At one of its more recent shows in Bremerton, Neutralboy built a chicken-wire enclosure around the front of the corner stage at what was then Hansen’s, beckoning people to throw extraneous materials, limbs and bodies forward as the four-piece slammed through its set.
Even more recently, Micheal Frottage, lead singer, doused the near entire front three rows of a packed house at Winterland with Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Each setting is all in a good night’s fun for the forces of Neutralboy and something like it will be taking the stage at 9:30 p.m. May 19 along with the rock stylings of Evil Twin and Black Faries at Winterland.
“Fifteen years of Mandy (Reed, bass player) and I doing this band on our rules, we’ve made it happen in all kinds of different ways, in all kinds of different places,” Frottage said. “It’s how we get our kicks, it’s what drives us.”
“Laughter is the No. 1 thing that keeps us going,” Reed added.
That and Neutralboy’s rocksteady loyalty to three-chord, straight-ahead punk rock and their influences, Reed added. Remnants and recreations of Black Flag-, Ramones- and Misfits-style punk echoes through Neutralboy’s speakers as the band sings from experience and holds strong to its roots.
An interesting fact on the band’s website — www.myspace.com/neutralboy — notes that throughout its existence Neutralboy has survived the fits of “hair metal, grunge, alternative rock, ska, pop punk, techno, stoner rock, alternative country, emo, screamo, indy rock and many more.”
Another Kitsap-born band which has stood solid through that revolving door of rock and roll trends over the past decade-and-a-half is Mos Generator — whch will incidentally be playing the same stage at 9:30 p.m. the night before Neutralboy.
Though it officially became a band in 2000, The Mos Generator — nostalgic of late-’70s rock like Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and even a little Led Zepplin — had been building since long before. The three-piece veterans of the road and studio will share the stage with Iceage Cobras to crack open a beautifully heavy weekend at Winterland May 18.
It’s been said that Mos Generator’s energy and presence on stage rivals the talent which can be heard on their latest release “Late Great Planet Earth” — snippets available at www.myspace.com/mosgenerator.
The classic hard rock dosed with Southern flavor, is amplified by screaming solos and Ozzy-esque vocals from guitarman Tony Reed and the heavy blunt back beat of Shawn Johnson on skins and Scooter Haslip on bass.
All weekend at Winterland — at the corner of Sylvan and Warren in Bremerton — it should be in your face.
And as an added bonus after you go home drenched in rock and roll, both of Kitsap’s own — Neutralboy and Mos Generator — will be even closer to the verge of new CD releases.
Mos Generator’s “Songs for Future Gods,” recorded at Reed’s Temple Sound Studio, will be released on Small Stone records in September.
Neutralboy, on the other hand, just finished work with MXPX frontman Mike Herrera on their second full-length album slated for release this summer.
And just for kicks, at the beginning of May, Flotation Records released “Tales from the Vault” a five-song Mos Generator 10-inch vinyl, available at www.flotationrecords.com.