Shea Stadium
20 Meadow St. between Bogart & Waterbury
Thursday, December 17, $7, 8:00
www.myspace.com/guignol
www.myspace.com/sheastadiumbk
www.myspace.com/mischiefbrew
Brooklyn’s Guignol and Philly’s Mischief Brew are set to battle it out tonight at Shea Stadium as they team up at the small Bushwick club in support of their latest collaboration, the intoxicating FIGHT DIRTY (Fistolo, October 2009). The album, organized in two “rounds” of eight songs each, is a fun blast of wicked gypsy punk klezmer filtered through Kurt Weill and Tin Pan Alley, as the bands combine on seven Mischief Brew tunes, six Guignol numbers, and covers of Django Reinhardt’s “Appel Direct” and, yes, Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed Be Thy Name.” Guignol, represented by Balkan Beat Box’s Peter Hess on clarinet, the Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay on accordion, George Rush on tuba, and John Bollinger on drums, are joined by Mischief Brew’s founder, former Orphans guitarist Erik Petersen, as they jump, jive, and jab their way through frenetic instrumentals, the rollicking title track, the noirish “Sugar Park Tavern Death Song,” the punkish “Create Destroy,” the carnivalesque “The Tardy Barker,” and the big-sounding “Mr. Crumb.” A trumpet solo helps give “Gonzalez, the Exploding Chilean” a narrative despite its lack of lyrics. This mosh-up deserves to be better known: “The only way to roll is off the books,” they sing on the album. “They can’t find you if they don’t know where to look / So I’ll say it off the record that I leave without a trace / Come to think of it you never even knew my last name.” Well, now you now who they are and where to find them, tonight at Shea Stadium on a bill with These Days and Worrier.
In addition, Nicolay has also joined with Emilyn Brodsky and Brooklyn group Yoni Gordon and the Goods for a special holiday version of the Pogues’ classic “Fairy Tale of New York,” a charity single that benefits Feed America (suggested donation: $5 per download).