Ain’t knockin’ Boots
By SAM PFEIFLE | September 19, 2013
Like plenty of other fun rock bands, Nuclear Boots don’t lend themselves to rigorous examination. Songs like “Beer Dick” are pretty self-explanatory.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t doing something very right, though.
A song like “Love Is a Feeling” is a throwback to early Tom Petty, when he was all “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Even the Losers” got lucky sometimes. Zeke Comparetto has the same kind of nasally insistent vocal style (when it’s not being distorted) and his earnestness is winning in an early-Replacements way, too.
Yeah, they’re rough around the edges, but drummer Bruce Merson holds things together pretty well, with a good feel for melody in his cymbals, and when they get a song right, like “Cheap Suit,” you can kinda see the Talking Heads on the CBGB stage if you squint the right way. “B-Minor” is why you liked the Pixies.
I have no idea why “she’s my Smell-o-Vision,” or why that would be a good thing, but a few PBRs deep and I was singing along in no time. “I can’t live without her.”
This band are a good time. Sometimes, that’s good enough.
COMMUTATHON | Released by Nuclear Boots | at Flask, in Portland | Sept 14 | nuclearboots.bandcamp.com
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CD Reviews
, Nuclear Boots
