Review by Christóbal

After Kay Hanley’s Somerville ArtBeat show, my sisters and I decided to have dinner at the Cambridge Common (the restaurant above the Lizard Lounge) before the evening’s Scamper show, with fellow Scamper fans Alyson, Justin (from The Baby Reds), Tony, Betsy and Stephanie. Well, I should point out that this was Justin and Tony’s first Scamper show, but I think they enjoyed it. :-) After a relaxing hour or two in the restaurant (the beers, Angus burger and curly fries were tasty!), we went outside to cool out a bit before the show. Keith and Marc (from Scamper) stopped by to say hello and Alena joined us on our stoop. Finally, somewhere around 9:30p, the doors to the lounge opened and we made our way down into the bohemian lizard layer.

As usual, the club was dimly lit and there were quite a few people in there already. Singer/songwriter Robert Abel took the stage with an acoustic guitar and played solo for a good long while. I enjoyed his set, though to be honest I spent a good deal of it talking to my friends. A crowd favorite of Robert’s set was his cover of the Cure song let’s go to bed. I sang along happily. :-)

After Robert’s set, the Scamper lads hit the stage and made final adjustments to their gear and set lists. I know that several of us were pretty excited for what was to follow, as Scamper has been in the studio working on their upcoming EP and the word on the street was that they had been working really hard on their act and on their musical dynamics. However, even knowing this, it was still a very pleasant shock to hear the powerful opening bars of What a Shame! Holy cow, they actually took my advice! Even in its’ newly minted form at The Abbey Lounge back on 4/29/2003, the song rocked, but this evening Scamper proved that they can play with the big boys. The big-show distortion coming from Keith’s amp was pure magic and the dynamic rise and fall of the intro and bridge was powerful and emotional. Mike, sitting on a tiger-skin stool and sporting a new goatee, beat his kit like a thunder god! The crowd started moving on the first beat and didn’t stop until it was time for us to cheer! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. This is what a rock show is all about. :-)

One die-hard Scamper fan, who shall remain nameless, said that she was worried, when she read on-line about the band’s new style, that the changes might ruin Scamper, but she happily told me that she fully approved of the changes and very much enjoyed the show. :-) Throughout Scamper’s set, I moved around the crowd taking lots of pictures of the band from various angles. Despite the low ceiling, the Scamper frontline, Nate, Marc and Keith, all hit their rock poses (Nate occasionally dropped to his knees instead of braining himself on the ceiling) and they did manage to execute their signature group jump on Longshot without splitting their skulls.

This was hands-down the best Scamper show that I’ve seen and I’ve seen a heck of a lot of Scamper lately. If they keep up the pace, they’re going to be selling out their gigs real soon. :-) But the show was not over; not by a long shot. There was a double set of Fooled by April yet to go! To be perfectly honest, I don’t know many Fooled by April songs by name, so I won’t try to name them, but I will say that they had a great pair of sets and the crowd cheered loudly after each song. I sang along on the songs I knew. :-) They have a fantastic rhythm section that is always a pleasure to hear and the solos! Joe has a really great style that is all his own – I really enjoyed hearing him play.