Saints & Sinners, The Sloe Guns and Citizen Sane Rock The Shrine

The moon was almost full as I walked the last few blocks to The Shrine. When I got there I ordered a Heineken at the bar and it only cost five dollars – I don’t know if it was happy hour but it was a good sign. My high school friend Eric Alterman had invited us, Saints and Sinners, that is, to be on the bill with his band The Sloe Guns for a night of music at this, one of my favorite clubs. Joining us on the bill was Citizen Sane. They play an R&B drenched style that suited us perfectly. Everything was set for this Saturday night extravaganza.

Citizen Sane

It turned out to be a night of classic American guitars and Fender amps, featuring tight bands, old friends, and good vibes. Citizen Sane, led by Dave “Chap” Kaplan was up first and therefore it was a blast of brash Fender guitars that greeted me at the door when I arrived a few minutes late for the festivities. Citizen Sane is the kind of band that I would love to play with, but they already have a great guitar player in Clay Chalem. Oh, well…

Saints & Sinners L-R: Chris Botta, Daryl Cozzi, Dave Gerstein

Saints & Sinners were up next and it was great to be back onstage, as you can see from the top photo. We’ve been in the studio working on our debut album and I was a little afraid that we’d suffer a little rust from the lack of live playing, but it was not to be. Bassist Dave Gerstein and drummer Daryl Cozzi were in fine form as per usual and the studio work has seemed to sharpen our focus more than a little bit. There was a good crowd on hand which made it all the more fun to crank it up and let fly. I especially enjoyed the feeling of playing the Fender Super Reverb that The Shrine keeps on hand – one of my favorite amps!

The Sloe Guns

The Sloe Guns, who headlined our portion of the night, did not disappoint. Eric Alterman on lead vocals/guitar and Mick Izzo on lead guitar/background vocals created a wall of sound with their instruments that probably would have impressed Ian Hunter himself had he been lucky enough to be there. A tiny bit of the lyrics in Sloe Guns excellent songs were lost in the shimmering crunch of guitars but it was a treat to hear Eric’s vintage Custom Tele going toe to toe with Mick’s Les Paul and red Marshall half-stack. Rick Sperber on drums and Rob Klein on bass and backing vocals rounded out the polished and for this night heavy sound of The Sloe Guns.

Seeing Voices

But wait a minute! There was yet another band that actually complemented the evening’s theme. Really, I was almost shocked that there wasn’t a White Stripes clone, but Seeing Voices was there to save the day and provide an almost unheard of four bands in a row in a NYC club with at least bluesy, roots based guitar at their core. Their guitarist, Richard Hockstein was impressive with his smooth, classic semi-hollow Gibson sound. I wish I could have paid more attention to them but I was having too good of a time. -Christian Botta

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