ARTICLE A / MINK 2/29/08 Hard Rock Cafe Baltimore, MD

March on Stage, a charity that raises funds to support and help bands go to the bedside of patients who are recovering, with the notion that music can help heal, has a national tour running currently that features MINK & Article A. This tour is hitting Hard Rock Cafe’s all across the USA. On February 29, 2008, the tour stopped at the Baltimore, Maryland Hard Rock Cafe, so I was really excited to see a killer rock n roll show at a place that I usually think of as just a restaurant.

The concert started at 10 PM with Article A. Article A is a new band that’s got a pop-rock punch, and they play upbeat songs that sound very “now”, and they even do a killer INXS cover to boot! Christian, the bands singer, reminds me of Mitch Allen from SR-71 a little..he has this charm and charisma that probably drives all the little girls crazy, and the band played a very tight, nearly hour long set that covered the bulk of their debut release! This was my first time seeing Article A play live and they definitely rocked the house, but what I have to note is, the audience turn out was rather low..there was no promotion for this show, so, in all honesty, counting myself and Chelsea, there was maybe 6 or 7 people in attendance, BUT, the bands didn’t care, they rocked hard, and it was interesting to note that there were people there trying to eat their dinner, who looked a little displeased at times, because the bands played rather loud, but hey, it was a rock n roll show..what else would you expect?

Mink were the headliners, and the band consists of 3 members from Australia and one from New York..the band plays gritty New York style rock n roll, and the moment of irony for me was, if you’ve ever been to the Hard Rock Cafe, you know that they have TV’s all over the place that play music videos..well, at one point, around the 2nd song of MINK’s set, they started playing Perry Ferrell’s Satellite Party and I was laughing at the irony, because I first saw the band MINK a few months back at Rams Head Live when they were opening for Perry Ferrell, and there he was, Perry was playing in the background while MINK was live in front of me...I don’t know, I just laughed at that irony! During another break in the set, the band commented that they were playing Megadeth’s “Peace Sells” on the TV screen’s as well...what struck me as being kinda odd though was, you had a killer rock n roll band, totally set up in the back of a restaurant that was covered in rock n roll memorabilia..you had MINK playing their hearts out, and behind them was a jacket worn by Mike Tramp from White Lion, a pair of Lita Ford’s knee pads, and a giant Gene Simmons poster...it was kinda weird, in terms of the over all setting for the show, but the bands sounded great, it was a kick ass show, and how can anyone complain..it was a free show as well!

Tags: Hard Rock Cafe