Pain in the Big Neck III

this year's Pain in the Big Neck 3 included more local bands than ever before. Six locals graced the stages of the two day twenty-two band festival, evidence of the strong presence that blue-collar garage/punk still has in the Queen City.

one of Buffalo's newest bands, who emerged from their basement earlier this year, plates(above) put on one of the best 30-minute sets of the weekend ripping through their modest catalog like the grizzly veterans they are. Their modern take on Ian MacKaye punk (Minor Threat+Fugazi) is a big middle finger in the face of trendy garage-rock revivalists and indie kids alike.

another new band/ familiar face that had a strong showing was the minimal-industral one-man-punk band Mannequin Stupor. Not quite punk or garage, Eric G's latest project has influences that run deep into 80's post punk and noise. The set had it's high cerebral moments and low-blow potshots. Watching Mannequin Stupor play, one cannot help but feel transported to NYC art-school hangouts somewhere around 1985. However, a post-backbeat drum machine gave the songs a modern twist, a nod to the right-now post-electroclash NYC scene.


if Mannequin Stupor was the festival's high-brow moment, then Ski-Mask and his Bucketmen were it's low-brow. Ski-mask's angry rants, constant dick jokes and potty humor have been his trademarks since the days of Thunderbird Theatre, his cable access show. The latest incarnation has the masked madman spewing his mini manifestos over free-folk electronica loops dotted with samples culled from AM talk radio, mostly of the religious variety. The set can only be described as a look into the mind of a maniac. Ski-mask has an extremely polarizing presence and makes no apologies for what he does. He definitely gave this year's fest a twist of the demented, something that is missing all too often in today's safe, color-by-numbers punk/alternative.

by all accounts, this years Big Neck Records fest was a blast. If Bart Hart and Co. continue the trend the next one can only bigger and more ambitious.