CATHARSIS

"I open my eyes, the nightmare begins" begins the song "Hurt," and you get the idea: Catharsis would never write "Shiny Happy People." Charles Applegate, Ken Tarbous, Jeffrey Woehr, and the late Mike Miksis were the making of this North Brunswick band with really nice old guitars and a sound respected by — not to generalize — sullen people dressed in leather jackets who just stood there with their arms crossed in the Court Tavern's basement. Loud, raw, fuzzy, aggressive, but not metal (too slow and slovenly) or hardcore (likewise, plus they didn't entirely dismiss melodies). If I said "pre-Grunge," would it piss off anybody? Sorry, the label fits, and one aspect of grunge I admired was its broad palette of influences (the Seattle sound deserves partial credit for enshrining former hippie dinosaur Neil Young as an honorary punk). Likewise, Catharsis had influences all over the map. In any case, a highly enjoyable live band with a few very decent recordings (see Red Ghost, Mental Floss) that would have found a broader audience had they come along 5 or so years later. My favorite, "Uptight," changed the way I played guitar after I saw them do it live.

The flyer is really a Plague Dogs promo, illustrated by the incomparable John T. Quinn III; Plague Dogs' leader David Aaron Clark was himself a Catharsis enthusiast and so put them at the top of the bill, and good for him.

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