W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

It seems like I’ve been on a roll of late seeing bands and artists who haven’t been around in decades. That trend continued on Thursday night as Scott McCaughey brought his Young Fresh Fellows to New York for the first time in 20 or so years. McCaughey, along with guitarist Kurt Bloch, bassist Jim Sangster and John Perrin who has replaced the now retired Tad Hutchinson on the skins rocked the house at Bowery Electric, ripping through their take on Pacific North West garage rock and roll. And speaking of garage rock, you know that you’ve accomplished quite a lot in your musical career when you have the King of Garage, Mr. Nuggets himself, Lenny Kaye rocking out starry eyed in the front row as you melt faces throughout the room. Unfortunately, Pete Donnelly of The Figgs took ill before the show and as a result the Figgs weren’t able to open for us. That however didn’t prevent Mike Gent (with a bit of help from Pete Hayes) offering up a splendid impromptu solo set heavy on requests and Kinks Kovers. We were also treated late in The Fresh Fellows set to Mike sitting in (replete with capo in hand) with the band.