Unisex Salon and Billionaire Boys Club @Arlene's Grocery, 4/22/05

This show was sort of an outro for the Suicide Girls fashion show, and as such it was very well-attended. My official job during the fashion show was "dresser;" i.e. I ripped clothing off of the Suicide Girls as they came offstage. After this exciting task I needed some musical release, so I was a bit disappointed when Unisex Salon played. They were really cheesy but not in a good way. Their new wave influenced dance "rock" was really repetitive and not at all catchy like good dance rock should be! I danced a little but quickly became bored and began to make fun of the male singer with Zui Suicide, one of the hottest and most elven chicks I've ever met. We made a game out of counting how many gayass clichés we could find tattooed on his body and we came up with four: nautical stars, bluebirds, flames, and playing cards. Five, since I'm sure he has a sexy devil on his ass as well or something equally lame. Anyway, we soon tired of this and went over to the bar to have drinks bought for us while we waited for Billionaire Boys Club to come on.
Billionaire Boys Club were a welcome dose of up-tempo rock and roll that shook me from my Unisex-induced stupor. These guys clearly wanted the audience to have fun. So did Unisex Salon, but the difference here was that BBC actually helped the audience to do so with their music, while Unisex simply looked like fun but failed to deliver (what a cocktease!). Their songs had some punchy guitar riffs that sounded like they came from emo territory, and this mixed remarkably well with what was mostly a blues-based rock sound that hearkened back to 90's bands like STP and Buck Cherry. The singer even sounded a little like Weiland, but at times he also reached further back into 80's glam or even classic rock territory (think Mick Jagger!). This combined with a solid rhythm section (featuring a bassist who could actually play!) and the occasional guitar solo to create an ass-shaking, head-bobbing, beer-finishing-to-facilitate-more ass-shaking, good rock show. The only thing I found slightly jarring was that every now and then the main singer would trade vocals with one of the guitarists, whose high emo-sounding voice didn't fit that well with the vibe of the band. If and when these guys get signed (and I think they could in a few years, they're doing all the right things and the hip NYC kids seem to like them), they're going to have to make their sound a little more cohesive, but from what I've heard so far, that won't be terribly difficult. Come on, Billionaire Boys Club; even the Donnas had to pick a singer, and they all sound the same! Warped Tour or Ozzfest? I think the choice is clear.