin Lane and Linnea’s Garden all bolted onstage to sing with The Nervous Eaters for a rousing finish. It might be heresy to punk fans, but The Nervous Eaters' sound evokes much more of The Rolling Stones/Who style of no-frills basic rock. 

The Nervous Eaters have several area dates on tap, including Aug. 11 at the Music Room in Yarmouth, Oct. 15 at Geno’s Rock Club in Portland, Maine, and Nov. 5 at The Burren in Somerville.

Danny Klein's Full House

There is an endless audience in these parts for the music of the J.Geils Band, and founding bassist Danny Klein and his band Full House does a marvelous job of celebrating that music, as they will Sunday afternoon at the East Bridgewater Commercial Club. Klein’s band is full of topnotch pros, but the toughest job might be vocalist Jim Taft’s, for he has to take the role immortalized by the Woofa Goofa himself, Peter Wolf. At 6-foot-2, and with a linebacker’s build and completely bald head, Taft doesn’t resemble Wolf physically, but he’s a versatile singer who not only handles the wide range of material deftly, but also brings that ineffable sense of joy that Wolf displayed (and still does in his solo shows).

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Taft came to Boston in 1986 to attend Berklee College of Music, and stuck around, now living in the Berkshires. But his main musical identity was as a drummer before this. When one of Taft’s bands opened for Full House in 2008, he was asked if he’d consider serving as their substitute drummer when needed. By the next year, Taft was their full-time drummer. In 2015, health problems sidelined Full House singer Artie Eaton, and Taft stepped up to become the frontman.

“The hardest part was remembering all the words to all the songs,” Taft said. “But Peter Wolf is known for also sometimes forgetting the words, and he’s great at changing up on the fly. The challenge with this music is embodying the energy it all has. You can’t just stand there and sing. I’ve always been kind of a show-off, I guess, so I like to dance and move around. It is still a joy to do. This is not hard work, and I’ve done construction, so I know hard work. Our main thing is keeping this music alive, not as a tribute act doing it note-for-note, but as a ‘celebration’ of it, as our posters say."

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Klein and his mates have talked about doing an album of their own, not Geils Band covers, but old blues and R&B chestnuts. And while no one in the band can compete with Klein’s seemingly endless closet of iridescent suits, there are still nuggets in that J.Geils Band songbook they haven’t yet plumbed.

“Everybody knows the obvious hits, and we do all of those,” Taft said. “But there are so many others we haven’t touched yet. I’d love to give ‘Flamethrower’ a try, for instance, so it is still a really enjoyable project to be part of, and we all have a lot of fun doing it.”

Weymouth's Psaros is nationwide

Weymouth tunesmith Jay Psaros has had an eventful summer so far. Following gigs opening for Three Dog Night in South Dakota and Minnesota, he stopped by Martin Guitars headquarters in Nazareth, Penn., to record promos. While there he was able to play guitars used by Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash, part of the on-site museum. Psaros and his magic van swing through the area this month, opening for Three Dog Night on Friday at the Cape Cod Melody Tent; opening for Little River Band at the Hampton Beach Casino on Saturday; and then pulling a two-fer Sunday, opening for Three Dog Night in the afternoon at Indian Ranch in Webster, then motoring south to Norwalk, Connecticut, where he opens that night’s show by Gordon Lightfoot.

Remembering Hawk Rocco

We’ll put a quarter in the jukebox for the memory of singer/harmonica player Joe “The Hawk” Rocco, who died last week in Providence. Rocco was a fixture at Nickanee’s in that city, and had a lot to do with that cozy tavern moving from occasional concerts to hosting music nearly every night. Rocco persuaded owner Stephanie Finizia to let him start a Monday night blues jam with guitarist Jim Kelly. Before long, that humble jam had musicians including Duke Robillard, Mark Cutler and Roomful of Blues members stopping by, and became a huge social mixmaster. Rocco had a colorful past, including working security at the old Hartford Civic Center, which is what he was doing when one band was looking for someone to work out with their singer. That’s how Rocco took Mick Jagger for a run over his favorite woodland route. Mick kept up for the first 3 miles or so, but begged off when he realized Hawk typically did  8 to 10 miles. Rocco loved Rick Estrin & the Nightcats’ humorous tune “That’s Big!” and his own version was hilarious, so that’s how we’ll remember him best, singing and laughing.

Gunpowder and Lead in Hingham

The free Thursday night concerts at the Hingham Launch are up and running, and Gunpowder and Lead rocks it this week ... Chicago guitarslinger Toronzo Cannon hasn’t played the Boston area since 2019, so his Friday night show at The Fallout Shelter in Norwood should be a killer ... Don’t forget Joe Perry’s Project has been added to Friday’s ZZ Top show at Leader Bank Pavilion ... Country hunk Keith Urban hits the Xfinity Center on Friday ... Washington, D.C.'s The Nighthawks bring their 50th Anniversary Tour to the John Alden Sportsman Club In Plymouth on Saturday afternoon.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Nervous Eaters get another taste of rock stardom in Boston