Friday we made the trip to Charleston’s historic East end to see Morgantown’s Billy Matheny (w/The Frustrations) and Jonestown at the Glass. We drank some Kool-aid, and Matheny ended up blowing our minds. Jonestown got things started with catchy rock tunage.

I honestly hadn’t paid much attention to this band but after they busted out the acordian it will be hard to forget them. Towards the end of their set they rocked out “Ball and Chain” by Social Distortion, giving people like me who didn’t know any of their songs a chance to sing along with a song we’ve rocked a million times before.

In between watching UConn-Louisville on the small screen TV near the grey machines, I got introduced to Matheny. Sharply dressed, well-spoken and downright disarming, Matheny joked he was glad that he didn’t have to compete against Billy Ray Cyrus, who played Saturday in Charleston. Matheny asked what could explain the resurgence of the Achy-Breaky croonster, and I could only say it involved Satan and a contract.

Matheny and the Frustrations took the stage at the Glass for the first time in a year and totally met and/or exceeded my expectations. I mean, I have his latest CD “Born of Frustration,” but rare it is that a band will be even more impressive live. And one cool thing is that this has got to go down as one of the quickest transitions between bands ever, as Jonestown is pretty much A.S.S., which is the Frustrations.

For someone so young Matheny seems truly blessed when it comes to musicianship, songwriting and stage presence. Just like Dr. Mindbender (of G.I. Joe fame) created Serpentor out of all the greatest dictators of all time, so too was Matheny created out of all the great ghosts of rock and roll’s past. His appearance (think Buddy Holly meets Hugh Jackman as Wolverine with those sideburns!) belies the power of his rock music.

Matheny opened with some anti-bar scene numbers, including “One Story Town” and “If You See Him Tonight” — and, ladies, think your dream guy HAS to be in some bar somewhere? Reference these tunes. Sandwiched in between was “Christless Streets” and as Matheny started going off I was about to pull my hair out!

It was comparable to seeing Marty McFly at the prom back in 1955, only the 1.21 jigawatts were surging through Matheny. He then switched things up with acoustic versions of the deeply personal “Don’t Feel Guilty” and later dedicated “Reckless” to Haley Slagle, who sings with Matheny but couldn’t make the trip due to a broken foot.

After running into the Dead Guy Ale skeleton, we ended up buying a Matheny shirt and a super-cool split single ON VINYL of Matheny’s “I Won’t Be Around (To Say I Told You So)” and “Pictures on the Wall” by The Emergency. We rolled out a little before 1 a.m. as Matheny was rocking the Cramps-like “I Came In.” I couldn’t help feel sorry for Charleston-area rockers who missed this show.

– Camera: Jessica; Words: Nick

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 8:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.