Friday, March 14   10:30 p.m.
Beauty Bar Backyard   (617 E 7th St)

In the Mix
On music and culture
McRad


Not only does Chuck Treece sport excellent tube socks, he can play some
music for you too. For those unfamiliar with the Philadelphia
skatepunk-hardcore-ska-session musician scene, Treece (pictured above, on the
half pipe, in 1984) is the only multiinstrumentalist around town who's
plied his trade for the Bad Brains, Busta Rhymes and Billy Joel (he
played bass on "River of Dreams"), not to mention such Philadelphia
luminaries as the Goats, Stiffed, Nancy Falkow, G. Love, Jeffrey Gaines, King
Britt and Stiffed.

But though Treece is the kind of guy who's mostly known by those in the
know, he steps into the spotlight every now and again. Back in the
day, the former Black Lily house drummer fronted a rap-rock outfit called
Black Beans, and in 1991 he released Dream'n, his sole solo album. And
these days, besides being the man behind the curtain for rugged
pop-punk singer Leiana, whose 2006 overlooked album No Going Back contains the
not unfamiliar credit line "all songs written, arrranged, produced and
performed by Chuck Treece," Treece is back out front with his original
Philadelphia punk band, McRad.

There's a new McRad album coming out on Sept. 4 on Uprising Records.
It's called F.D.R. after the skatepark in South Philly where the 43 year
old Treece, who was a sponsored professional skater from 1982 to 1990,
still skates. And last Thursday, McRad headlined a show at the Khyber
that was a benefit for the Paine's Park Project, the planned skate park
that's to be built near the Art Museum along the banks of the Schuykill
that's meant to make up for the city's egregious sin of banning
skateboarding in Love Park.

(From Love Comes Paine is the motto of the proposed park, which takes
its name from Thomas Paine, because it would only make common sense for
their to be a Center City park that extend Love's legacy. Check it out
at painesparkproject.org.)

But I digress. Back to McRad, who were the fifth band onstage at the
Khyber on Thursday, and, this being the Khyber, didn't hit the stage
until about twenty past 1 on Friday. Was it worth the wait, to see a band
who along with other hardcore acts like Trained Attack Dogs and Pagan
Babies played a crucial role in the Philadelphia hardcore scene in the
'80s?

Sure thing. First of all, I got to check out a couple of worthwhile
punk bands who came on earlier. Sicu is a tight, driving Philadelphia four
piece with a sense of humor and a bunch of concise songs that leave
you gasping for air, like "Maryann and Wally" which promises the
landlord: "I'm not going to pay the rent this month!" And Jump Ship was a New
Jersey three piece with a big bruising sound who've got some gigs coming
up in a cheese shop in Atlantic City called Le Grand Fromage.

When McRad hit, the half full house burst into action like ping pong
balls in a lottery machine. (Rock and roll may not be all that dangerous
in a socio-political sense anymore, but watch out when some punk rock
enthusiast finally seeing the band of his dreams comes running at you
like a human battering ram...)

The music was pulverizing enough in its physicality to warrant the
hyperactivity. Once Treece took off the backpack he'd been toting around
all night and strapped on a guitar, he delivered a to-the-point bruising
set of convulsive F.D.R. songs like "Weakness," "McShred," and the
contemplative yet fierce "Words of Life," that rocked hard but while
blending punk and metal with elements of reggae and dub, and were filled with
roiling guitar solos. (F.D.R. also contains one really superb
pop-rocker called "Son," that buried at Track 14.)

Even by punk standards, the set was brief - about half an hour - but
properly cathartic, as if the peripatetic Treece needed to get this order
of business out of the way before moving on. Thankfully, though, he's
got more McRad on his plate, with a show at the North Star tonight
that's a Katrina benefit, and another on Sept. 9 at the Starlight Ballroom
with Ursula Rucker and King Britt, among others.